Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
v1
Then all the commanders of the armies, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest, approached
v2
and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “May our plea please fall before you, ^[Literally “to the face of you”] and pray for us to Yahweh your God, for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes are seeing us.
v3
And let Yahweh your God inform us the way in which we should go and the thing that we should do.”
v4
And Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Look, I am going to pray to Yahweh your God according to your words, and then ^[Literally “and it will happen”] all the words ^[Hebrew “word”] that Yahweh answers you I will tell you; I will not withhold from you a word.”
v5
Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be against us as a true and faithful witness ^[Literally “a witness of faithfulness and trustworthy”] if we do not do according to all the words ^[Hebrew “word”] that Yahweh sends you for us.
v6
Whether good or bad, we will listen to the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of Yahweh our God.”
v7
And then ^[Literally “And it was”] at the end of ten days the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.
v8
And he summoned Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest,
v9
and said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to cause your plea to fall before him: ^[Literally “to the face of him”]
v10
‘If only you will stay in this land, then I will build you and I will not tear you down, and I will plant you and I will not pluck you up, for I relent of the disaster that I have brought to you.
v11
You must not be afraid of ^[Literally “from the face of”] the king of Babylon whom you are afraid of. ^[Literally “in fear from the presence of him”] You must not be afraid of him,’ declares ^[Literally “a declaration of”] Yahweh, ‘for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
v12
And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and will restore you to your soil.
v13
But if you are saying, “We will not stay in this land,” so as to not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God,
v14
saying, “No, for we will go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war, and we will not hear the sound of a horn, and we will not be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,“
v15
then therefore ^[Literally “to thus”] hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “If you are determined ^[Literally “If you indeed set your face”] to go to Egypt, and you go to dwell as aliens there,
v16
then it will be that the sword that you are in fear of will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you are anxious of will pursue after you there into Egypt, and there you will die.
v17
So all the people who are determined ^[Literally “have set their faces”] to go to Egypt to dwell as aliens there will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, and there will not be for them an escapee or a survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.”
v18
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will pour out on you at your going to Egypt, and you will become a curse, and a horror, and a curse formula, and a disgrace, and you will no longer see this place.“‘
v19
Yahweh has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘You must not go to Egypt.’ You must certainly know that I have warned you today ^[Literally “the day”]
v20
that you have made a fatal mistake, ^[Literally “you have caused them to err for your lives”] for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, ^[Literally “to say”] ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God, and all that Yahweh our God says, so tell us and we will do it.’ ^[Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation]
v21
So I have told you today, ^[Literally “the day”] and you have not listened to the voice of Yahweh your God, or of anything ^[Literally “all”] that he sent me for you.
v22
Now then, certainly you must know that by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague you will die in the place where you desire to go, to dwell as aliens there.”