Read the Bible

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 you, our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us:³ that Yahweh your God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do.⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; look, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass that whatever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we do not do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.⁶ Whether it is good, or whether it is evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.

⁷ And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.⁸ Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,⁹ and said to them, This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:¹⁰ If you 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 repent of the evil that I have done to you.¹¹ Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid of him, says Yahweh: 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 on you, and he will let you return to your own land.¹³ But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you do not obey the voice of Yahweh 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 there we will dwell:¹⁵ now therefore hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn 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, whereof you are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.¹⁷ So it shall be with all the men that 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 on them.¹⁸ For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on 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 Yahweh has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Don't go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you this day.²⁰ For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:²¹ and I have this day declared it to you; but you haven't obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.²² Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to sojourn there.