Jeremiah 29 Study Notes
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29:12-14 These verses are a renewal of God’s promise in Dt 30:3-5.
29:15-19 Many interpreters think these verses are misplaced since Jeremiah was so critical of Zedekiah in a letter carried by his ambassadors. But vv. 4-23 may not be a single letter. Verses 15-19 could be a second letter not carried to Babylon by the king’s officials.
29:17 The people left in Jerusalem who were not among the initial exiles will be made like rotten figs. This same imagery appears in chap. 24.
29:20-23 Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah were two prophets singled out for committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives as well as prophesying lies. There is a wordplay here. The name Kolaiah is related to the Hebrew term qelalah (“curse”) and qalah (“to burn”). Thus they would roast in the fire. So heinous were their lying prophecies that the king of Babylon would charge them with treason and condemn them to death by burning (Dn 3:6,20,23).
29:24-25 Shemaiah the Nehelamite was another false prophet. He had apparently ordered the priest Zephaniah to silence Jeremiah. Zephaniah was warden over police regulations in the temple (21:1; 37:3; 52:24).
29:26 Shemaiah charged Jeremiah with being a madman.
29:29-32 Zephaniah the priest read Shemaiah’s letter to Jeremiah, who responded with another letter from the Lord to the exiles. He exposed Shemaiah’s hypocrisy and set his punishment—that he would have no descendants and he would not live to see the restoration God had predicted. No harm, however, came to Jeremiah, in fulfillment of God’s promise (1:8,19; 15:20).