1Then all the army officers approached Jeremiah. They included Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah, the son of Hoshaiah. All the people from the least important of them to the most important also came.2All of them said to Jeremiah the prophet, ‘Please listen to our appeal. Pray to the LORD your God. Pray for all of us who are left here. Once there were many of us. But as you can see, only a few of us are left now.3So pray to the LORD your God. Pray that he’ll tell us where we should go. Pray that he’ll tell us what we should do.’4‘I’ve heard you,’ Jeremiah the prophet replied. ‘I’ll certainly pray to the LORD your God. I’ll do what you have asked me to do. In fact, I’ll tell you everything the LORD says. I won’t keep anything back from you.’5Then they said to Jeremiah, ‘We’ll do everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us to do. If we don’t, may he be a true and faithful witness against us.6It doesn’t matter whether what you say is in our favour or not. We’re asking you to pray to the LORD our God. And we’ll obey him. Things will go well with us. That’s because we will obey the LORD our God.’7Ten days later a message came to Jeremiah from the LORD.8So Jeremiah sent for Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the other army officers with him. Jeremiah also gathered together all the people from the least important of them to the most important.9He said to all of them, ‘The LORD is the God of Israel. You asked me to present your appeal to him. He told me,10“Stay in this land. Then I will build you up. I will not tear you down. I will plant you. I will not pull you up by the roots. I have decided to stop bringing trouble on you.11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon. You are afraid of him now. Do not be,” announces the LORD. “I am with you. I will keep you safe. I will save you from his power.12I will show you my loving concern. Then he will have concern for you. And he will let you return to your land.”13‘But suppose you say, “We won’t stay in this land.” If you do, you will be disobeying the LORD your God.14And suppose you say, “No! We’ll go and live in Egypt. There we won’t have to face war anymore. We won’t hear the trumpets of war. And we won’t get hungry.”15Then listen to what the LORD says to you who are left in Judah. He is the LORD who rules over all. He is the God of Israel. He says, “Have you already made up your minds to go to Egypt? Are you going to make your homes there?16Then the war you fear will catch up with you there. The hunger you are afraid of will follow you into Egypt. And you will die there.17In fact, that will happen to all those who go and make their homes in Egypt. All of them will die of war, hunger and plague. Not one of them will live. None of them will escape the trouble I will bring on them.”18He is the LORD who rules over all. He is the God of Israel. He says, “My great anger has been poured out on those who used to live in Jerusalem. In the same way, it will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. People will use your name in a curse. They will be shocked at you. They will say bad things about you. And they will say you are shameful. You will never see this place again.”19‘The LORD has spoken to you who are left in Judah. He has said, “Do not go to Egypt.” Here is something you can be sure of. I am warning you about it today.20You made a big mistake when you asked me to pray to the LORD your God. You said, “Pray to the LORD our God for us. Tell us everything he says. We’ll do it.”21I have told you today what the LORD your God wants you to do. But you still haven’t obeyed him. You haven’t done anything he sent me to tell you to do.22So here is something else you can be sure of. You will die of war, hunger and plague. You want to go and make your homes in Egypt. But you will die there.’
Jeremiah 42
English Standard Version
Warning Against Going to Egypt
1Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near (Jer 6:13; Jer 40:8; Jer 40:13; Jer 41:11; Jer 43:2)2and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— (Le 26:22; 1Sa 7:8; 1Sa 12:19; Isa 37:4; Jer 36:7; Jer 40:15; Jer 42:20)3that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” (Ezr 8:21; Jer 37:17)4Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you.” (Nu 22:18; 1Sa 3:18)5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. (Ge 31:50; Jud 11:10; Jer 42:21; Re 1:5; Re 3:14)6Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.” (Jer 7:23)7At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. (Eze 3:16)8Then he summoned Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, (Jer 42:1)9and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him: (Jer 42:2)10If you will 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 relent of the disaster that I did to you. (Ge 6:6; De 32:36; Jer 18:8; Jer 24:6)11Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. (Jer 22:25; Jer 30:10; Jer 41:18; Ro 8:31)12I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. (Ne 1:11)13But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God (Jer 43:4; Jer 44:16)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 we will dwell there,’ (Jer 4:19; Jer 37:21; Jer 41:17)15then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, (De 17:16; Jer 42:19; Jer 44:1; Jer 44:12; Jer 44:27)16then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. (Jer 42:22; Jer 44:12; Eze 11:8)17All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them. (La 2:22)18“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 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 execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. (Jer 7:20; Jer 18:16)19The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day (Jer 42:14; Jer 43:2; Eze 2:5)20that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’ (Jer 42:2; Jer 42:3)21And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. (Jer 42:5)22Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.” (Jer 42:16)