Jeremiah 29:5
in Jeremiah 29“Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
KJV
Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
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This verse in Jeremiah 29
Commentary
6 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Build . . . houses--In opposition to the false prophets' suggestions, who told the captives that their captivity would soon cease, Jeremiah tells them that it will be of long duration, and that therefore they should build houses, as Babylon is to be for long their home.
This site's exposition
unto all that are carried away captives
on Jeremiah 29:4-7
The counsel is to settle rather than wait, build houses, plant gardens, take wives, a direct answer to Hananiah's two-year promise in the chapter just closed, since none of this makes sense if release is near. Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, is counsel with no clear precedent in the earlier text, praying for the welfare of the very power holding them captive. In the peace thereof shall ye have peace ties the exiles' own good to the city's good, an instruction the commentators single out as one of the letter's hardest and most far-reaching lines.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(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.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If the earth be the Lord's, then, wherever a child of God goes, he does not go off his Father's ground. Patria est ubicunque bene est--That place is our country in which we are well off. If things be not as they have been, instead of fretting at that, we must live in hopes that they will be better than they are.
Build ye houses, and dwell in them,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Build ye houses - Prepare for a long continuance in your present captivity. Provide yourselves with the necessaries of life, and multiply in the land, that ye may become a powerful people.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּנ֥וּ | benu | build | H1129 → | 376 times |
| בָתִּ֖ים | vatim | houses | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| וְשֵׁ֑בוּ | veshevu | and dwell | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| וְנִטְע֣וּ | venitu | and plant | H5193 → | 58 times |
| גַנּ֔וֹת | ganot | gardens | H1593 → | |
| וְאִכְל֖וּ | veikhlu | and eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| פִּרְיָֽן׃ | piryan | produce their | H6529 → | 119 times |
בְּנ֥וּbuild
benuH1129 →376 times
בָתִּ֖יםhouses
vatimH1004 →2046 times
וְשֵׁ֑בוּand dwell
veshevuH3427 →1079 times
וְנִטְע֣וּand plant
venituH5193 →58 times
גַנּ֔וֹתgardens
ganotH1593 →
וְאִכְל֖וּand eat
veikhluH398 →810 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
פִּרְיָֽן׃produce their
piryanH6529 →119 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 29:10For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
it leads to
- Daniel 9:2
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
- Zechariah 7:5
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
- Jeremiah 24:6–7
I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.
- Jeremiah 32:42–44
For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I have promised them.
- Jeremiah 27:22
‘They will be carried to Babylon and will remain there until the day I attend to them again,’ declares the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”
- Daniel 9:2
Through
Ezekiel 28:26And there they will dwell securely, build houses, and plant vineyards. They will dwell securely when I execute judgments against all those around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 28:24
For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord…
- Ezekiel 28:22
And you are to declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will be glorified within you. They will know that I am the…
- Ezekiel 38:8
After a long time you will be summoned. In the latter years you will enter a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel,…
- Ezekiel 28:24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.