Jeremiah 29:1

1 Now these are the words of the letter that Yirmeyahu the prophet sent from Yerushalayim to the residue of the Zakenim of the captivity, and to the Kohanim, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nevukhadnetztzar had carried away captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel,

Jeremiah 29:1 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 29:1

Now these [are] the words of the letter that Jeremiah the
prophet sent from Jerusalem
The argument and tenor, the sum and substance, of an epistle, which the prophet Jeremiah, being at Jerusalem, wrote, under the inspiration of God, to his countrymen abroad, afterwards described; so the prophets under the Old Testament instructed the people, sometimes by their sermons and discourses delivered by word of mouth to them, and sometimes by letters and epistles; as did the apostles of the New Testament; and they were both ways useful and profitable to men: unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captive;
some perhaps dying by the way, and others quickly after they came to Babylon; some were left, who had been rulers or civil magistrates in Judea, and perhaps of the great sanhedrim: and to the priests, and to the prophets:
false prophets, as the Syriac version; for we read only of one true prophet that was carried captive, and that was Ezekiel; but of false prophets several: and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive
from Jerusalem to Babylon;
which was eleven or twelve years before their last captivity thither. This was a catholic epistle, common to all the captives of every rank and class, age or sex.

Jeremiah 29:1 In-Context

1 Now these are the words of the letter that Yirmeyahu the prophet sent from Yerushalayim to the residue of the Zakenim of the captivity, and to the Kohanim, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nevukhadnetztzar had carried away captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel,

2 (after that Yekhonyah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, [and] the princes of Yehudah and Yerushalayim, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Yerushalayim,)

3 by the hand of El`asah the son of Shafan, and Gemaryah the son of Hilkiyah, (whom Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah sent to Bavel to Nevukhadnetztzar king of Bavel,) saying,

4 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el, to all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel:

5 Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.