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Warning against Going to Egypt

¹ Then all the commanders of the forces, and ^(C1)Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah (Azariah) the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people ^(C2)from the least to the greatest approached² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our ^(C1)petition be presented before you, and ^(C2)pray to the LORD your God for us, that is, for all this remnant of the people of Judah; for we were once many, but now only a ^(C3)few of us are left, as you see with your own eyes, so please pray³ that the LORD your God may show us the ^(C1)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. Now hear me, I will ^(C1)pray to the LORD your God in accordance with your words; and I will declare to you whatever message the ^(C2)LORD answers; I will ^(C3)keep nothing back from you."⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the ^(C1)LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to act in accordance with all the things that the LORD your God sends you to tell us.⁶ "Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will ^(C1)listen to and honor the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go ^(C2)well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."

⁷ Now ^(C1)after ten days of prayer had passed the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.⁸ Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest,⁹ and said to them, "Thus ^(C1)says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:¹⁰ 'If you will indeed remain in this land, then I will ^(C1)build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will ^(C2)relent and be satisfied concerning the disaster that I have inflicted on you as discipline, and I will replace judgment with compassion. ^(VR1)11 '^(C1)Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear as if he were deity; do not be afraid of him,' says the LORD, 'for he is a mere man, but I am the living, omniscient God and ^(C2)I am with you always to protect you and to deliver you from his hand.¹² 'And I will show you compassion, so that ^(C1)he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own land.¹³ 'But if you are going to say, "We will ^(C1)not stay in this land," and in so doing do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God,¹⁴ saying, "No, but we will ^(C1)go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or ^(C2)hear the sound of the warrior's trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there,"¹⁵ then in that case listen to the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "If you are really determined to go to ^(C1)Egypt and to reside there temporarily,¹⁶ then the ^(C1)sword, of which you are afraid, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid will follow closely after you in Egypt, and you will die there.¹⁷ "So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there temporarily will die by the ^(C1)sword, by famine and by virulent disease; ^(C2)none of them will remain or survive the disaster that I am going to bring on them."'"

¹⁸ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "As My ^(C1)anger and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will become ^(C2)detested, an object of horror, a curse and a people scorned; and ^(C3)you will no longer see this place."¹⁹ The LORD has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, "Do not ^(C1)go into Egypt!" ^(C2)Know with certainty that I Jeremiah have warned you and ^(C3)testified to you this day²⁰ that you have ^(C1)deceived yourselves; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, declare it to us and we will do it."²¹ And so I have ^(C1)told you today, but you have ^(C2)not listened to the voice of the LORD your God, in anything that He has sent me to tell you.²² Now therefore know for certain that you will ^(C1)die by the sword, by famine, and by virulent disease in the ^(C2)land of Egypt where you wish to reside temporarily.