Chapter 42

Warning against Going to Egypt

1 Then all the 1commanders of the forces, aJohanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people bboth small and great approached

2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our apetition 1come before you, and bpray for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a cfew out of many, as your own eyes now see us,

3 that the Lord your God may tell us the away in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.”

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I am going to apray to the Lord your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole 1message which the bLord will answer you. I will cnot keep back a word from you.”

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the aLord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole 1message with which the Lord your God will send you to us.

6 “Whether it is 1pleasant or 2unpleasant, we will alisten to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go bwell with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God.”

7 Now at the aend of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

8 Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the 1commanders of the forces that were with him, and for all the people both small and great,

9 and said to them, “Thus asays the Lord the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:

10 ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will abuild you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I 1will brelent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you.

11 ‘aDo not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,’ declares the Lord, ‘for bI am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.

12 ‘I will also show you compassion, so that ahe will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil.

13 ‘But if you are going to say, “We will anot stay in this land,” so as not to listen to the voice of the Lord your God,

14 saying, “No, but we will ago to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or bhear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there”;

15 then 1in that case listen to the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “If you really set your 2mind to enter aEgypt and go in to reside there,

16 then the asword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there.

17 “So all the men who set their 1mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the asword, by famine and by pestilence; and they will bhave no survivors or refugees from the calamity that I am going to bring on them.” ’ ”

18 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “As My aanger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a bcurse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and cyou will see this place no more.”

19 The Lord has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, “Do not ago into Egypt!” You should clearly bunderstand that today I have ctestified against you.

20 For you have only 1adeceived yourselves; for it is you who 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 so, and we will do it.”

21 So I have atold you today, but you have bnot 1obeyed the Lord your God, even in whatever He has sent me to tell you.

22 Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will adie by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the bplace where you wish to go to reside.