Jer. 29 Jeremiah’s letter to the captives in Babylon, to be quiet there, Jer. 29:1–7; not to believe false prophets; nor expect to return till after seventy years, Jer. 29:8–14. The destruction of those who remained in Judah for their disobedience, Jer. 29:15–19.

There were two carryings into the captivity of Babylon, the latter about eleven or twelve years after the former; the first was in the time of Jehoiachin, of which we read in 2 Kings 24:14, when the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and…

After this captivity.

Zedekiah the king of Judah having some occasion to send two messengers, named Elasah and Gemariah, to Babylon, whether to carry his tribute money or upon what other errand is not expressed; Jeremiah, knowing that as there were some false prophets at Jerusalem, who fed people with hopes of a speedy…

So as this letter was not wrote from himself, advising them charitably, but he had commission from God, by whom he mindeth them, as the principal efficient cause they were ordered to be carried away by, though their own sins were the meritorious cause, and Nebuchadnezzar with his captains and…

That is, Be not uneasy in your minds, not resolving what to do, through the prophecies of the false prophets, that tell you the captivity shall be but two years, or at least very short; but do all things which you would do if Babylon were to be your fixed habitation (as it is like to be for seventy…

That is, Seek to God for it, or rather live peaceably in it, and by all lawful means seek the welfare of it; do not raise any tumults or seditions, nor take part with those that do.

The Lord knows that you have a company of false prophets that tell you other things, and promise you a sudden return out of your captivity, pretending to know it by revelation from God, or by divination, &c., or to have it discovered to them in dreams.

From this text appears that the seventy years’ captivity was to be accounted from the first carrying into captivity in the time of Jehoiachin, so that eleven years of it were elapsed before Zedekiah was carried away.

This deliverance will not depend upon your merits, but upon my own mercy and kind thoughts and purposes. I have for the seed of Abraham my servant, and I am resolved in my own thoughts what to do; I intend not the blotting out of the name of Israel from the earth, but to give such an end to their…

I will not only give you a temporal salvation and deliverance, and bring you into your own land, but you shall go thither with new hearts; you shall worship idols no more, but you shall worship me, and be serious and diligent in your addresses and applications to me, and I will listen to you in…

That is, sincerely, as Ps. 119:2.

This verse containeth no more than was said before, only it is repeated in a little different phrase, for the further confirmation of their faith, and the promise is a little enlarged. God saith he will be found of them, that is, he will answer them.

The prophet here turneth his speech to some wicked Jews that were in Babylon, or in Judea, and more believed some false prophets, who told them of a much quicker return, than Jeremiah telling them the truth from the mouth of God,

The word know is, as some think, needlessly supplied, for the following particle might be as well translated for, or because, or therefore. By the king he meaneth Zedekiah, whom he chooseth to express under the notion of him that sitteth upon the throne of David, to take away the vain hopes which…

These verses contain no more than the threatening which we have had more than once before. He had compared them to vile figs, Jer. 24:8–10 there threatened them with being made a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse; and consuming them with the sword, famine, and pestilence: the same thing…

A contempt of the word of the Lord was the cause of this people’s ruin, and will be the cause of ruin to any people. See Jer. 7:26, Jer. 11:7–8, Jer. 17:23. Lest they should say that they only disobeyed the prophets, God mindeth them that in not hearkening to them they did not hearken to him.

Those phrases, I have sent, and I have driven, &c., are diligently to be observed by us. There is no evil in cities or nations which is an evil of punishment, but, whoever be the instruments to bring it, God is the author of it.

Of these two persons we read no more in holy writ: that they pretended to be prophets, that they abused the name of God, pretending to reveal his will, wheras what they said was not the will of God, but a falsehood, we learn out of this verse; and that they were both of them burnt by the king of…

As false teachers are of the highest sort of transgressors, speaking lies in the name and under pretence of the authority of the God of truth; so God in his providence ordinarily makes them the greatest examples of his vengeance.

The reason here given must not be understood as the reason of the king of Babylon’s punishment of them, but why God gave them up into his hands, because they had committed villany or folly in Israel; which is expounded by the next words, they had committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives.

We have no guidance from any other scripture to teach us who this Shemaiah was, but it is very probable that he was one of those who at this time were in the captivity of Babylon, and so came to the knowledge of Jeremiah’s letter, mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, and wrote what followeth…

Priest, that is, high priest, as some have thought; but it appears from 2 Kings 25:18, that Seraiah was at this time the high priest, and this Zephaniah was the second priest, as he is there styled, as also Jer.

He means it of an active, real reproof, as appears by what went before; he would have had Jeremiah imprisoned, or put to that punishment which they called the stocks, the nature of which we cannot determine, concluding him to be but a madman, and one who was not made a prophet by any immediate…

The matter of fact was true, as appeared Jer. 29:5–6, but it was false that this was the effect of phrensy, or that he spake this of his own head without commission from God; for he wrote nothing of this nature but by order from God, as appeareth from Jer.

It is uncertain whether Zephaniah did this out of kindness to Jeremiah, for we read he was sent to Jeremiah upon messages, Jer. 21:1, Jer. 37:3, from the king, or because he would not apprehend him before he heard him, and let him know that he did nothing against him but upon information, &c.

This is the great mischief of false teachers, they are the causes of people’s trusting in lies; and from hence the sins of false prophets are ordinarily aggravated.

I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: punishments of this life ordinarily are extended to the children of sinful parents, for the parents’ sake, who are punished in their children, being res parentum, a considerable part of their parents’ goods and portion.