Why does Shemaiah of Nehelam write to the people in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah and to all the priests asking why they have not rebuked Jeremiah?

This final passage in Jeremiah 29:1–32 deals with a second letter that Jeremiah is told to write to the exiles. It would seem that someone among the exiles in Babylon by the name of Shemaiah of Nehelam responded to Jeremiah’s first letter (Jeremiah 29:1–23) by writing a letter to the religious leadership in Jerusalem. He writes to complain about Jeremiah and his message. The letter is read aloud in the temple, in Jeremiah’s presence, and the Lord then instructs Jeremiah to write this second letter that addresses both Shemaiah and all the exiles.

The passage begins with what the Lord says Jeremiah must write to Shemaiah in response to the letter he wrote. We learn about the contents of Shemaiah’s letter from Jeremiah’s letter. Through Jeremiah’s letter the Lord says to Shemaiah, You have sent letters in your name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying The LORD has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to have charge in the house of the LORD over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and neck irons. Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who is prophesying to you? We know nothing more about Shemaiah apart from this incident in Jeremiah. He wrote his letter to the priests in Jerusalem and in particular to Zephaniah who was the priest in charge of the temple at the time. The Lord says that Shemaiah sent his letters in his own name. The implication here is that Shemaiah has spoken his own words and not the words of the Lord.¹ As the priest in charge, Zephaniah had the responsibility of preventing false prophesies by arresting "every madman who prophesies.”  The term madman was a derogatory way of referring to someone who was a false prophet (see 2 Kings 9:11; Hosea 9:7). Shemaiah is clearly trying to discredit Jeremiah in the eyes of the religious authorities in Jerusalem.² Shemaiah asks why Zephaniah has not rebuked Jeremiah. The Hebrew words used is gaar and it means to roar or bellow and is more than just a verbal rebuke, it implies swift and decisive action must be taken to stop Jeremiah.³ The evidence that Shemaiah gave in his letter for treating Jeremiah in this way is because “He has sent to us in Babylon saying, Your exile will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.’ It is clear that Shemaiah is responding to what Jeremiah had said to the exiles in his first letter (Jeremiah 29:1–23). It is also clear that Shemaiah rejects Jeremiah’s message that their exile will be long and that they need to build lives for themselves in Babylon. He views Jeremiah as a false prophet because Jeremiah has spoken against the common consensus that the other prophets have been promoting, that the exile of 597 BC was the end of judgment and that the Lord would keep Judah safe from all her enemies.⁴ But by rejecting Jeremiah, Shemaiah has only shown his own hostility towards the Lord.⁵ His letter accusing Jeremiah of being a false prophet is going to be used by the Lord as evidence that he is in fact the false prophet.