Jeremiah 29:8

Jeremiah 29:8, in plain English

Don't believe the false prophets and fortune-tellers who are among you, and don't pay attention to the dreams they're peddling. These voices are lying to you.

Why it's here

Babylon had its own prophets and diviners. But among the exiles, there were also false Jewish prophets—people claiming to speak for God, probably telling the exiles what they wanted to hear: 'You'll be home soon!' This false hope is spiritually dangerous because it keeps people from accepting reality and building real lives.

Who's speaking

The LORD

Where it sits in the story

Throughout the Bible, false prophecy is one of God's greatest concerns. It's worse than silence because it deceives. The test of a true prophet isn't how comforting the message is, but whether it comes from God. Discernment becomes necessary when you're surrounded by voices claiming to speak for God.

The scholarly reading

Jeremiah warns against false prophets and diviners circulating among the exiles, whose visions and dreams promise false hope of imminent liberation.

Language and setting

The phrase אַל־יַשִּׁיאוּ לָכֶם הַנְּבִיאִים אֲשֶׁר־בְּקִרְבְּכֶם (al-yashi'u lachem ha-nevi'im asher-b'kirb'chem—'let not the prophets among you deceive you') indicates these false prophets were present in Babylon, competing with Jeremiah's authority. The term קֹסְמִים (qosm'im—'diviners') suggests divination practices popular in Babylonian religious culture, indicating the exiles faced syncretistic pressure. The false prophets' appeal lay precisely in their offer of false comfort—a psychologically attractive message contradicting Jeremiah's harder teaching of prolonged exile.

Voice

God, through Jeremiah, issuing a critical warning about spiritual misdirection.

Significance

This section initiates a theme of prophetic discernment central to exilic theology: distinguishing true prophecy (rooted in God's actual plans) from false prophecy (rooted in wishful thinking or demonic deception). It prefigures later New Testament warnings about false prophets (Matthew 24:11; 1 John 4:1) and establishes criteria for evaluating prophetic claims against historical reality.

6Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.

7Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

8For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them.

9For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”

10For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

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.