Jeremiah 42

1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,

2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray thee, our supplication be presented before thee, and pray for us to Jehovah thy God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us,

3 that Jehovah thy God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do.

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to Jehovah your God according to your words, and it shall come to pass that whatever thing Jehovah shall answer you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, Jehovah be a true and faithful witness amongst us, if we do not according to all the word with which Jehovah thy God shall send thee to us.

6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send thee, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of Jehovah our God.

7 And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah.

8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

9 and said to them, Thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel, to whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him:

10 If ye will still abide in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up, for I relent of the evil that I have done to you.

11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid. Be not afraid of him, says Jehovah, for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

12 And I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

13 But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, so that ye do not obey the voice of Jehovah 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 of bread, and we will dwell there-

15 Now therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah. Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: If ye indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there,

16 then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, of which ye are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt, and there ye shall die.

17 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there. They shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.

18 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth upon you when ye shall enter into Egypt. And ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. And ye shall see this place no more.

19 Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go ye not into Egypt. Know certainly that I have testified to you this day.

20 For ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls. For ye sent me to Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us to Jehovah our God, and according to all that Jehovah our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it.

21 And I have this day declared it to you. But ye have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.

22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where ye desire to go to sojourn there.