⁴ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ^5 (A)Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. ⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. ⁷ But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and ^(B)pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. ⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(C)Do not let your prophets and ^(D)your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,^{[a] 9} for ^(E)it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; ^(F)I did not send them, declares the Lord.

¹⁰ “For thus says the Lord: ^(G)When seventy years are completed for Babylon, ^(H)I will visit you, ^(I)and I will fulfill to you my promise ^(J)and bring you back to this place. ^11 (K)For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[b] and not for evil, ^(L)to give you a future and a hope. ^12 (M)Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, ^(N)and I will hear you. ^13 (O)You will seek me and find me, when you seek me ^(P)with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the Lord, ^(Q)and I will restore your fortunes and ^(R)gather you from all the nations and all the places ^(S)where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

²⁶ Then God said, ^(A)“Let us make man^[a] in our image, ^(B)after our likeness. And ^(C)let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, ^(E)“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”