4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and dwell inthem; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, Ezra 6:10; Neh. 1:4–11; Dan. 9:16; 1 Tim. 2:2and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
10 For thus says the Lord: After 2 Chr. 36:21–23; Ezra 1:1–4; Jer. 25:12; 27:22; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:5seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to (Jer. 24:6, 7); Zeph. 2:7return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.