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¹ THEN all the officers of the forces and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah and all the people from the young to the old came near.² And said to Jeremiah, We beseech you, pray for us before the LORD your God, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us;³ That the LORD our God may show us the way by which we may go and the thing that we may do.⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold. I will pray before the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass that whatever the LORD shall answer you. I will declare it to you; I will hide nothing from you.⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, May the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us if we do not do according to the word with which the LORD your God shall send you to us.⁶ Whether it be good or whether it be bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you; that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

⁷ And it came to pass after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet.⁸ Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah and all the officers of the forces that were with him and all the people from the young to the old,⁹ And said to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:¹⁰ If you will dwell 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 will cease from the harm that I have done to you.¹¹ Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says the LORD, for I am with you to save you, says the LORD; and to deliver you from his hands.¹² And I will show mercy to you, that he may have mercy upon you and cause you to be settled in your own land.¹³ But if you say, We will not dwell in this land, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God,¹⁴ Saying, Not so; but we will go into the land of Egypt that we may not see war nor hear the sound of the trumpet nor have hunger for bread; and there will we dwell;¹⁵ And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, O 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 live there;¹⁶ Then it shall come to pass that the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.¹⁷ So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to enter into Egypt to live there; they shall die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.¹⁸ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my fury have been poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured out upon you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an execration and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.¹⁹ The LORD has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah: Do not go to Egypt; know certainly that I have warned you this very day.²⁰ For you have deceived yourselves when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us before the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God shall say to you declare to us and we will do it.²¹ And this day I have declared to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God; anything for which he has sent me to you, you have not done.²² Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.