Jeremiah 29


Jeremiah 29 is the twenty-ninth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is numbered as Jeremiah 36 in the Septuagint. This book compiles prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter records several "letters reported by the third-person narrator": from Jerusalem, Jeremiah sent a letter to the people in the Babylonia exile and he responded to a letter about him from Shemaiah.

Text

The original text of this chapter, as with the rest of the Book of Jeremiah, was written in Hebrew language. Since the division of the Bible into chapters and verses in the late medieval period, this chapter is divided into 32 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus. The Septuagint version doesn't contain a part what is generally known to be verses 16–20 in Christian Bibles.

Verse numbering

The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text, and Vulgate, in some places differs from that in Septuagint according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.
The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta, differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition.
Hebrew, Vulgate, EnglishRahlfs' LXX Brenton's LXX
29:1-15, 21-3236:1-15,21-32
29:16-20none
47:1-729:1-7
49:7-22none29:7b-22

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex, and those in the missing parts of the codex are from Kimhi's notes, marked with an asterisk. Jeremiah 29 is a part of the Tenth prophecy in the section of Prophecies interwoven with narratives about the prophet's life . : open parashah; : closed parashah.

Jeremiah's letter to the exiles (29:1–23)

Verse 2

The passage in parentheses provides the background from about the deportation of king Jeconiah and many prominent leaders and skilled persons in 597 BC from Judah to Babylon, which is a method learned from the Assyrians to reduce the possibility of rebellion. The letters were sent to counter the false prophecies or baseless assurance of speedy return from exile.
"The queen mother": Emil Hirsch and Carl [Victor Ryssel|Victor Ryssel], in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, suggested that the mention of the king's mother "on equal terms" indicates a "youthful Jeconiah".

Verse 3

  • "Elasah the son of Shaphan" is likely a brother of Ahikam who is symphatetic to Jeremiah.

    Verse 10

  • Cross reference: Jeremiah 25:12, ; Zechariah 1:12; Zechariah 7:5
  • "Seventy years": Circa 605-536 BCE. The announcement of the Judah's punishment at the hand of foreign nations must have puzzled Jeremiah's audience, as also become the subject of questions by Habakkuk, but Jeremiah 25:12 is to put it to rest by stating that after God have used Babylon to punish His people, He would punish Babylon for its sins.

    Verse 11

  • "Says the Lord" from Hebrew נאם־יהוה, -, "Oracle of the Lord."

    Message to Shemaiah (29:24–32)

Verse 26

Jeremiah's advice for the people in the Babylonian exile to "settle there quietly" caused one of them to send a letter to the high priest in Jerusalem criticizing him for not doing his tasks properly, allowing everyone to be a mad man, who "maketh himself a prophet", specifically directing to put Jeremiah "in prison and in the stocks".

Jewish

  • Christian

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