Beginning

42 Then all the captains of the army, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah, the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the most, came

² and said to Jeremiah the Prophet, "Please hear our prayer! And pray for us to the LORD your God for all this remnant (for we remain, a few of many, as your eyes do behold),

³ so that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we may walk, and the thing that we may do!”

⁴ Then, Jeremiah the Prophet said to them, “I have heard! Behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words. And whatever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, “The LORD be a Witness of truth and faith between us if we do not do according to all the things which the LORD your God shall send us by you.

⁶ Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the Voice of the LORD God to Whom we send you, so that it may be well with us when we obey the Voice of the LORD our God.”

⁷ And so, after ten days, the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

⁸ And he called Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army who were with him, and all the people from the least to the most,

⁹ and said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, to Whom you sent me to present your prayers before Him:

¹⁰ ‘If you will dwell in this land, then I will build you and not destroy. And I will plant you and not root you out. For I relent concerning the misery that I have brought upon you.

¹¹ ‘Do not fear the king of Babel, of whom you are afraid. Do not be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘For I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand,

¹² ‘And I will grant you mercy, so that he may have compassion upon you. And he shall cause you to dwell in your own land.

¹³ ‘But if you say, “We will neither dwell in this land nor hear the Voice of the LORD your God,”

¹⁴ ‘saying, “No. But we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war nor hear the sound of the trumpet nor have hunger for bread. And there will we dwell,”

¹⁵ ‘now therefore hear the Word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “If you set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to dwell there,

¹⁶ ‘then the sword that you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt. And the famine about which you worry shall hang upon you there in Egypt. And there you shall die.

¹⁷ ‘And all the men who set their faces to enter into Egypt, to dwell there, shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the plague that I will bring upon them.’

¹⁸ “For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My wrath have been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall My wrath be poured forth upon you when you shall enter into Egypt. And you shall be a detestation and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach. And you shall see this place no more.’

¹⁹ “O, you remnant of Judah! The LORD has said concerning you: ‘Do not go into Egypt!’ Know for certain that I have admonished you this day.

²⁰ “Surely you erred in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and declare to us all that the LORD our God shall say, and we will do it.’

²¹ “For I have declared it you this day, but you have not obeyed the Voice of the LORD your God, nor anything for which He has sent me to you.

²² “Now, therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go and dwell.”

43 Now when Jeremiah had ended speaking all the Words of the LORD their God to all the people for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these Words,

² then spoke Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go into Egypt to dwell there.’

³ “But Baruch, the son of Neriah, incites you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, so that they might kill us and carry us away captives into Babel.”

⁴ So Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army, and all the people did not obey the Voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah.

⁵ But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army took all the remnant of Judah who had returned from all nations to which they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah:

⁶ men and women, children, the king’s daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan, the chief steward, had left with Gedaliah (the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan), Jeremiah the Prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah.

⁷ So they came into the land of Egypt. For they did not obey the Voice of the LORD. Thus they came to Tahpanhes.

⁸ Then the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,

⁹ “Take great stones in your hand and hide them in the clay, in the brick kiln which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, 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 bring Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babel, My servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hidden. And he shall spread his pavilion over them.

¹¹ “And when he shall come, he shall strike the land of Egypt — those who are appointed for death, to death; and those who are for captivity, to captivity; and those who are for the sword, to the sword.

¹² “And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt. And he shall burn them and carry them away captives. And he shall clothe himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment, and shall depart from there in peace.

¹³ “He shall also break the images of Beth Shemesh, which is in the land of Egypt. And he shall burn the houses of the gods of the Egyptians with fire.”

44 The Word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt and remained at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

² “Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You have seen all the misery that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah. And behold, this day they are desolate, and no one dwells in it,

³ ‘because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense to serve other gods whom they did not know, neither they nor you nor your fathers.

⁴ ‘However, I sent all my servants, the Prophets, to you, rising early and sending, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!”

⁵ ‘But they would not hear or incline their ear, to turn from their wickedness and to no longer burn incense to other gods.

⁶ ‘Therefore, My wrath and My anger was poured forth, and was kindled, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they were desolate and wasted, as they are this day.

⁷ “Therefore, now, thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Why do you commit great evil against yourselves—to cut off man and woman from you, child and infant from out of Judah, leaving no one remaining—

⁸ in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, so that you might bring destruction to yourselves, and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all nations of the Earth?

⁹ ‘Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰ ‘They are not humbled to this day, nor have they feared or walked in My Law or in My Statutes, which I set before you and before your fathers.’

¹¹ “Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will set My Face against you to misery, and to destroy all Judah.

¹² ‘And I will take the remnant of Judah that has set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell. And they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They shall die, from the least to the most, by the sword, and by the famine. And they shall be a detestation and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach.

¹³ ‘For I will visit those who dwell in the land of Egypt as I have visited Jerusalem—by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence—

¹⁴ ‘so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they should return to the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return, to dwell there. For no one shall return but those who shall escape.’”

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives had burnt incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by (a great multitude), all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

¹⁶ “The Word that you have spoken to us in the Name of the LORD, we will not hear it from you.

¹⁷ “But we will do whatever thing goes out of our own mouth—to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, both we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—for then we had plenty of rations and were well and felt no misery.

¹⁸ “But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had scarceness of all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”

¹⁹ And the women said, “And when we burnt incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to make her glad and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands?”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and to the women and to all the people who had given him that answer, saying,

²¹ “Did not the LORD remember the incense that you burnt in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land? And has He not considered it?

²² “So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the wickedness of your inventions, because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore, your land was desolate and an astonishment and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

²³ “Because you have burnt incense, and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the Voice of the LORD, nor walked in His Law, nor in His Statutes, nor in His Testimonies, therefore this plague has come upon you, as it is this day.”

²⁴ Moreover, Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, “Hear the Word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt!

²⁵ “Thus speaks the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, ‘You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, “We will perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.” You will perform your vows and do the things that you have vowed.’

²⁶ “Therefore, hear the Word of the LORD, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great Name,’ says the LORD, ‘that My Name shall no longer be called upon by the mouth of any man of Judah, in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The LORD God lives.”

²⁷ ‘Behold, I will watch over them for misery, and not for prosperity. And all men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword, and by the famine, until they are utterly destroyed.

²⁸ ‘Still, a small number who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt, into the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall know Whose Words shall stand, Mine or theirs.

²⁹ ‘And this shall be a sign to you,’ says the LORD, ‘when I visit you in this place, so that you may know that My Words shall surely stand against you for misery.’

³⁰ “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, his enemy, who also sought his life.’”

45 The Word that Jeremiah the Prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he had written these Words from the mouth of Jeremiah in a Book, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

² “Thus says the LORD God of Israel to you, O Baruch:

³ ‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the LORD has laid sorrow to my sorrow. I fainted in my mourning, and I can find no rest.”’

⁴ “Thus shall you say to him, ‘The LORD says this: “Behold, that which I have built, I will destroy. And that which I have planted, will I pluck up, even this whole land.

⁵ “And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For behold, I will bring a plague upon all flesh,” says the LORD, “but I will give you your life as a prize in all places where you go.”’”