Why must they pray for the welfare of Babylon?

The Lord further commands the exiles to seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. The exiles are not to live in Babylon with a sense of bitterness and rebellion towards their conquerors. Instead, they must pray to the Lord for Babylon’s welfare. The reason given for this command is that if Babylon flourished, then so would the exiles. But this is not simply a case of pragmatism. The command to pray for the good of Babylon would have shocked the exiles. With the false prophets predicting the immanent return from Babylon, the exiles would have instinctively prayed for the downfall of Nebuchadnezzar. With this command and the command to build a life in Babylon, the Lord is separating the people from all they had come to depend upon for their safety and well-being, such as the status of Judah as a covenant nation, having their own king with an army to defend the land, the land itself, and maybe, most importantly of all, the temple where they would have prayed to the Lord for their wellbeing.¹ . Being free of dependence on these things is exactly what the exiles needed, to go through a process of renewal and restoration in their relationship with the Lord. Their hope lay not in rebellion against Babylon and a return to the land and temple, but in trusting the Lord and the renewal he would bring through exile.

Even beyond this, Babylon being blessed through their prayers is an example of the Lord using his priestly people to bless the world as well (see Genesis 12:1–3; Exodus 19:5–6).² What is also made very clear is that the Lord’s word to the exiles is the same message that he had sent to Zedekiah and those remaining in Judah after the exile of 597 BC, which can be summed up as, Serve the king of Babylon and you will live Jeremiah 27:7, Jeremiah 27:11, Jeremiah 27:17;Jeremiah 28:14).³