The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Jeremiah 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,
“Please let our supplication be presented
before you, and pray forus to Yahwehyour
God, even for all this remnant, for we are
left but a few of many, as your eyes see us,
3 that Yahweh your God may show us
the way in which we should walk, and the
things that we should do.”
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to
them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will
pray to Yahweh your God according to
your words; and it will happen that whatever
thing Yahweh answers you, I will declare it
to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh
be a true and faithful witness among
us, if we don’t do according to all the word
with which Yahweh your God sends you to
tell us.
6 Whether it is good, or whether it is bad,
we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God,
to whom we send you; that it may be well
withus, when we obey the voice ofYahweh
our God.”
7 After ten days, Yahweh’s word came to
Jeremiah.
8 Then he called Johanan the son of
Kareah, and all the captains of the forces
who were with him, and all the people
from the least even to the greatest,
9 and said to them, “Yahweh, the God
of Israel, to whom you sent me to present
your supplication before him, says:
10 ‘If you will still live in this land, then I
will build you, and not pull you down, and
I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I
grieve over the distress thatI have brought
on you.
11 Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon,
of whom you are afraid. Don’t be afraid
of him,’ says Yahweh, ‘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 cause you to return to your own land.
13 “ ‘But if you say, “We will not dwell in
this land,” so that you don’t obey Yahweh
your God’s voice,
14 saying, “No, but we will go into the
land of Egypt, where we will see no war,
nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor
have hunger of bread; and there we will
dwell;” ’
15 now therefore hear Yahweh’s word, O
remnant of Judah! Yahweh of Armies, the
God of Israel, says, ‘If you indeed set your
faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live
there,
16 then it will happen that the sword,
which you fear, will overtake you there in
the land of Egypt; and the famine, about
which you are afraid, will follow
close behind you there in Egypt;
and you will die there.
17 So will it be with all the men who set
their faces to go into Egypt to live there.
They will die by the sword, by the famine,
and by the pestilence. None of them will
remain or escape from the evil that I will
bring on them.’
18 For Yahweh of Armies, the God of
Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath
has been poured out on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out
on you, when you enter into Egypt; and
you will be an object of horror,
an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you
will see this place no more.’
19 “Yahweh has spoken concerning you,
remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’
Know certainly that I have testified to you
today.
20 For you have dealt deceitfully against
your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh
your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to Yahweh
our God; and according to all that Yahweh
our God says, so declare to us, and we will
do it.’
21 I have declared itto you today; but you
have not obeyed Yahweh your God’s voice
in anything for which he has sent me to
you.
22 Now therefore know certainly that
you will die by the sword, by the famine,
and by the pestilence in the place where
you desire to go to live.”