Jeremiah 43

CHAPTER 43

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

¹But it happened that as soon as Jeremiah, whom Yahweh their God had sent, had ^afinished speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God—that is, all these words—

²Azariah the ^ason of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are ^bspeaking a lie! Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to sojourn there’;

³but ^aBaruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon.”

⁴So ^aJohanan the son of Kareah and all the ¹commanders of the military forces and all the people ^bdid not listen to the voice of Yahweh to ^cstay in the land of Judah.

⁵But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the ¹commanders of the military forces took the ^aentire remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations to which they had been banished, in order to sojourn in the land of Judah—

⁶the men, the women, the little ones, the ^aking’s daughters, and ^bevery person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam ¹and grandson of Shaphan, together with ^cJeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah—

⁷and they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh) and went in as far as ^aTahpanhes.

⁸Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah in ^aTahpanhes, saying,

⁹“Take some large stones in your ¹hands and hide them in the mortar in the ²brick terrace which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of ³some of the Jews;

¹⁰and you will say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get ^aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^bMy servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his ^ccanopy over them.

¹¹“He will also come and ^astrike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and ^bthose for the sword to the sword.

¹²“And ¹I shall set fire to the houses of the ^agods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. So he will ^bwrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will depart from there safely.

¹³“He will also shatter the ¹sacred pillars of ²Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.” ’ ”