⁹and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before him: ¹⁰If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you and not pluck you up, for I am sorry for the disaster that I have brought upon you.^* ¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand.^* ¹²I will grant you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and restore you to your native soil. ¹³But if you continue to say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ thus disobeying the voice of the Lord your God^* ¹⁴and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,’^* ¹⁵then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to enter Egypt and go to settle there,^* ¹⁶then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you dread shall follow close after you into Egypt, and there you shall die. ¹⁷All the people who have determined to go to Egypt to settle there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.^*

¹⁸“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as 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. You shall become an object of execration and horror, of cursing and ridicule. You shall see this place no more.^* ¹⁹The Lord has said to you, ‘O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt.’ Be well aware that I have warned you today^* ²⁰that you have made a fatal mistake. For you yourselves sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says, tell us, and we will do it.’ ²¹So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you.^* ²²Be well aware, then, that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and settle.”^*

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Cross references

*Jer 24:6; 31:28; Ezek 36:36
*Isa 43:5; Jer 41:18; Rom 8:31
*Jer 44:16
*Jer 4:19, 21; 41:17
*Jer 44:12–14
*Jer 44:13, 14, 28
*Isa 65:15; Jer 7:20; 29:18; 33:5
*Deut 17:16; Neh 9:26, 29, 30; Isa 30:1–7
*Jer 43:1, 4; Ezek 2:7
*Jer 43:11; Hos 9:6