Jer 42

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 YHWH your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do behold us: 3 that YHWH 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; behold, I will pray to YHWH your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass that whatever thing YHWH shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you. 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, YHWH be a true and faithful witness amongst us, if we do not according to all the word wherewith YHWH your God shall send you to us. 6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of YHWH our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of YHWH our God. 7 And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah. 8 Then called he 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, Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him: 10 If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me of the evil 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 YHWH: 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 upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. 13 But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you obey not the voice of YHWH 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 will we dwell: 15 now therefore hear you the word of YHWH, O remnant of Judah: Thus says YHWH 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 shall it 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 upon them. 18 For thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel: As mine anger and my anger has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my anger be poured forth 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 YHWH has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go you not 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 YHWH your God, saying, Pray for us to YHWH our God; and according to all that YHWH 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 have not obeyed the voice of YHWH 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.