Jeremiah 29

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Jeremiah 29 is a letter from the prophet in Jerusalem to the Jews already deported to Babylon. Against prophets promising a quick return, Jeremiah tells the exiles to build houses, plant gardens, marry, raise families, and seek the welfare of the city that holds them captive, because the exile will last seventy years. Then comes the verse the world knows, "I know the plans I have for you," followed by the promise that those who seek God with all their heart will find him and be brought home. The rest of the letter pronounces judgment on the false prophets in Babylon and on Shemaiah, who wrote back demanding that Jeremiah be put in stocks.

Kapitelkommentar öffnen

Jeremiah 29 is a letter, and it is worth reading as one. The prophet in Jerusalem writes to the elders, priests, prophets, and people already carried off to Babylon, people who had lost everything and were being told by popular preachers that they would be home in two years. Jeremiah tells them the truth. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry, have children, see your children married. Seek the welfare of Babylon, and pray for it, because your welfare is tied to its welfare. The exile will last seventy years. Only then does the letter reach the verse printed on a million cards: I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope. In its place, the verse is not a promise of a short exile but a promise inside a long one, and it is followed by the letter's real invitation: you will call on me and I will listen, you will seek me and find me when you search with all your heart. The rest of the chapter shows what the letter cost. Prophets in Babylon who preached lies would be executed; a man named Shemaiah wrote back to Jerusalem demanding that Jeremiah be put in stocks for saying the exile would be long, and Jeremiah's reply is the last word of the chapter. The comfortable message was the false one. The hard message was the one with the future in it.

Historischer und literarischer Kontext

The letter follows the deportation of 597 BC, when King Jeconiah, the queen mother, officials, and craftsmen were carried to Babylon. A decade of Judah's existence remained before the final destruction in 586. Prophets on both sides of the exile were promising that Babylon's power would soon break; chapter 28 records Hananiah announcing a return within two years. Jeremiah's letter, carried by royal envoys, contradicts them with a timeline of seventy years and a theology of exile as God's own doing, to be lived in rather than escaped.

Wie sich das Kapitel entfaltet

Verses 1 to 3 describe the letter, its recipients, and its carriers. Verses 4 to 9 give the instructions: settle, build, plant, marry, multiply, seek the city's welfare, and ignore the prophets and diviners. Verses 10 to 14 give the promise: after seventy years God will restore them, he knows his plans for their welfare, and they will seek and find him. Verses 15 to 19 warn that those left in Jerusalem, whom the exiles might envy, face sword, famine, and plague. Verses 20 to 23 condemn the prophets Ahab and Zedekiah for lies and adultery. Verses 24 to 32 record Shemaiah's letter demanding Jeremiah's punishment and God's sentence on Shemaiah.

Warum dieses Kapitel wichtig ist

Jeremiah 29 gave the people of God a way to live faithfully in a place they did not choose, which is why it has been read by every displaced and minority community since. "Seek the prosperity of the city" became a charter for engagement with the surrounding culture rather than withdrawal from it. Verse 11 is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, and its context, seventy years of exile, is what gives it its weight: it is a promise spoken into a hard season, not a promise that the season will be short. Verse 13, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart," is the letter's spiritual center.

Auslegungsfrage im Blick behalten

Verse 11 is addressed to a community in the plural and promises restoration to their grandchildren's generation. Applying it to individuals today requires care: the character of God it reveals carries over, the specific promise of return does not. The chapter also raises the question of how to tell true prophets from false ones when both speak in God's name; Jeremiah's answer is that the true word is the one that came to pass, and that the comfortable word is not always the true one.

Fragen zu diesem Kapitel

  • The exiles are told to pray for the city that captured them. What would it mean to seek the welfare of a place you did not choose and cannot leave?
  • Verse 11 is usually quoted alone. How does reading verses 4 to 14 together change what it promises?
  • Shemaiah wanted Jeremiah punished for saying the exile would be long. Why is a hard true word harder to accept than a comforting false one?

Mit Kontext studieren

Nutze dies als Kapitel-Leitfaden und gehe dann tiefer in den Text selbst. Ziel ist es, die Beobachtung zu verlangsamen, die Struktur wahrzunehmen und bessere Fragen zu stellen, bevor man vorschnell zu Schlussfolgerungen kommt.

1 Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the responsible men among those who had been taken away, and to the priests and the prophets and to all the rest of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon; 2 (After Jeconiah the king and the queen-mother and the unsexed servants and the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem and the expert workmen and the metal-workers had gone away from Jerusalem;) 3 By the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,) saying, 4 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said to all those whom I have taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Go on building houses and living in them, and planting gardens and using the fruit of them; 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may have sons and daughters; and be increased in number there and do not become less. 7 And be working for the peace of the land to which I have had you taken away prisoners, and make prayer to the Lord for it: for in its peace you will have peace. 8 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Do not let yourselves be tricked by the prophets who are among you, and the readers of signs, and give no attention to their dreams which they may have; 9 For they are saying to you what is false in my name: I have not sent them, says the Lord. 10 For this is what the Lord has said: When seventy years are ended for Babylon, I will have pity on you and give effect to my good purpose for you, causing you to come back to this place. 11 For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end. 12 And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to me, and I will give ear to you. 13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart. 14 I will be near you again, says the Lord, and your fate will be changed, and I will get you together from all the nations and from all the places where I had sent you away, says the Lord; and I will take you back again to the place from which I sent you away prisoners. 15 For you have said, The Lord has given us prophets in Babylon. 16 For this is what the Lord has said about the king who is seated on the seat of David's kingdom, and about all the people living in this town, your countrymen who have not gone out with you as prisoners; 17 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will send on them the sword and need of food and disease, and will make them like bad figs, which are of no use for food, they are so bad. 18 I will go after them, attacking them with the sword and with need of food and with disease, and will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a wonder and a surprise and a name of shame among all the nations where I have sent them: 19 Because they have not given ear to my words, says the Lord, when I sent to them my servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them; but you did not give ear, says the Lord. 20 And now, give ear to the word of the Lord, all you whom I have sent away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said about Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are saying to you what is false in my name: See, I will give them up into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your eyes. 22 And their fate will be used as a curse by all the prisoners of Judah who are in Babylon, who will say, May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, who were burned in the fire by the king of Babylon; 23 Because they have done shame in Israel, and have taken their neighbours' wives, and in my name have said false words, which I did not give them orders to say; and I myself am the witness, says the Lord. 24 About Shemaiah the Nehelamite. 25 Shemaiah the Nehelamite sent a letter in his name to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, 26 The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, to be an overseer in the house of the Lord for every man who is off his head and is acting as a prophet, to put such men in prison and in chains. 27 So why have you made no protest against Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is acting as a prophet to you? 28 For he has sent to us in Babylon saying, The time will be long: go on building houses and living in them, and planting gardens and using the fruit of them. 29 And Zephaniah the priest made clear to Jeremiah the prophet what was said in the letter, reading it to him. 30 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 31 Send to all those who have been taken away, saying, This is what the Lord has said about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has been acting as a prophet to you, and I did not send him, and has made you put your faith in what is false; 32 For this cause the Lord has said, Truly I will send punishment on Shemaiah and on his seed; not a man of his family will have a place among this people, and he will not see the good which I am going to do to my people, says the Lord: because he has said words against the Lord.

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