Jeremiah 42
Lexham English Bible
The Remnant Asks Jeremiah to Pray to Yahweh for Direction
42 Then all the commanders of the armies, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest, approached 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “May our plea please fall before you,[a] and pray for us to Yahweh your God, for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes are seeing us. 3 And let Yahweh your God inform us the way in which we should go and the thing that we should do.” 4 And Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Look, I am going to pray to Yahweh your God according to your words, and then[b] all the words[c] that Yahweh answers you I will tell you; I will not withhold from you a word.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be against us as a true and faithful witness[d] if we do not do according to all the words[e] that Yahweh sends you for us. 6 Whether good or bad, we will listen to the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of Yahweh our God.”
The Remnant Rejects the Word of Yahweh
7 And then[f] at the end of ten days the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. 8 And he summoned Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to cause your plea to fall before him:[g] 10 ‘If only you will stay in this land, then I will build you and I will not tear you down, and I will plant you and I will not pluck you up, for I relent of the disaster that I have brought to you. 11 You must not be afraid of[h] the king of Babylon whom you are afraid of.[i] You must not be afraid of him,’ declares[j] Yahweh, ‘for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and will restore you to your soil.
13 But if you are saying, “We will not stay in this land,” so as to not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, 14 saying, “No, for we will go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war, and we will not hear the sound of a horn, and we will not be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,” 15 then therefore[k] hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “If you are determined[l] to go to Egypt, and you go to dwell as aliens there, 16 then it will be that the sword that you are in fear of will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you are anxious of will pursue after you there into Egypt, and there you will die. 17 So all the people who are determined[m] to go to Egypt to dwell as aliens there will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, and there will not be for them an escapee or a survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.” 18 For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will pour out on you at your going to Egypt, and you will become a curse, and a horror, and a curse formula, and a disgrace, and you will no longer see this place.”’
19 Yahweh has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘You must not go to Egypt.’ You must certainly know that I have warned you today[n] 20 that you have made a fatal mistake,[o] for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying,[p] ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God, and all that Yahweh our God says, so tell us and we will do it.’[q] 21 So I have told you today,[r] and you have not listened to the voice of Yahweh your God, or of anything[s] that he sent me for you. 22 Now then, certainly you must know that by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague you will die in the place where you desire to go, to dwell as aliens there.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 42:2 Literally “to the face of you”
- Jeremiah 42:4 Literally “and it will happen”
- Jeremiah 42:4 Hebrew “word”
- Jeremiah 42:5 Literally “a witness of faithfulness and trustworthy”
- Jeremiah 42:5 Hebrew “word”
- Jeremiah 42:7 Literally “And it was”
- Jeremiah 42:9 Literally “to the face of him”
- Jeremiah 42:11 Literally “from the face of”
- Jeremiah 42:11 Literally “in fear from the presence of him”
- Jeremiah 42:11 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 42:15 Literally “to thus”
- Jeremiah 42:15 Literally “If you indeed set your face”
- Jeremiah 42:17 Literally “have set their faces”
- Jeremiah 42:19 Literally “the day”
- Jeremiah 42:20 Literally “you have caused them to err for your lives”
- Jeremiah 42:20 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 42:20 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 42:21 Literally “the day”
- Jeremiah 42:21 Literally “all”
Jeremiah 42
International Standard Version
Jeremiah Asked to Pray for the People
42 Then all the military leaders, Kareah’s son Jonathan, Hoshaiah’s son Jezaniah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached Jeremiah.[a] 2 They told Jeremiah the prophet, “Please listen to what we have to ask of you. Pray to the Lord your God for us and for all these survivors. Indeed, only a few of us remain out of many, as you can see.[b] 3 Pray that the Lord your God may inform us as to how we should live[c] and what we should do.”
4 Jeremiah the prophet told them, “I’ve heard, and I’m going to pray to the Lord your God just as you have requested. Whatever the Lord answers, I’ll tell you. I won’t withhold anything from you.”
5 Then they told Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t do everything that the Lord your God tells us through you.[d] 6 Whether it seems good or bad, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we send you, so it may go well for us. Indeed, we will obey the Lord our God.”
The Lord’s Answer through Jeremiah
7 At the end of ten days a message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 So he called Kareah’s son Jonathan, all the military leaders who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest. 9 He told them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, to whom you sent me to take your request:
10 ‘If you will just remain in this land, I’ll build you up and not pull you down. I’ll plant you and not uproot you, for I’m sorry about the disaster I’ve brought on you. 11 Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon as you have been.[e] Don’t fear him,’ declares the Lord, ‘because I am with you to save you and deliver you from his control. 12 I’ll show you compassion, so he will have compassion on you and return you to your land. 13 But if you disobey the Lord your God by saying, “We won’t stay in this land,” 14 and you also say, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we won’t see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or hunger for bread, and there we will stay,” 15 then hear this message from the Lord, remnant of Judah: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “If you are really determined[f] to go into Egypt, and you go there to settle, 16 the sword that you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt. The famine that you dread will pursue you into Egypt, and there you will die. 17 All the people who are determined to go into Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, by famine, and by the plague. No one will survive the disaster that I’ll bring on them.” 18 For this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘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 enter Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, ridicule, and scorn, and you will never again see this place.’ 19 The Lord has told you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go to Egypt!’ So be fully aware that I’ve warned you, today, 20 that you have deceived yourselves. Indeed, you yourselves sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray to the Lord your God for us, and whatever the Lord our God tells us we will do.’ 21 I’ve told you today, but you haven’t obeyed the Lord your God in all that he sent me to tell[g] you. 22 Now, be fully aware that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague in the place where you want to settle.”[h]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 42:1 The Heb. lacks Jeremiah
- Jeremiah 42:2 Lit. as your eyes see us
- Jeremiah 42:3 Lit. way we should walk
- Jeremiah 42:5 Lit. sends to you for us
- Jeremiah 42:11 Lit. whom you fear
- Jeremiah 42:15 Lit. really set your faces
- Jeremiah 42:21 The Heb. lacks tell
- Jeremiah 42:22 Lit. to go to settle
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