The Flight to Egypt Forbidden

42 Now all the captains of the forces, aJohanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, b“Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and cpray for us to the Lord your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but da few of many, as you can see), 3 that the Lord your God may show us ethe way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.”

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Indeed, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and it shall be, that fwhatever the Lord answers you, I will declare it to you. I will gkeep nothing back from you.”

5 So they said to Jeremiah, h“Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you. 6 Whether it is 1pleasing or 2displeasing, we will iobey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, jthat it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

7 And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9 and 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 will still remain in this land, then kI will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I lrelent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, m‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And nI will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’

13 “But if oyou say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, 14 saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of pEgypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’—15 Then hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you qwholly 3set ryour faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, 16 then it shall be that the ssword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And tnone of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’

18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been upoured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And vyou shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’

19 “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, w‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have 4admonished you this day. 20 For you 5were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have xnot obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. 22 Now therefore, know certainly that you yshall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”