Jeremiah 29

be dreamed.] The passage should rather be rendered, “Neither hearken to your dreamers, or dealers in dreams, whom ye cause to dream:” the original word is used for persons that dream, chap. xxvii. 9, and should be taken in the same sense here. These dreamers might be said to be made, or encouraged, to dream by the easy credit given to their impostures, and the reputation and respect they thereby acquired. Dr. Blayney.

— I will visit you.] There were but few of these captives, in comparison, who returned in person to their own country: see Ezra iii. 12. So this promise was chiefly fulfilled in their posterity; and it is common in Scripture to speak of blessings bestowed upon the children, as if they had been actually made good to their progenitors. See chap. xxxii. 5; and Exod. vi. 4; Mic. vii. 20. W. Lowth. 11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, &c.] I know what I have decreed concerning you; even favour and deliverance in my appointed time, and not extirpation and destruction: so that ye shall at the last have that happy issue which ye desire and expect. Bp. Hall.

Jeremiah 29:10

10. — after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon] This prophecy was first delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the same year it began to be put in execution: seventy years from which time will bring us down to the first year of Cyrus, when he made proclamation for the restoration of the Jews, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. (See the note on chap. xxv. 11.) This computation of the seventy years’ captivity appears the truest and most agreeable to Scripture. But if we fix the commencement of the seventy years at the time when Jerusalem was burnt and destroyed, their conclusion will fall about the time when Darius issued his decree for rebuilding the temple, after the work had been suspended. Or if we fix their commencement at the time when Nebuzar-adan carried away the last remainder of the people, and completed the desolation of the land, their conclusion will fall about the

Jeremiah 29:16

16. Know that thus saith the Lord &c.] The many and grievous calamities which were to fall upon those who were left in their own land, and here noticed by Before CHRIST about 606. c Chap. 24. 10. f Chap. 24. 8. curse. g Chap. 25. 4. & 32. 32.

The fearful end of Ahab and Zedekiah. JEREMIAH. Jeremiah readeth Shemaiah’s doom.

Before CHRIST about 606. 599. dreamer. h 2 Kings 9. 11. Acts 26. 24. of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;

Jeremiah 29:28

28. For therefore he sent unto us &c.] Or, “because he sent unto us,” &c. W. Lowth. 32. — he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; &c.] None of his posterity shall remain to see my people restored again to their own land. W. Lowth. — rebellion? The original word properly signifies a declining or turning aside from the straight path, the path of truth and right. Here, and in chap. xxviii. 16, it means the presumption of uttering as a revelation from God what a man knew not to be so. Dr. Blayney. Chap. XXX. There is no particular date annexed to this prophecy, whereby to ascertain the precise time of its delivery. But it may not be unreasonably presumed to have followed immediately after the preceding one, in which the restoration of the people from the Babylonish captivity is in direct terms foretold. From hence the transition is natural and easy to the more glorious and general restoration, that was to take place in a more distant period, and was designed for the ultimate object of the national hopes and expectations. Both events are frequently thus connected together in the prophetic writings, and perhaps with this de- Before CHRIST about 606.