Jeremiah 42:7-18

Common English Bible

⁷ Ten days later Jeremiah received the Lord’s word. ⁸ So he called Johanan, Kareah’s son, and all the army officers with him and the rest of the people, from the least to the greatest, ⁹ and he said to them: You have sent me to present your plea to the Lord, and this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ¹⁰ If you live in this land, I will build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not dig you up because I grieve over the disaster I have brought upon you. ¹¹ You don’t have to be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. You don’t have to be afraid of him anymore, declares the Lord, for I will be with you to save you and rescue you from his hand. ¹² I will be merciful to you, and he will be merciful and return you to your land.

¹³ But if you say, “We won’t live in this land,” you will disobey the Lord your God. ¹⁴ And if you insist, “No, we’re going to live in Egypt, where there’s no war, battle alarms, or hunger, and there we will stay,” ¹⁵ then listen to the Lord’s word, you remaining Judeans. The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: If you are determined to go to Egypt and you then go and live there, ¹⁶ then the war you fear will seize you in the land of Egypt; and the famine you dread will hunt you down in Egypt, and there you will die. ¹⁷ Every one of you who is determined to go and live in Egypt will die by the sword, famine, and disease. No one will escape the disaster that I will bring upon them there.

¹⁸ The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Just as my fierce anger was poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so it will be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing, scorn, shock, and disgrace. And you will never see this place again.