Bible verse
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 · BSB
This is a letter to people who had just been marched to Babylon, and verse 10 sets the timetable: seventy years. Most of the people who first read "plans to prosper you" died in exile. The promise was real and it was not for their lifetime.
The verses either side are what make it usable. God tells the exiles to build houses, plant gardens and seek the good of the city that took them — to live properly inside a situation He is not about to end.
It is a much better verse than the graduation-card version. It just is not a promise that the hard thing is nearly over.
The verses around it, from Jeremiah 29.
7 Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
8 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them.
9 For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”
10 For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
11 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.
12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
15 Because you may say, “The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,”
KJV
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
ASV
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.
ERV
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.
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Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible, which is free of copyright restrictions for use on websites. Read the full Bible on Great Faith.