Jeremiah 29:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 29:1
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Jeremiah
יִרְמְיָ֥הyir.me.Yah
H3414
Jirmejah · proper noun, a man's name
prophet
הַנָּבִ֖יאha.na.Vi'
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sent
שָׁלַ֛חsha.Lach
H7971
to send away · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jerusalem
מִירוּשָׁלִָ֑םmi.ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · preposition + proper noun, a place name
residue
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Esther 9:20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
Jeremiah 29:25-29 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerus…
Acts 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gent…
Hebrews 13:22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
Revelation 2:1-3 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the mids…
2 Chronicles 30:1-6 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at…
Jeremiah 24:1-7 The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had c…
Jeremiah 28:4 And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, sa…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 29:1-7
We are here told,
I. That Jeremiah wrote to the captives in Babylon, in the name of the Lord. Jeconiah had surrendered himself a prisoner, with the queen his mother, the chamberlains of his household, called here the eunuchs, and many of the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, who were at that time the most active men; the carpenters and smiths likewise, being demanded, were yielded up, that those who remained might not have any proper hands to fortify their city or furnish themselves with weapons of war. By this tame submission it was hoped that Nebuchadnezzar would be pacified. Satis est prostrasse leoni - It suffices the lion to have laid his antagonist prostrate; but the imperious conqueror…
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 Babylo…
Jeremiah 29:1
1. Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
1. Hi sunt sermones libri (vel, epistolae) quem misit Jeremias propheta Jerusalem ad reliquias seniorum captivitatis, et ad sacerdotes et ad prophetas, et ad universum populum, quem captivum abduxerat Nebuchadnezer e Jerusalem in Babylonem;
Here the Prophet begins a new discourse, even that he not only cried out constantly at Jerusalem, that the Jews who still remained there should repent, bu…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 29, verses 1 and following) These are the words of the book that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders of the exile, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. After King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem, by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and generate sons and daughters; give your sons wives and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters, and multiply, and do not be few in number. And seek the peace of the city (or land) to which I have led you, and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace. This letter, or rather book, of Jeremiah the prophet is sent to Babylon by the messengers Sedecias, Ellassa and Gamaria, to those who were transported with Jechoniah and his mother by Nebuchadnezzar: so that, by the opportunity of the royal legation, the Prophet might fulfill his own work and admonish the transplanted people of the things that had been commanded to him by the Lord. He spoke beautifully: Jehoiachin the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah, and the rest went out. And: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: They shall seem to have been relocated not by the power of the king of Babylon, but by the will of the Lord. And first, the word is directed to the elders, then to the priests, thirdly to the prophets, fourthly to the whole people of God: so that according to the order of age, letters would also reach the prophets who were being instructed. But they should not rely on their own words, but on the Lord's, to build houses and live in them, and to plant gardens, or orchards, and eat their fruit, take wives, and generate sons and daughters, and multiply in the place of their migration, and not be few in number, and seek the peace of the city or land to which…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Babylon · The Jews exhorted to be subject to, and settle in — The Jews exhorted to be subject to, and settle in
Jehoiachin · Babylon — Babylon
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
יֶ֜תֶרYe.ter
H3499
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
elders
זִקְנֵ֣יzik.Nei
H2205
old · adjective, masculine plural construct
captives
הַגּוֹלָ֗הha.go.Lah
H1473
exile · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
priests
הַכֹּהֲנִ֤יםha.ko.ha.Nim
H3548
literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
prophets
הַנְּבִיאִים֙ha.ne.vi.'Im
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
people
הָעָ֔םha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Nebuchadnezzar
נְבֽוּכַדְנֶאצַּ֛רne.vu.khad.ne.Tzar
H5019
Nebukadnetstsar (or -retstsar · proper noun, a man's name
captive
הֶגְלָ֧הheg.Lah
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jerusalem
מִירוּשָׁלִַ֖םmi.ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Babylon
בָּבֶֽלָהba.Ve.lah
H894
Babel (i.e. Babylon) · proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
A Letter from Jeremiah to the Captives in Babylon, together with Threatenings against their False Prophets. - As in Jerusalem, so too in Babylon the predictions of the false prophets fostered a lively hope that the domination of Nebuchadnezzar would not last long, and that the return of the exiles to their fatherland would soon come about. The spirit of discontent thus excited must have exercised an injurious influence on the fortunes of the captives, and could not fail to frustrate the aim which the chastisement inflicted by God was designed to work out, namely, the moral advancement of the people. Therefore Jeremiah makes use of an opportunity furnished by an embassy sent by King Zedekiah…
Jeremiah contacted the Hebrew exiles in Babylon by letter. To reach all the scattered Israelites, his letter would be read repeatedly from settlement to settlement.
