The Remnant Asks Jeremiah to Pray to Yahweh for Direction

42 Then all the commanders of the armies, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest, approached 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “May our plea please fall ⌊before you⌋,a and pray for us to Yahweh your God, for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes are seeing us. 3 And let Yahweh your God inform us the way in which we should go and the thing that we should do.” 4 And Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Look, I am going to pray to Yahweh your God according to your words, ⌊and then⌋b all the wordsc that Yahweh answers you I will tell you; I will not withhold from you a word.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be against us as ⌊a true and faithful witness⌋d if we do not do according to all the wordse that Yahweh your God sends you for us. 6 Whether good or bad, we will listen to the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of Yahweh our God.”

The Remnant Rejects the Word of Yahweh

7 ⌊And then⌋f at the end of ten days the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. 8 And he summoned Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to cause your plea to fall ⌊before him⌋:g 10 ‘If only you will stay in this land, then I will build you and I will not tear you down, and I will plant you and I will not pluck you up, for I relent of the disaster that I have brought to you. 11 You must not be afraid ⌊of⌋h the king of Babylon whom you are ⌊afraid of⌋.i You must not be afraid of him,’ ⌊declares⌋j Yahweh, ‘for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and will restore you to your soil.

13 But if you are saying, “We will not stay in this land,” so as to not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, 14 saying, “No, for we will go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war, and we will not hear the sound of a horn, and we will not be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,” 15 then ⌊therefore⌋k hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “⌊If you are determined⌋l to go to Egypt, and you go to dwell as aliens there, 16 then it will be that the sword that you are in fear of will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you are anxious of will pursue after you there into Egypt, and there you will die. 17 So all the people who ⌊are determined⌋m to go to Egypt to dwell as aliens there will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, and there will not be for them an escapee or a survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.” 18 For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will pour out on you at your going to Egypt, and you will become a curse, and a horror, and a curse formula, and a disgrace, and you will no longer see this place.” ’

19 Yahweh has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘You must not go to Egypt.’ You must certainly know that I have warned you ⌊today⌋n 20 that ⌊you have made a fatal mistake⌋,o for you sent me to Yahweh your God, ⌊saying⌋,p ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God, and all that Yahweh our God says, so tell us and we will do it.’q 21 So I have told you ⌊today⌋,r and you have not listened to the voice of Yahweh your God, or of ⌊anything⌋s that he sent me for you. 22 Now then, certainly you must know that by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague you will die in the place where you desire to go, to dwell as aliens there.”

43 ⌊And then⌋,a when Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, for which Yahweh their God had sent him to them with all these words, 2 Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the insolent men spoke,b saying to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! Yahweh our God did not send you, ⌊saying⌋,c ‘You must not go to Egypt to dwell as aliens there.’ 3 But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us in order to give us into the hand of the Chaldeans, to kill us and to deport us to Babylon.”

4 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies, and all the people did not listend to the voice of Yahweh to stay in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies tooke all the remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been scattered to dwell as aliens in the land of Judah— 6 the men, and the women, and the little children, and the daughters of the king, and ⌊everyone⌋f whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the ⌊guard⌋g had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah— 7 and they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. And they came up to Tahpanhes.

The Throne of Nebuchadnezzar Will be Set Up at Tahpanhes

8 And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, ⌊saying⌋, 9 “Take in your handsh large stones and bury them in the mortar in the clay floor that is at the entrance of the palacei of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes before the eyes of the peoplej of the Judeans, 10 and say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Look, I am going to send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden. And he will spread out his canopy over them. 11 And he will come and ravage the land of Egypt, and deliver those who are appointed for the plague, to the plague, and those who are appointed for the captivity, to the captivity, and those who are appointed for the sword, to the sword. 12 Then he will kindle a fire in the ⌊temples⌋k of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. And he will wrap up the land of Egypt just as the shepherd wraps up his cloak. And he will go forth from there in peace. 13 And he will break the stone pillars of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt. And he will burn the ⌊temples⌋l of the gods of Egypt with fire.” ’ ”

A Message of Rebuke for the Rebellious Remnant

44 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, who were living at Migdol, and Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, ⌊saying⌋,a 2 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the towns of Judah. And look, they are a site of ruins this day, and there is not in them an inhabitant, 3 ⌊because of⌋b their wickedness that they committed to provoke me to anger by going to make smoke offerings, serving other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, or your ancestors.c 4 And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, ⌊sending over and over again⌋,d ⌊saying⌋,e “Please, you must not do this detestable thing that I hate.” 5 But they did not listen and they did not incline their earsf to turn back from their wickedness, to not make smoke offerings to other gods. 6 So my wrath and my anger were poured outg and burnedh in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as they are this day.’

7 So then, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Why are you doing great harm to ⌊yourselves⌋,i to cut off for yourselves man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah, to not leave over for yourselves a remnant, 8 provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, to make smoke offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to dwell as aliens, so as to cut off yourselves, and so that you are becoming as a curse, and as a disgrace among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the wicked things of your ancestors,j and the wicked things of the kings of Judah, and the wicked things of their wives, and your wicked things, and the wicked things of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not shown contrition up to this day, and they have not shown reverence, and they have not walked in my law and in my statutes that I set ⌊before you⌋k and ⌊before⌋l your ancestors.’m

11 ⌊Therefore⌋n thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Look, ⌊I am determined to bring disaster on you⌋,o even to exterminate all Judah.12 And I will take away the remnant of Judah ⌊who are determined⌋p to come to the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there, and everyone will perish. They will fall in the land of Egypt by the sword; they will perish by the famine, from the smallest to the greatest. By the sword and by the famine they will die and become as a curse, as a horror, and as a curse, and as a disgrace. 13 So I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt just as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague. 14 And there will not be a survivor or an escapee of the remnant of Judah, those who have come to dwell as an alien there in the land of Egypt, to return to the land of Judah where they are ⌊longing⌋q to return to dwell there, for they will not turn back, ⌊but only⌋r some survivors.’ ”

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were making smoke offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, and all the people who lived in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, ⌊saying⌋,s 16 “Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we are not going to listen to you! 17 But certainly we will do ⌊everything⌋t that went out from our mouths,u to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and