Letters to Babylon and Back: Chapters 27 and 28 describe a prophetic conflict concerning the status of the 597 B.C. exiles to Babylon and the future of those who remain behind. Jeremiah represented the view that the former would stay in exile and the latter were under judgment. Hananiah attacked Jeremiah and optimistically stated that all would end well in just a short period of time. The present chapter continues the same note of prophetic conflict. However, rather than two prophets in contact physically, we have here the exchange of letters between Jeremiah who is in Jerusalem and Shemaiah, a prophet in Babylon.

29:24–32 The sequencing of events of this chapter’s ending episode is a little convoluted, but the gist may still be discerned. It appears that a person named Shemaiah, who is ide…