Jeremiah 29:15

Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; BECAUSE YE HAVE SAID - referring not to the preceding words, but to Jeremiah 29:10, 'Yahweh saith this to you' (i:e., the prophecy of the continuance of the captivity seventy years), "because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon," - namely, foretelling our speedy deliverance (this their prophecy is supposed, not expressed; accordingly, Jeremiah 29:16 contradicts this false hope again, Jeremiah 29:8; ). He, in this 15th verse, turns his address from the godly ...

Many interpreters connect the first of these verses with the preceding ones, and they seem not to think so without reason; for the reason given is not unsuitable, if we refer to what the Prophet had said, even that the Jews were by no means to hope for a return until the end of seventy years. But the meaning I adopt is more probable; the particle כי, _ki, _is repeated; the first is causal, and the second an illative; (219) and consistently with the usage of Scripture the learned and the experienced think that this is the real meaning of the Prophet. He then says, that the captives were very foolish who hoped for a quick end to their exile, because they had false prophets who gave them such a promise; _ye have _then _said, that prophets have been given you, in Chaldea, _and that God had there pitied you, because there are those who prophesy of a return in a short time. As then ye are so f...

8-19 Let men beware how they call those prophets whom they choose after their own fancies, and how they consider their fancies and dreams to be revelations from God. False prophets flatter people in their sins, because they love to be flattered; and they speak smoothly to their prophets, that their prophets may speak smoothly to them. God promises that they should return after seventy years were accomplished. By this it appears, that the seventy years of the captivity are not to be reckoned from the last captivity, but the first. It will be the bringing to pass of God's good word to them. This shall form God's purposes. We often do not know our own minds, but the Lord is never at an uncertainty. We are sometimes ready to fear that God's designs are all against us; but as to his own people, even that which seems evil, is for good. He will give them, not the expectations of their fears, o...

Verse Jeremiah 29:15. _BECAUSE YE HAVE SAID_] The _Septuagint_ very properly insert this verse between the _twentieth_ and the _twenty-first_, and thus the _connexion_ here is not disturbed, and the connexion below completed....

EXPOSITION Despised and rejected at home, Jeremiah turned his thoughts to those distant brethren in captivity, whom he had already likened to "good figs, very good" (Jeremiah 24:3, Jeremiah 24:5). He had heard with sorrow that they could not readily submit to their altered circumstances; Judah, with its consecrated associations, was still too near to them in spirit. Probably a rumor of the expected confederacy (Jeremiah 27:3) had troubled their minds, and the discontent was increased by the pernicious discourses of prophets and sooth sayers similar to that Hananiah of whom we have just heard. Two of these in particular are mentioned, and a terrible fate is held out to them. The appendix (verses 24-32) de

BECAUSE YE HAVE SAID,.... That is, some of them; for here the Lord, by the prophet, turns from the godly among the captives, whom he had been advising, encouraging, and comforting before, to those who gave heed to the false prophets, who promised them a speedy return to their own land, and which they believed; and therefore rejected and despised the prophecies of Jeremiah, and others: THE LORD HATH RAISED US UP PROPHETS IN BABYLON; and therefore stood in no need of other prophets that were in Judea, or in Jerusalem, nor should hearken to them; but believe those that were raised up among themselves, rather than others at a distance; and though these were false prophets, yet, being such that prophesied to them things that were agreeable, they were willing to believe them, and to consider them, and receive them, as prophets sent of God, when they were not....

JEREMIAH 29. THE FUTURE OF THE EXILES IN BABYLON (_c_. 595). Jeremiah sends a letter by royal messengers to tell the exiles in Babylon to settle down there for a lengthy stay, and not to be deceived by those who say otherwise (Jeremiah 29:1). After seventy years (see on Jeremiah 25:11), they shall be restored in accordance with Yahweh's declared purpose (Jeremiah 24:4) and goodwill (Jeremiah 29:1). At this point, an insertion seems to have been made in the original letter. Most of 14 (after I will be found of you) is rightly omitted in LXX; the reference to all the nations does not suit the destination of this particula

This _v_. naturally links with Jeremiah 29:21 ff., while the intervening _vv_. make an apparent severance in the logical connexion, and are absent from LXX, except in a certain recension (Lucianic), where, however, they _precede Jeremiah 29:15_. With this transposition, as at least modifying the objection arising from the break of logical connexion, Gi. agrees, maintaining, as he does, their genuineness. Co. (and so Du.) refuses to consider the _vv_. as belonging to the original letter, making Jeremiah 29:16 to be in substance a reproduction of Jeremiah 24:8 f.,...

5. _Refutation of the false prophets in Babylon_ (Jeremiah 29:15-20) TRANSLATION (15) Because you have said, The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon(16) Surely, thus says the LORD unto the king who sits upon the throne of David, and unto all the people who dwell in this city, your brethren who did not go out with you into captivity(17) Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I am about to send against them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten. (18) And I will pursue them with sword, famine and pestilence; and I will make them an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, an astonishment, a hissing and a reproach among all nations where I have driven them, (19) because they did not hearken unto MY words (oracle of the LORD) when I earnestly and persistently sent My se

1-14. Jeremiah's letter to the exiles. Release after seventy years....