Warning against Going to Egypt
1 Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great approached
2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the Lordyour God,that isfor all this remnant; because we are leftbuta few out of many, as your own eyesnowsee us,
3 that the Lordyour God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.”
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heardyou.Behold, I am going to pray to the Lordyour God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the Lordwill answer you. I will not keep back a word from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lordbe a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which the Lordyour God will send you to us.
6 Whetheritis pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lordour God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lordour God.”
7 Now at the end of ten days the word of the Lordcame to Jeremiah.
8 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 both small and great,
9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lordthe God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:
10 ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you.
11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you arenowfearing; do not be afraid of him,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.
12 I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil.
13 But if you are going to say, “We will not stay in this land,” so as not to listen to the voice of the Lordyour God,
14 saying, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there”;
15 then in that case listen to the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lordof hosts, the God of Israel, “If you really set your mind to enter Egypt and go in to reside there,
16 then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you thereinEgypt, and you will die there.
17 So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or refugees from the calamity that I am going to bring on them.”‘”
18 For thus says the Lordof hosts, the God of Israel, “As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.”
19 The Lordhas spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, “Do not go into Egypt!” You should clearly understand that today I have testified against you.
20 For you haveonlydeceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the Lordyour God, saying, “Pray for us to the Lordour God; and whatever the Lordour God says, tell us so, and we will do it.”
21 So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the Lordyour God, even in whatever He has sent me totellyou.
22 Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the place where you wish to go to reside.
—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/JER/42-e46fdd77fa7653db906471b7b15870c1.mp3?version_id=100—