Warning Against Going to Egypt

42 Then yall the commanders of the forces, and zJohanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of aHoshaiah, and all the people bfrom the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let cour plea for mercy come before you, and dpray to the Lord your God for us, for all ethis remnant—fbecause we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— 3 that gthe Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” 4 Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and hwhatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. hI will keep nothing back from you.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, i“May the Lord be a true and jfaithful witness against us kif we do not act according to all the word lwith which the Lord your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, mthat it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

7 nAt the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he summoned zJohanan the son of Kareah and yall the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people bfrom the least to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, oto whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him: 10 If you will remain in this land, pthen I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; qfor I relent of the disaster that I did to you. 11 rDo not fear the king of Babylon, rof whom you are afraid. sDo not fear him, declares the Lord, sfor I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 12 tI will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. 13 uBut if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God 14 and saying, ‘No, vwe will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or whear the sound of the trumpet or xbe hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: yIf you set your faces to enter Egypt zand go to live there, 16 then the sword athat you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, band there you shall die. 17 All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have cno remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.

18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: dAs my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. eYou shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. 19 The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, f‘Do not go to Egypt.’ gKnow for a certainty that I have warned you this day 20 that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. hFor you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, h‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and iwhatever the Lord our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything jthat he sent me to tell you. 22 kNow therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

43 When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord their God had sent him to them, 2 Azariah the son of lHoshaiah and mJohanan the son of Kareah and nall the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, o‘Do not go to Egypt to live there,’ 3 but pBaruch the son of Neriah qhas set you against us, rto deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.” 4 So mJohanan the son of Kareah and all sthe commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord, to remain in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took tall the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven— 6 uthe men, the women, the children, vthe princesses, and every person whom wNebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with xGedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they arrived at yTahpanhes.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in yTahpanhes: 9 “Take in your hands large stones and hide them in the mortar in the pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in yTahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah, 10 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, zmy servant, aand I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. 11 He shall come band strike the land of Egypt, cgiving over to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword. 12 dI shall kindle a fire ein the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them fand carry them away captive. gAnd he shall clean the land of Egypt gas a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace. 13 He shall break the hobelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, eand the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.’ ”

Judgment for Idolatry

44 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at iMigdol, at jTahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of kPathros, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day lthey are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, 3 because of the evil that they committed, mprovoking me to anger, nin that they went to make offerings oand serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4 pYet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ 5 qBut they did not listen qor incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. 6 rTherefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, sand they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day. 7 And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil tagainst yourselves, to cut off from you uman and woman, uinfant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? 8 mWhy do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, nmaking offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become va curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, wthe evil of the kings of Judah, xthe evil of their1 wives, your own evil, yand the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day, znor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.

11 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: aBehold, I will set my face against you for harm, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have bset their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. cIn the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine cthey shall be consumed. dFrom the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, eand they shall become an oath, a horror, va curse, and a taunt. 13 fI will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 gso that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive hor return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, iexcept some fugitives.”

15 Then all the men who knew that jtheir wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in kPathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, lwe will not listen to you. 17 mBut we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to nthe queen of heaven oand pour out drink offerings to her, pas we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to nthe queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything qand have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said,2 “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven rand poured out drink offerings to her, was it swithout our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, tmen and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 u“As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, vdid not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his …