Jeremiah 29:5

Jer 29:5 Build ye houses, and dwell [in them]; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;

Ver. 5. Build ye houses, and dwell in them.] Mitigate the extremity of your captivity, which is likely to be long, by all honest means. Levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas; patience, as a paring knife, cutteth the cross less and less till it comes to nothing. It teacheth a man, in case he cannot bring his estate to his mind, to bring his mind to his estate, and that is as well; but impatiens quisque bis affligitur; the bullock under the yoke gets nothing by wriggling but galling.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29:5-7 Jeremiah urged the exiled people to plan to stay in Babylon for a long time. God wanted them to become productive citizens, concerned and praying to the Lord for the welfare of the Babylonian communities in which they lived, so their population could grow. They should not listen to false prophecies such as Hananiah’s, promising that they would be coming home shortly.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

God commanded the captives to build houses in Chaldea, to plant vineyards, and also to marry wives, and to beget children, as though they were at home. It was not, indeed, God’s purpose that they should set their hearts on Chaldea, on the contrary, they were ever to think of their return: but until the end of the seventy years, it was God’s will that they should continue quiet, and not attempt this or that, but carry on the business of life as though they were in their own country. As to their hope, then, it was God’s will that their minds should be in a state of suspense until the time of deliverance.

At the first view these two things seemed inconsistent, — that the Jews were to live seventy years as though they were the natives of the place, and that their habitations were not to be changed, — and yet that they were ever to look forward to a return. But these two things can well agree together: it was a proof of obedience when they acknowledged that they were chastised by God’s hand, and thus became willingly submissive to the end of the seventy years. But their hope, as I have just observed, was to remain in suspense, in order that they might not be agitated with discontent, nor be led away by some violent feeling, but that they might so pass their time as to bear their exile in such a way as to please God; for there was a sure hope of return, provided they looked forward, according to God’s will, to the end of the seventy years. It is then this subject on which Jeremiah now speaks, when he says, Build houses, and dwell in them; plant vineyards, and eat of their fruit For this whole discourse is to be referred to the time of exile, he having beforehand spoken of their return; and this we shall see in its proper place.

But the Jews could not have hoped for anything good, except they were so resigned as to bear their correction, and thus really proved that they did not reject the punishment laid on them.

We now see that Jeremiah did not encourage the Jews to indulge in pleasures, nor persuade them to settle for ever in Chaldea. It was, indeed, a fertile and pleasant land; but he did not encourage them to live there in pleasure, to indulge themselves and to forget their own country; by no means: but he confined what he said to the time of the captivity, to the end of the seventy years. During that time, then, he wished them to enjoy the land of Chaldea, and all its advantages, as though they were not exiles but natives of the place. For what purpose? not that they might give themselves up to sloth, but that they might not, by raising commotions, offend God, and in a manner close up against themselves the door of his grace, for the time which he had fixed was to be expected. For when we are driven headlong by a vehement desire, we in a manner repel the favor of God; we do not then suffer him to act as it becomes him: and when we take away from him his own rights and will, it is the same as though we were unwilling to receive his grace. This would have been the case, had they not quietly and resignedly endured their calamity in Chaldea to the end of the time which had been fixed by God.

We now perceive that the Prophet’s message referred only to the time of exile; and we also perceive what was the design of it, even to render them obedient to God, that they might thus shew by their patience that they were really penitent, and that they also expected a return in no other way than through God’s favor alone.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(5) Build ye houses, and dwell in them.—The command had a two-fold bearing. It counselled a patient acceptance of the present state of things. It announced, as the next verse does yet more emphatically, that their exile would last for at least two generations. It indicates, also, the comparative leniency with which the exiles were treated. They were allowed to become possessors both of lands and houses. The favour shown to Daniel and his friends would, of course, tend to make their condition more tolerable.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Build. Establish yourselves, as you must remain a long time in captivity. We are exhorted not to be attached to the things of the world, to remind us that we shall not live long, chap. xvi. 2., and xxxv. 7., and 1 Corinthians vii. 29.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

5. Build ye houses — A command which stands in bold antagonism to the prophecy of Hananiah the prophet. A majority of them would live and die in that land; hence, the more stable their life there the better for them. The command to take wives involves the same assumption — that at least for the present generation, this land of exile is their home.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.