[1] Then all the commanders of the forces, and Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah
and Azari'ah the son of Hoshai'ah, and all the people from the least to the
greatest, came near [2] and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Let our
supplication come before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all
this remnant (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us), [3]
that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that
we should do." [4] Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you;
behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your request, and
whatever the LORD answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back
from you." [5] Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and
faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with
which the LORD your God sends you to us. [6] Whether it is good or evil, we
will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it
may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God." [7] At the
end of ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. [8] Then he summoned
Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the commanders of the forces who were
with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, [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 remain in this land,
then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not
pluck you up; for I repent of the evil which I did to you. [11] Do not fear
the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not fear him, says the
LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. [12]
I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in
your own land. [13] But if you say, `We will not remain in this land,'
disobeying the voice of the LORD your God [14] and saying, `No, we will go
to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the
trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,' [15] then 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 Egypt and go to live there,
[16] then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of
Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard after you
to Egypt; and there you shall die. [17] All the men who set their faces to
go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by
pestilence; they shall have no remnant or survivor from the evil which I
will bring upon them. [18] "For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You
shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see
this place no more. [19] The LORD has said to you, O remnant of Judah, `Do
not go to Egypt.' Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day [20]
that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. 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 to us and we will do it.' [21] And I have this
day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your
God in anything that he sent me to tell you. [22] Now therefore know for a
certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in
the place where you desire to go to live."
