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 (verses 1-23) and he responded to a letter about him from Shemaiah (verses 24–32).[1] TextThe 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 witnessesSome early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century[a]), Codex Leningradensis (1008).[2] There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (with a different chapter and verse numbering), made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; Q; 6th century).[3] The Septuagint version doesn't contain a part what is generally known to be verses 16–20 in Christian Bibles.[4] Verse numberingThe order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and Vulgate (Latin), in some places differs from that in Septuagint (LXX, the Greek Bible used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and others) according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.[4] The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study (CATSS) based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta (1935), differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition (=CATSS).[4]
ParashotThe parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex, and those in the missing parts of the codex (since 1947) are from Kimhi's notes,[5] marked with an asterisk (*).[6] Jeremiah 29 is a part of the Tenth prophecy (Jeremiah 26-29) in the section of Prophecies interwoven with narratives about the prophet's life (26-45). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
Jeremiah's letter to the exiles (29:1–23)Verse 2
The passage in parentheses provides the background from 2 Kings 24:8–16 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 (Jeremiah 27).[8] "The queen mother": Emil Hirsch and Victor Ryssel, in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, suggested that the mention of the king's mother "on equal terms" indicates a "youthful Jeconiah".[9] Verse 3
Verse 10
Verse 11
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".[18] See also
Notes
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Bibliography
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