Jeremiah 43

Chapter 43

In Egypt Jeremiah Warns of Judgment

¹But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the Lord their God had sent, had ^afinished telling all the people all the words of the Lord 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 ^btelling a lie! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to reside 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 forces, and all the people, ^bdid not obey the voice of the Lord to ^cstay in the land of Judah.

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

⁶the men, the women, the ¹children, the ^aking’s daughters and ^bevery person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam ²and 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 obey the voice of the Lord) and went in as far as ^aTahpanhes.

⁸Then the word of the Lord 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 ³palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of ⁴some of the Jews;

¹⁰and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord 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 temples 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 ¹obelisks of ²Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.” ’ ”