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Then all the commanders of the forces, ^(C1)Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people ^(C2)from the small to the great approached

and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our ^(C1)pleading ^(F1)come before you, and ^(C2)pray for us to the LORD your God for all this remnant—since we have been left only a ^(C3)few out of many, just as your own eyes now see us—

that the LORD your God will tell us the ^(C1)way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do."

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Behold, I am going to ^(C1)pray to the LORD your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole ^(F1)message which the ^(C2)LORD gives you as an answer. I will ^(C3)not withhold a word from you."

Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the ^(C1)LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole ^(F1)message with which the LORD your God will send you to us.

"Whether it is ^(F1)pleasant or ^(F2)unpleasant, we will ^(C1)listen to the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go ^(C2)well for us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."

Now at the ^(C1)end of ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him, and for all the people from the small to the great,

and said to them, "This is what the LORD ^(C1)says, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before Him:

'If you will indeed stay 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 ^(F1)will ^(C2)relent of the disaster that I have inflicted on you.

'^(C1)Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,' declares the LORD, 'for ^(C2)I am with you to save you and rescue you from his hand.

'I will also show you compassion, so that ^(C1)he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil.

'But if you are going to say, "We will ^(C1)not stay in this land," so as not to listen to the voice of the LORD your God,

saying, "No, but we will ^(C1)go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, or ^(C2)hear the sound of a trumpet, or hunger for bread, and we will stay there";

then ^(F1)in that case listen to the word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "If you really set your ^(F2)minds to enter ^(C1)Egypt and go in to reside there,

then the ^(C1)sword, of which you are afraid, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there.

"So all the people who set their ^(F1)minds to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the ^(C1)sword, by famine, or by plague; and they will ^(C2)have no refugees or survivors from the disaster that I am going to bring on them."'"

For this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "As My ^(C1)anger and wrath have gushed out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will gush out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a ^(C2)curse, an object of horror, ^(F1)an imprecation, and a disgrace; and ^(C3)you will not see this place again."

The LORD has spoken to you, you remnant of Judah, "Do not ^(C1)go to Egypt!" You ^(C2)know for certain that I have ^(C3)admonished you today.

For you have only ^(F1)(C1)deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it."

So I have ^(C1)told you today, but you have ^(C2)not ^(F1)obeyed the LORD your God in whatever He has sent me to tell you.

And now you shall know for certain that you will ^(C1)die by the sword, by famine, or by plague in the ^(C2)place where you desire to go to reside.

But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent to them, had ^(C1)finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—that is, all these words—

Azariah the ^(C1)son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, "You are ^(C2)telling a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'You are not to enter Egypt to reside there';

but ^(C1)Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us in order to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon!"

So ^(C1)Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces, and all the people, ^(C2)did not obey the voice of the LORD to ^(C3)stay in the land of Judah.

Instead, Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took the ^(C1)entire remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been scattered, in order to reside in the land of Judah—

the men, the women, the ^(F1)children, the ^(C1)king's daughters, and ^(C2)every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam ^(F2)and grandson of Shaphan, together with ^(C3)Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah—

and they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not obey the voice of the LORD) and went in as far as ^(C1)Tahpanhes.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in ^(C1)Tahpanhes, saying,

"Take some large stones in your ^(F1)hands and hide them in the ^(F2)mortar in the brick terrace which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's ^(F3)palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of ^(F4)some of the Jews;

and say to them, 'This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "Behold, I am going to send men and get ^(C1)My servant ^(C2)Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and I am going to set his throne over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his ^(F1)(C3)canopy over them.

"He will also come and ^(C1)strike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and ^(C2)those for the sword to the sword.

"And ^(F1)I shall set fire to the temples of the ^(C1)gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. So he will ^(F2)(C2)wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd ^(F3)wraps himself with his garment, and he will depart from there safely.

"He will also smash to pieces the ^(F1)obelisks of ^(F2)Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire."'"

The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in ^(C1)Migdol, ^(C2)Tahpanhes, ^(C3)Memphis, and the land of ^(C4)Pathros, saying,

"This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: 'You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ^(C1)ruins and no one lives in them,

^(C1)because of their wickedness which they committed to ^(C2)provoke Me to anger by continuing to ^(C3)burn ^(F1)sacrifices and to ^(C4)serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers.

'Yet I ^(C1)sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying, "Oh, do not do this ^(C2)abominable thing which I hate."

'But ^(C1)they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn ^(F1)sacrifices to other gods.

'Therefore My ^(C1)wrath and My anger gushed out and burned in the ^(C2)cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become ruins and a ^(C3)desolation as it is this day.

'Now then, this is what the LORD God of armies, the God of Israel says: "Why are you ^(C1)doing great harm to yourselves, to ^(C2)eliminate from yourselves man and woman, child and infant from among Judah, leaving yourselves without a remnant,

^(C1)provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, ^(C2)burning ^(F1)sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt where you are entering to reside, so that you may be eliminated and become a ^(C3)curse and a disgrace among all the nations of the earth?

"Have you forgotten the ^(C1)wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah and the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

"Yet they ^(C1)have not become ^(F1)contrite even to this day, nor have they feared, nor ^(C2)walked in My Law or My statutes, which I placed before you and before your fathers."'

"Therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: 'Behold, I am going to ^(C1)set My face against you for a disaster, even to eliminate all Judah.

'And I will ^(C1)take away the remnant of Judah who have set their ^(F1)minds on entering the land of Egypt to reside there, and they will all ^(F2)(C2)meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword or meet their end by famine. From the small to the great, they will die by the sword and famine; and they will become a ^(C3)curse, an object of horror, ^(F3)an imprecation, and a disgrace.

'And I will ^(C1)punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with plague.

'So there will be ^(C1)no survivor or refugee for the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to reside there and then to return to the land of Judah, to which they are ^(F1)(C2)longing to return to live; for none will ^(C3)return except a few refugees.'"

Then ^(C1)all the men who were aware that their wives were burning ^(F1)sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, ^(F2)including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,

"As for the ^(F1)(C1)message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, ^(C2)we are not going to listen to you!

"But we will certainly ^(C1)carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, ^(F1)by burning ^(F2)sacrifices to the ^(C2)queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as ^(C3)we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had ^(C4)plenty of ^(F3)food and were well off and saw no ^(F4)misfortune.

"But since we stopped burning ^(F1)sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have ^(C1)lacked everything, and have met our end by the sword and by famine."

"And," said the women, "when we were ^(C1)burning ^(F1)sacrifices to the queen of heaven and ^(F2)pouring out drink offerings to her, was it ^(C2)without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes ^(F3)in her image, and poured out drink offerings to her?"

Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and women—even to all the people who were giving him such an answer—saying,

"As for the ^(F1)(C1)smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the ^(C2)streets of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, did the LORD not ^(C3)remember them, and did all of this not come into His ^(F2)mind?

"So the LORD was ^(C1)no longer able to endure it, ^(C2)because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have committed; so your land has become a ^(C3)place of ruins, an object of horror, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day.

"Since you have burned ^(F1)sacrifices and have sinned against the LORD and ^(C1)not obeyed the voice of the LORD nor ^(C2)walked in His Law, His statutes, or His testimonies, therefore this ^(C3)disaster has happened to you, as it has this day."

Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, "^(C1)Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are ^(C2)in the land of Egypt!

"This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel ^(F1)says: 'As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands, saying, "We will ^(C1)certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn ^(F2)sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her." ^(C2)By all means fulfill your vows, and be sure to perform your vows!'

"^(F1)In return, hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt: 'Behold, I have ^(C1)sworn by My great name,' says the LORD, 'that My name shall ^(C2)never be invoked again by the mouth of anyone of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "^(C3)As the Lord ^(F2)GOD lives."

'Behold, I am watching over them ^(C1)for harm and not for good, and ^(C2)all the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will ^(F1)meet their end by the sword or by famine until they ^(F2)are completely gone.

'^(C1)Those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah ^(F1)(C2)few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to reside there will know ^(C3)whose word will stand, Mine or theirs.

'And this will be the ^(C1)sign to you,' declares the LORD, 'that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that ^(C2)My words will assuredly stand against you for harm.'

"This is what the LORD says: 'Behold, I am going to hand ^(C1)Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt over to his enemies, to those who seek his life, just as I handed ^(C2)Zedekiah king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his life.'"

This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to ^(C1)Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had ^(C2)written these words in a book ^(F1)at Jeremiah's dictation, in the ^(C3)fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying:

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says to you, Baruch:

'You said, "Oh, woe to me! For the LORD has added grief to my pain; I am ^(C1)weary with my groaning and have found no rest."'

"This is what you are to say to him: 'This is what the LORD says: "Behold, ^(C1)what I have built I am going to tear down, and what I have planted I am going to uproot, that is, all the people of the land."

'But as for you, are you ^(C1)seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I am going to ^(C2)bring disaster on all flesh,' declares the LORD, 'but I will ^(C3)give your life to you as plunder in all the places where you may go.'"