XXIX. 1. These are the words of the Letter which Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem unto [the remnant of] the elders of the exiles, [3] by the hand of Eleasah, son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, son of Hilḳiah, whom Ṣedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon unto the king of Babylon saying, [4] Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto the exiles whom I have exiled from Jerusalem:(497) Build houses and settle ye down, 5 Plant gardens and eat of their fruit, Take ye wives, 6 And beget sons and daughters. Take wives to your sons, Give your daughters to husbands, To beget sons and daughters,(498) And increase(499) and do not diminish. And seek ye the peace of the land,(500) 7 To the which I have banished you, And pray for it unto the Lord, For in her peace your peace shall be. 8. [For thus saith the Lord, Let not the prophets in your midst deceive you, nor your diviners, nor hearken to the dreams they (?) dream. 9. For falsehood are they prophesying unto you in My Name; I have not sent them.](501) 10. For thus saith the Lord, So soon as seventy years be fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My Word toward you by bringing you(502) back to this place. For I am thinking about you— 11 Rede of the Lord— Thoughts not of evil but peace To give you a Future and Hope. Ye shall pray Me, and I will hear you, 12 Seek Me and find; 13 If ye ask Me with all your heart I shall be found of you. 14 By omitting all of verses 12-14 that is not given by the Greek we get these eight lines in approximately Jeremiah’s favourite Qinah-measure. The Greek also lacks verses 16-20, which irrelevantly digress from the exiles to the guilt and doom of the Jews in Jerusalem, and which it is difficult to think that Jeremiah would have put into a letter to be carried by two of these same Jews.(503) Verse 15 goes with 21-23,(504) a separate message to the exiles which we shall treat in the following section. 2. Prophets and Prophets. (XXIII. 9-32, XXVII-XXIX, etc.) Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles had its consequences. _First_, there was their claim to have prophets of the Lord among themselves, which in our text immediately follows the Letter as if part of it, XXIX. 15, 21-23, but which is probably of a somewhat later date.