Jeremiah Advises Survivors Not to Migrate

42 Then all the commanders of the forces, and Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and Azari′ah^[a] the son of Hoshai′ah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near ² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our supplication come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us), ³ that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” ⁴ Jeremiah 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.” ⁵ Then 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. ⁶ Whether it is good or evil, 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.”

⁷ At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. ⁸ Then he summoned Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, ⁹ and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him: ¹⁰ If 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 repent of the evil which I did to you. ¹¹ Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not fear him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. ¹² I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. ¹³ But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God ¹⁴ and 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,’ ¹⁵ then 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, ¹⁶ then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard after you to Egypt; and there you shall die. ¹⁷ All 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 evil which I will bring upon them.

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. ¹⁹ The 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 ²⁰ that 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.’ ²¹ And 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. ²² Now 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.”

Taken to Egypt, Jeremiah Warns of Judgment

43 When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord their God had sent him to them, ² Azari′ah the son of Hoshai′ah and Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there’; ³ but Baruch the son of Neri′ah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chalde′ans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.” ⁴ So Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord, to remain in the land of Judah. ⁵ But Joha′nan the son of Kare′ah and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven— ⁶ the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every person whom Nebu′zarad′an the captain of the guard had left with Gedali′ah the son of Ahi′kam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neri′ah. ⁷ And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they arrived at Tah′panhes.

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tah′panhes: ⁹ “Take in your hands large stones, and hide them in the mortar in the pavement which is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tah′panhes, in the sight of the men of Judah, ¹⁰ and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrez′zar the king of Babylon, my servant, and he^[a] will set his throne above these stones which I have hid, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. ¹¹ He shall come and smite the land of Egypt, giving to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword. ¹² He^[b] shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them and carry them away captive; and he shall clean the land of Egypt, as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin; and he shall go away from there in peace. ¹³ He shall break the obelisks of Heliop′olis which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.’”