Jeremiah 29:5

"Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters: and multiply there, and be not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto Jehovah for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."

What a marvelous anticipation of New Testament teaching is in this paragraph. The wholehearted cooperation with the governmental powers under which one may chance to live is spoken as a cardinal principle of the gospel of Christ in Romans 13:1-12. Praying for authorities is specifically commanded in 1 Timothy 2:1-3. If the Jewish nation had properly received and obeyed this commandment, the Roman destruction of 70 A.D. would have been averted.

Of course, instructions such as these infuriated the false prophets.

"Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters ..." (Jeremiah 29:6). "The wives Jeremiah encouraged them to marry were Jewish wives, not foreign (Deuteronomy 7:3)."[8]

"The Hebrew exiles in Babylon were not slaves but deportees, and free to leave about as they pleased. Some became wealthy, and some, like Daniel, attained high places in government; and the commandments of Jeremiah 29:7 were made out of regard for the welfare of Israel."[9]

As a matter of fact, the prosperity of many of the exiles was so great that when the command finally came for them to return to the Holy Land, countless numbers of them elected to remain in Babylon. It was indeed only "a remnant" that returned to Jerusalem.