Jeremiah 42

The Remnant Asks Jeremiah to Pray

1Then all the commanders of the armies, Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our plea fall before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this remnant. For we are left only a few from many, as your eyes see us. 3May the LORD your God tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.” 4Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Look, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and whatever word the LORD answers you, I will tell you. I will not hold back a word from you.” 5They said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to every word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6Whether good or bad, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may be well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God.”

After Ten Days the Word Comes

7At the end of ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. 8Then he called Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, 9and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to make your plea fall before him: 10If you will truly remain in this land, then I will build you and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I relent concerning the disaster that I have done to you. 11Do not fear the king of Babylon, whom you fear. Do not fear him,” says the LORD, “for I am with you to save you and to rescue you from his hand. 12I will give you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and cause you to return to your own soil.

Do Not Go to Egypt

13“But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ so that you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, 14saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for bread, and there we will live,’ 15then now hear the word of the LORD, 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 as resident aliens, 16then the sword that you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you dread will cling to you there in Egypt, and there you will die. 17So it will be with all the people who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there as resident aliens: they will die by sword, famine, and plague. None of them will remain or escape from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.

You Have Misled Yourselves

18“For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my anger and fury were poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my fury will be poured out upon you when you enter Egypt. You will become a curse, a horror, a malediction, and a reproach, and you will see this place no more. 19The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: Do not go to Egypt. Know certainly that I have testified against you today. 20For you have misled yourselves 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 according to all that the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.’ 21I have told you today, but you have not listened to the voice of the LORD your God in anything with which he sent me to you. 22Now therefore know certainly that you will die by sword, famine, and plague in the place where you desire to go to live as resident aliens.”