Jeremiah 42:10–18

¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will rebuild and not demolish you, ^jand I will plant and not uproot you, because I relent concerning the disaster ^kthat I have brought on you. ^l11Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon ^mwhom you now fear; don’t be afraid of him’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘because I am with you to save you ⁿand deliver you from him. ¹²I will grant you compassion, ^oand he ^pwill have compassion on you and allow you to return to your own soil. ¹³But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ ^qso as not to obey the voice of the Lord your God, ¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, instead we’ll go to the land of Egypt ^rwhere we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn ^sor hunger for food, and we’ll live there,’ ¹⁵then hear the word of the Lord, remnant of Judah! This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, ^tsays: If you are firmly resolved to go to Egypt ^uand live there for a while, ¹⁶then the sword ^vyou fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels ^wthere to Egypt, and you will die there. ¹⁷All who resolve to go to Egypt to live there for a while will die by the sword, famine, and plague. They will have no one escape or survive from the disaster I will bring on them.’

¹⁸“For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and fury were poured out on Jerusalem’s residents, ^xso will My fury pour out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing, scorn, ^yexecration, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’