Jeremiah 29:20

Jeremiah 29:20, in plain English

So listen up, exiles: hear God's word right now. Everything He's told you—the commands to settle and build, the warnings about false prophets, the promise of restoration—this is His word for you.

Why it's here

This is the call to actually take seriously what they've just heard. Not as abstract theology, but as concrete direction for how to live. The letter ends with an appeal: let this transform how you think, what you believe, and how you act in Babylon.

Who's speaking

The LORD (through Jeremiah)

Where it sits in the story

This is always where God's word ends: with a summons to hear, believe, and respond. The entire letter has been building toward this moment—not information, but invitation. Will the exiles trust God's plan, settle in Babylon with purpose, and wait for His restoration? Their response determines everything.

The scholarly reading

Jeremiah calls upon all the exiles to hear and receive the entire divine message conveyed in this letter—both promise and warning.

Language and setting

The exhortation שִׁמְעוּ אֶת־דְּבַר־יְהוָה כָּל־הַגּוֹלָה אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַחְתִּי מִיְּרוּשָׁלִַם בָּבֶל (shim'u et-d'var-YHWH kol-ha-golah asher shalachti mi-Y'rushalaim Bavel—'hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon') concludes the letter with a direct appeal. The term גּוֹלָה (golah—'exile, exiled community') becomes the technical term for the Babylonian Jewish diaspora community. The emphasis on 'all the exiles' (כָּל־הַגּוֹלָה, kol-ha-golah) indicates the message is not sectarian but addressed to the entire community as recipients of divine word.

Voice

Jeremiah, issuing a final imperative call to the exiled community to receive the comprehensive message of the letter.

Significance

This closing verse transforms the letter from address into performative speech act—the exiles are called to 'hear' (שׁמע shema), which in Hebrew biblical tradition means not merely auditory reception but obedient acceptance of covenantal obligation. The chapter ends with this call to attentive listening, positioning the exilic community as responsible agents who must choose between the false prophets' comfortable deceptions and Jeremiah's harder but truthful vision of divinely-ordained restoration.

18I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.

19I will do this because they have not listened to My words, declares the LORD, which I sent to them again and again through My servants the prophets. And neither have you exiles listened, declares the LORD.”

20So hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

21This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.

22Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

Read all of Jeremiah 29 — Written to exiles in Babylon: settle in, plant gardens, seek the city's welfare. And know this — I have plans for you. Plans for hope.