Chapter 42
1Then all the commanders of the forces and Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah and all the people from small to great approached.
2They said to Jeremiah the prophet, 'Let our supplication fall before you, please, and pray on our behalf to the LORD your God on behalf of all this remnant, for we remain few from many, as your eyes see us.'
3And let the LORD your God tell us the way we should walk and the thing we should do.
4Jeremiah the prophet answered them, 'I have heard you. Look, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and whatever word the LORD answers you I will declare to you; I will not keep back a word from you.'
5They said to Jeremiah, 'May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to every word that the LORD your God sends you to tell us.'
6Whether the outcome is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
7Ten days later the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
8He called to Johanan son of Kareah and to all the commanders of the forces who were with him and to all the people from small to great.
9He said to them, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before him.'
10'If you return to dwell in this land, then I will build you and not overthrow, and I will plant you and not uproot, for I have been sorry concerning the distress which I did to you.'
11'Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are now afraid; do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.'
12'I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own land.'
13'But if you say, "We will not dwell in this land," so as not to hear the voice of the LORD your God,'
14'No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet, and where we will not go hungry for bread; there we will settle.'
15Therefore now hear the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'If you set your faces to come into Egypt and you come to sojourn there.'
16'Then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you dread will follow hard after you in Egypt, and there you will die.'
17'So all the people who set their faces to go to Egypt to settle there will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; none of them will have a survivor or fugitive from the disaster that I will bring upon them.'
18For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'As my anger and my rage were poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my rage will be poured out upon you when you come into Egypt, and you will become an oath and a horror and a curse and a reproach, and you will not see this place again.'
19The LORD has spoken against you, remnant of Judah: 'Do not come into Egypt. Know that I have testified against you today.'
20'For you have led yourselves astray, because you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, "Pray on our behalf to the LORD our God, and according to all that the LORD our God says, so tell us and we will do."'
21'I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything he sent me to tell you.'
22'Therefore know for certain that you will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and settle.'
Chapter 43
1When Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God with which the LORD their God had sent him to them—all these words.
2Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, 'You are lying; the LORD our God did not send you to say, Do not go to Egypt to settle there.'
3'Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us in order to hand us over to the Chaldeans so that they may kill us or exile us to Babylon.'
4So Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not hear the voice of the LORD to dwell in the land of Judah.
5Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations where they had been banished, to sojourn in the land of Judah.
6They took the men, the women, the children, the king's daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, together with Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.
7They entered the land of Egypt, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they arrived at Tahpanhes.
8Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes.
9'Take large stones in your hand and hide them in the mortar in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the Judean men.'
10'And say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am sending and I will take Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon my servant, and I will set his throne above these stones which I have hidden, and he will stretch his pavilion over them.'
11'He will come and strike the land of Egypt: those destined for death to death, those destined for captivity to captivity, and those destined for the sword to the sword.'
12'I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn them and carry them away captive. He will wrap up the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps his garment about him, and he will depart from there safely.'
13'He will break the obelisks of Beth-shemesh that are in the land of Egypt, and he will burn the temples of the gods of Egypt with fire.'