Jeremiah 29:5

5 'Build houses and live [in them], and plant gardens and eat their fruit.

Jeremiah 29:5 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 29:5

Build ye houses, and dwell [in them]
Intimating hereby that they must not expect a return into their own land in any short time, but that they should continue many years where they were; suggesting also, that as they had ability, so they should have liberty, of building themselves houses; nor should they be interrupted by their enemies; nor would their houses be taken from them, when built; but they should dwell peaceably and quietly in them, as their own; which they might assure themselves of from the Lord, who gives these, and the following directions: and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
and live as comfortably as you can in a foreign country; plant your gardens with vines and pomegranates, and all sorts of fruitful trees the country produces; and fear not the fruit being taken away from you; depend upon it, you shall eat the fruit of your own labour, and not be deprived of it.

Jeremiah 29:5 In-Context

3 by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, [to] Babylon, {saying},

4 "Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have deported from Jerusalem [to] Babylon,

5 'Build houses and live [in them], and plant gardens and eat their fruit.

6 Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few.

7 And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.'

Footnotes

• [a]. Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation