Jeremiah 29:31

Jeremiah 29:31, in plain English

God tells Jeremiah to send word back to all the exiles that Shemaiah is a fraud—he prophesied without God's authority and has tricked people into believing a lie.

Why it's here

God is using Jeremiah to counter Shemaiah's influence where it matters most—among the exiles in Babylon. God wants the people who've been listening to Shemaiah to understand they've been deceived, so they can stop trusting his words.

Who's speaking

God, giving Jeremiah a message to deliver

Where it sits in the story

Truth doesn't stay hidden forever. God raises up His prophet to expose the lie publicly, restoring clarity to people who were being confused.

The scholarly reading

God instructs Jeremiah to announce that Shemaiah's prophecies were unauthorized and fundamentally deceptive, having lured the exiles into false hope.

Language and setting

Shemaiah's false prophecies had offered psychological comfort to exiles desperate to believe in quick return. Yet this comfort was built on lies—what biblical scholars call what Robert Carroll termed 'the comfort principle' in false prophecy: false prophets consistently offered what people wanted to hear rather than what God was actually doing. The exiles needed truth, not comfort.

Voice

God, through Jeremiah, making explicit the criteria for false prophecy: speaking without divine commission (לֹא שְׁלַחְתִּיו, lō' shelahтî—I did not send him) and causing trust in falsehood (הִשְׁמִיעַ אֶתְכֶם עַל־שֶׁקֶר, hishmia' etkhem 'al-sheqer—made you trust in a lie).

Significance

This articulates the Deuteronomic test for prophecy: did God actually send this person? Whose words come to pass? (Deuteronomy 18:22). Shemaiah fails both tests. This principle continues into the New Testament where Jesus warns against false prophets whose words do not align with God's purposes (Matthew 7:15-20), and where Paul warns against those who preach 'another Jesus' or a 'different gospel' (2 Corinthians 11:4).

29(Zephaniah the priest, however, had read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.)

30Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

31“Send a message telling all the exiles what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you—though I did not send him—and has made you trust in a lie,

32this is what the LORD says: ‘I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good that I will bring to My people, declares the LORD, for he has preached rebellion against the LORD.’”

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.