Old/New Testament
40 The Word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan, the chief steward, had let him go from Ramah when he had taken him, bound in chains, among all who were carried away captive from Jerusalem and Judah, and were carried away captive to Babel.
2 And the chief steward took Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God has pronounced this plague upon this place.
3 “Now the LORD has brought it and done as He has said. Because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed His Voice, therefore this thing has come upon you.
4 “And now, behold, I free you this day from the chains which were on your hands. If it pleases you to come with me to Babel, come. And I will look after you well. But if it pleases you not to come with me to Babel, stay here. Behold, all the land is before you. Wherever it seems good and convenient for you to go, go there.”
5 Still, Jeremiah did not return. Therefore, the chief steward said, “Return to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babel has made governor over all the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people. Or go wherever it pleases you to go.” So, the chief steward gave him rations and a reward and let him go.
6 Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah and dwelt there with him among the people who were left in the land.
7 Now when all the captains of the army who were in the fields, both they and their men, heard that the king of Babel had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, governor in the land, and that he had committed to him men and women and children and of the poor of the land who were not carried away captive to Babel,
8 then they came to Gedaliah, to Mizpah—Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, Johanan, Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of Maachathi—both they and their men.
9 And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, “Do not fear to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babel, and it shall be well with you.
10 “As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to serve the Chaldeans who will come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.”
11 Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babel had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,
12 then all the Jews returned from all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered much wine and summer fruits.
13 Moreover, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army who were in the fields, came to Gedaliah, to Mizpah,
14 and said to him, “Do you not know that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, to kill you?” But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, did not believe them.
15 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. And no one shall know it. Why should he kill you, so that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?”
16 But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, said to Johanan, the son of Kareah, “You shall not do this thing. For you speak falsely about Ishmael.”
41 But in the seventh month came Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed and the princes of the king, and ten men with him, to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah. And they ate bread together there, in Mizpah.
2 Then Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, arose with these ten men who were with him and struck Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him whom the king of Babel had made governor over the land.
3 Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and all the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.
4 Now, the second day after he had killed Gedaliah (though no one knew it),
5 80 men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, with their beards shaved and their clothes ripped and cut, with offerings and incense in their hands, to offer in the House of the LORD.
6 And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. And when he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam.”
7 And when they came into the midst of the city, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, killed them and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the men who were with him.
8 But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us. For we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he refrained, and did not kill them along with their brethren.
9 Now the pit in which Ishmael had cast the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed because of Gedaliah is the same one which Asa the king had made because of Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, filled it with those who were killed.
10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the chief steward, had committed to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, carried them away captive and departed to go over to the Ammonites.
11 But when Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had done,
12 then they all took men and went to fight with Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon.
13 Now, when all the people whom Ishmael carried away captive saw Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army who were with him, they were glad.
14 So, all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah, turned around and came back and went to Johanan, the son of Kareah.
15 But Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites.
16 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army who were with him, took the whole remnant of the people whom Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had carried away captive from Mizpah (after he had killed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam), the strong men of war and the women and the children and the eunuchs whom he had brought back from Gibeon.
17 And they departed and dwelt in Geruth, Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, on the way to Egypt,
18 because of the Chaldeans. For they feared them because Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had killed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babel made governor in the land.
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.”
4 Therefore, let us fear, lest at any time any of you should seem to have come short of the promise of entering into His rest.
2 For the Gospel was preached to us as well as them. But the word that they heard did not profit them, because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed have entered into rest, as He said, “As I have sworn in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter into My rest,’” However, the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested the seventh day from all His works.”
5 And in this place again, “If they shall enter into My rest.”
6 Therefore, seeing it remains that some must enter into it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter therein for unbelief’s sake,
7 again (after so long a time) He appointed through David a certain day - “Today” - by saying, “This day, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then would He not later have spoken of another day?
9 There remains, therefore, a rest to the people of God.
10 For the one who has entered into His rest has also ceased from his own works (as God did from His).
11 Therefore, let us study to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
12 For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, passing through even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.
13 Nor is there any creature unseen by Him. But all things are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.
14 Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest Who has entered into Heaven (Jesus, the Son of God), let us hold firmly to our confession.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all things tempted in the same way, yet without sin.
16 Therefore, let us go boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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