Does the Bible say…
“I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you”
This phrase appears in Jeremiah 29:11 (BSB).
Jeremiah 29:11 is verbatim in BSB. Written to Israelite exiles in Babylon, c. 597 BC. The preceding verse (29:10) names a seventy-year exile.
Full reference
The actual text Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
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.
Full passage in context and origin
The actual verse
Jeremiah 29:11 (BSB):
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
The KJV (1769):
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.
The verse is verbatim in BSB in this rendering. The KJV uses older vocabulary (“thoughts” for “plans”, “expected end” for “future and hope”), but the underlying Hebrew is the same.
The surrounding passage
The verse appears within Jeremiah 29:1–14, a letter sent by the prophet Jeremiah from Jerusalem to the Israelite exiles in Babylon. The full immediate context (Jeremiah 29:10–14, BSB):
10 For this is what the LORD says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise concerning you 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, plans to give you hope and a future. 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, and will restore you to the place from which I have sent you into exile.”
The “plans” of verse 11 are framed within the seventy-year timeframe of verse 10.
The wider letter
Jeremiah 29 records a letter sent by the prophet to the first wave of exiles deported to Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar, around 597 BC. The letter instructs the exiles to settle in Babylon, build houses, plant gardens, marry, and seek the welfare of the city of their captivity (29:5–7). It is in this larger context — a community in exile, instructed to settle in for the long term — that the promise of verse 11 is delivered.
The “you” addressed in the verse is grammatically plural in Hebrew. It is addressed to the exile community as a whole, not to an individual.
Original language
Three Hebrew terms in the verse have wider semantic ranges than the standard English glosses:
- machashavot (מַחֲשָׁבוֹת, “plans/thoughts/designs”) — the BSB renders “plans”; the KJV “thoughts.” Either is within range.
- shalom (שָׁלוֹם, “peace/wholeness/welfare/prosperity”) — the BSB renders “to prosper you”; the KJV “of peace.” The Hebrew word covers both senses.
- acharit ve-tikvah (אַחֲרִית וְתִקְוָה, literally “future and hope”) — the BSB renders “hope and a future”; the KJV “an expected end.”
Original language note
Original language
The Hebrew word translated 'plans' in modern translations and 'thoughts' in the KJV is מַחֲשָׁבוֹת (machashavot), the plural of machashavah, which can mean 'thoughts, plans, designs, intentions.' The word translated 'prosper' (BSB) or 'peace' (KJV) is שָׁלוֹם (shalom), with a wide range including 'peace, wholeness, well-being, welfare.' The phrase 'expected end' (KJV) renders אַחֲרִית וְתִקְוָה (acharit ve-tikvah), literally 'a future and a hope.' The KJV's older English vocabulary preserves this in 'an expected end.'