Jeremiah

Then all the army officers, with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the rest of the people, great and small, approached

the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Grant our plea, and pray for us to the ETERNAL your God, for all this remnant! For we remain but a few out of many, as you can see.

Let the ETERNAL your God tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed: I will pray to the ETERNAL your God as you request, and I will tell you whatever response GOD gives for you. I will withhold nothing from you.”

Thereupon they said to Jeremiah, “Let GOD be a true and faithful witness against us! We swear that we will do exactly as the ETERNAL your God instructs us through you—

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the ETERNAL our God to whom we send you, in order that it may go well with us when we obey the ETERNAL our God.”

After ten days, the word of GOD came to Jeremiah.

He called Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers, and the rest of the people, great and small,

and said to them, “Thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication:

If you remain in this land, I will build you and not overthrow, I will plant you and not uproot; for I regret the punishment I have brought upon you.

Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear; do not be afraid of him—declares GOD—for I am with you to save you and to rescue you from his hands.

I will dispose him to be merciful to you: he shall show you mercy and bring you back toabring you back to Change of vocalization yields “let you dwell in.” your own land.

“But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land’—thus disobeying the ETERNAL your God—

if you say, ‘No! We will go to the land of Egypt, so that we may not see war or hear the sound of the horn, and so that we may not hunger for bread; there we will stay,’

then hear the word of GOD, O remnant of Judah! Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: If you turn your faces toward Egypt, and you go and sojourn there,

the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt, and the famine you worry over shall follow at your heels in Egypt too; and there you shall die.

All those who turn their faces toward Egypt, in order to sojourn there, shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no surviving remnant of the disaster that I will bring upon them.

For thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: As My anger and wrath were poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration of woe, a curseban execration of woe, a curse I.e., a standard by which people execrate and curse; cf. note at 24.9. and a mockery; and you shall never again see this place.

GOD has spoken against you, O remnant of Judah! Do not go to Egypt! Know well, then—for I warn you this day

that you were deceitful at heart when you sent me to the ETERNAL your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the ETERNAL our God; and whatever the ETERNAL our God may say, just tell us and we will do it.’

I told you today, and you have not obeyed the ETERNAL your God in respect to all that I was sent to tell you—

know well, then, that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you want to go and sojourn.”