Introductory words.
‘Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, (after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem),'
The introduction informs us that this chapter contains words which Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon. ‘The residue (or remnant) of the elders' may indicate that many had been executed, possibly because their especially rebellious attitude was known to Nebuchadnezzar with the result that he had determined to get rid of the hardliners. Nebuchadnezzar had no doubt had his spies in Jerusalem and the elders would certainly have borne the brunt of the blame for Jehoiakim's rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar was not noted for his clemency (see 2 Kings 25:18-20). Alternately ‘residue' may be intended to be read in throughout (although not made clear in the text) simply indicating those who had survived the siege and its aftermath. The priests and prophets would include among them Ezekiel.
The exile in mind is that under Jehoiachin when Jerusalem had had to submit to Nebuchadnezzar (c.597 BC). Along with Jehoiachin had gone the queen mother (a figure of great authority in Judah), the high officials (the word, used of the married Potiphar in Genesis, doe not necessarily strictly mean eunuch), the ‘princes' of the tribes (the order of precedence would seem to indicate that it was not blood princes who were in mind), along with all the skilled craftsmen and smiths, and so on. They represented the cream of the nation (the good figs, not because they were better than the essentially others, but because of what God was going to make of them - Jeremiah 24:5).