You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
Parallel translations
- KJV Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
- BSB Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- NKJV Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- NASB Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- NLT In those days when you pray, I will listen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God promises the exiles that when they call on Him and pray, He will listen. Exile does not cut off the line to God.
Overview
In His letter to the Babylonian captives, the LORD assures them that prayer remains effective even in a foreign land. This is part of the famous reassurance following Jeremiah 29:11, anchoring hope not in immediate rescue but in God's attentive presence. It anticipates the gospel truth that God hears all who call on Him in faith (Romans 10:13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Matt 7:7–8“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.
- Jer 33:3‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.’
- Ps 50:15Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
- Ps 145:19He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.
- Isa 65:24It will happen that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
- Ps 10:17Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,
- Zech 13:9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”
- Jer 31:9They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
- Isa 30:19For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
- Dan 9:3–19I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
- Ezek 36:37Thus says the Lord Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
- Ps 102:16–17For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.
- Neh 2:4–20Then the king said to me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 29:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.