Jeremiah 29 Footnotes

29:6 Jeremiah was not advocating intermarriage with other cultural groups, in contradiction to Dt 7:3 and Jos 23:12-13. In fact, this admonition agreed with what he said in Jr 16:2-4 and 29:28: Do not stay in Judah and try to raise a family; instead, go into exile in Babylon and make that your home.

29:10 The Neo-Babylonian Empire lasted somewhat less than seventy years (605–539 BC). Consequently, some critics contend that Jeremiah’s prediction cannot be made to fit any literal seventy-year period. Some interpreters consider this a symbolic number representing the “complete” period of Judah’s punishment, or a round number representing the span of a lifetime or some period shorter than might be expected. But it is also possible that the number seventy refers precisely to the time from the fall of Jerusalem to the rebuilding of the Second Temple (587–516 BC) or from the establishment of the Neo-Babylonian Empire to the first return of exiles (605–536 BC). When some critics are shown that there are fitting events seventy years apart, they conclude that this is a “prophecy” written after the event (see note on 27:22). However, when Daniel referred to Jeremiah’s prediction, he clearly referred to the date at which he thought of it (Dn 9:2). So Scripture says that Jeremiah wrote it, Daniel read about it, and then it happened. The prophecy was given before the event.