What does Jeremiah 29:11 mean?
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
JEREMIAH 29:11 · BEREAN STANDARD BIBLE
Jeremiah 29:11 is part of a letter Jeremiah sent to the exiles in Babylon. The letter tells them to build houses and seek the welfare of the city, and verse 10 places the promise after seventy years there, which is why the commentators below read “a future and a hope” against that setting.
Three commentaries, quoted, not summarized.
JAMIESON, FAUSSET & BROWN · 1871verified
I know--I alone; not the false prophets who know nothing of My purposes, though they pretend to know. thoughts . . . I think-- (Isa 55:9). Glancing at the Jews who had no "thoughts of peace," but only of "evil" (misfortune), because they could not conceive how deliverance could come to them. The moral malady of man is twofold--at one time vain confidence; then, when that is disappointed, despair. So the Jews first laughed at God's threats, confident that they should speedily return; then…
MATTHEW HENRY · 1708–1710verified
…This shall be in pursuance of God's purposes concerning them (Jer 29:11): I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Known unto God are all his works, for known unto him are all his thoughts (Act 15:18) and his works agree exactly with his thoughts; he does all according to the counsel of his will. We often do not know our own thoughts, nor know our own mind, but God is never at any uncertainty within himself. We are sometimes ready to fear that God's designs concerning us are all against us…
JOHN GILL · 1748–1763verified
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord,.... The purposes and resolutions of his heart concerning their welfare, particularly the restoration of them to their own land; these were within him, and known to him, and him only; they were remembered by him, and continued with him, as the "thoughts of his heart are to all generations"; and so would not fail of being performed; men think and forget what they have thought of, and so it comes to nothing; but thus it is not with God…
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Jeremiah 29
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