Passage
Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord: which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising by night, and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord.
Jeremiah 29:19 (DRB)
Nearby Context
Jeremiah 29:17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will send upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and I will make them like bad figs that cannot be eaten, because they are very bad.
Jeremiah 29:18 And I will persecute them with the sword, and with famine, and with the pestilence: and I will give them up unto affliction to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach to all the nations to which I have driven them out:
Jeremiah 29:19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord: which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising by night, and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord.
Jeremiah 29:20 Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent out from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Jeremiah 29:21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to Achab the son of Colias, and to Sedecias the son of Maasias, who prophesy unto you in my name falsely: Behold I will deliver them up into the hands of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon: and he shall kill them before your eyes.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "hearkened", "words", "saith", "lord", "sent", "servants", "prophets", and "rising". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hearkened" and "words", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 18's "And I will persecute them with the..." into verse 20's "Hear ye therefore the word of the...", so "hearkened" and "words" belong inside that flow. In Jeremiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "hearkened" and "words" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.