³ I gave the letter to Elasah and Gemariah,^[a] two men that King Zedekiah^[b] of Judah was sending to Babylon to talk with Nebuchadnezzar. In the letter, I wrote ⁴ that the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:

I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. Now I tell you ⁵ to settle there and build houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them.