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;
Around 597 BC, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and forcibly relocated thousands of Israelites to Babylon — a foreign land far from their homes, their temple, and everything they had known. Jeremiah was a prophet, someone who delivered messages from God to the people of Israel, and he remained behind in Jerusalem while others were taken away. This verse introduces a letter he sent to those exiles — addressing their community leaders, religious figures, and ordinary people who had been uprooted by force. It's essentially the opening line of a message written to people in crisis, a letter that would go on to contain some of the most comforting — and surprising — words in the entire Bible.
Lord, you knew where your people were even in Babylon, and you sent word to find them. You know where I am right now — in whatever exile I'm carrying. Remind me that distance from what I expected is not distance from you, and that your word reaches further than I think it can. Amen.
Imagine receiving a letter in a refugee camp. You've lost your home, your city, your way of life. Everything you believed God was protecting has been taken. And then a letter arrives — not a government form, not a bureaucratic notice, but something addressed specifically to the people who survived. That word carries weight: "surviving elders." It acknowledges the ones who didn't make it, the grief still raw in the camp. Jeremiah didn't write to the triumphant. He wrote to people who were barely holding on — and he wrote as though they still mattered. What comes next in that letter would be genuinely shocking — instructions to settle in, plant gardens, even pray for the very empire that conquered them. But none of that lands without this opening: God's word found them anyway. Wherever you've been uprooted — whatever exile you're living through, whether it's geographic or emotional or spiritual — this verse carries a quiet message before the famous comfort even begins. Someone knew where you were. The letter arrived.
Why do you think Jeremiah specifically addresses elders, priests, prophets, and 'all the other people'? What does including everyone suggest about who God's message was meant for?
Have you ever felt like you were living in a kind of exile — far from where you thought you'd be, or from what you expected your life to look like? What did that feel like, and did it change how close to God you felt?
The Israelites believed God's presence was tied to Jerusalem and the temple, so being in Babylon seemed to mean being cut off from God entirely. How does this letter challenge that assumption, and how might it challenge your own ideas about where or when God can reach you?
If someone in your community is going through a kind of personal exile — grief, displacement, loss — what does this verse suggest about how you should respond to them practically, not just with words?
Is there someone in your life right now who needs a deliberate, personal act of contact that says 'I know where you are'? What would that look like this week, and what has kept you from doing it?
And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
Jeremiah 24:7
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Revelation 2:3
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 midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Revelation 2:1
Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders in exile and to the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
AMP
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
ESV
Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
NASB
A Letter to the Exiles This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
NIV
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.
NKJV
Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.
NLT
This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem,
MSG