Yirmeyah 29:1

1 9 Now these are the Devarim of the sefer that Yirmeyah HaNavi sent from Yerushalayim unto the surviving Zekenim of the Golus and to the Kohanim, and to the Nevi’im, and to kol HaAm whom Nevuchadretzar had carried away captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel—

Yirmeyah 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.

Yirmeyah 29:1 In-Context

1 9 Now these are the Devarim of the sefer that Yirmeyah HaNavi sent from Yerushalayim unto the surviving Zekenim of the Golus and to the Kohanim, and to the Nevi’im, and to kol HaAm whom Nevuchadretzar had carried away captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel—

2 This was after Yechanyah HaMelech, and the Gevirah (Queen Mother), and the sarisim, the sarim of Yehudah and Yerushalayim, and the carpenters, and the artisans had departed from Yerushalayim;

3 The sefer was sent by the yad of Elasah Ben Shaphan, and Gemaryah Ben Chilkiyah, whom Tzidkiyah Melech Yehudah sent unto Bavel to Nevuchadretzar Melech Bavel—and it said,

4 Thus saith Hashem Tzva’os Elohei Yisroel, unto all that are carried away into the Golus, whom I have caused to be carried away from Yerushalayim unto Bavel;

5 Build ye batim (houses), and dwell in them; and plant gannot (gardens), and eat the p’ri (fruit) of them;