1Then all the commanders of the forces, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached[ † ]Jeremiah 40:8-13Jeremiah 41:11 2Jeremiah the prophet and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the Lord your God on behalf of this entire remnant. For few of us remain of the many, as you can see with your own eyes.[ † ]Jeremiah 15:11Exodus 8:281 Samuel 7:81 Samuel 12:191 Kings 13:6Isaiah 37:4Jeremiah 37:3Acts 8:24James 5:16Leviticus 26:22Deuteronomy 28:62Isaiah 1:9Lamentations 1:1 3Pray that the Lord your God will tell us the way we should walk and the thing we should do.”[ † ]Ezra 8:21
4“I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will surely pray to the Lord your God as you request, and I will tell you everything that the Lord answers. I will not withhold a word from you.”[ † ]1 Kings 22:14Jeremiah 23:281 Samuel 3:17-18Psalms 40:10Acts 20:20
5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act upon every word that the Lord your God sends you to tell us.[ † ]Genesis 31:50Judges 11:10Jeremiah 43:2Micah 1:2Malachi 2:14Malachi 3:5 6Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God!”[ † ]Exodus 24:7Deuteronomy 5:27Joshua 24:24Deuteronomy 5:29-33Deuteronomy 6:3Jeremiah 7:23
7After ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, 8and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.
9Jeremiah told them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition: 10‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will relent of the disaster I have brought upon you.[ † ]Jeremiah 24:6Jeremiah 31:28Jeremiah 33:7Ezekiel 36:36Deuteronomy 32:36Jeremiah 18:8
11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear; do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from him.[ † ]Numbers 14:92 Chronicles 32:7-8Isaiah 8:9-10Isaiah 43:2-5Jeremiah 1:19Jeremiah 15:20Romans 8:31 12And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own land.’[ † ]Nehemiah 1:11Psalms 106:46Proverbs 16:7
13But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and you thus disobey the voice of the Lord your God,[ † ]Jeremiah 44:16 14and if you say, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt and live there, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for bread,’[ † ]Isaiah 31:1Jeremiah 41:17Jeremiah 43:7 15then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and reside there,[ † ]Deuteronomy 17:16Jeremiah 44:12-14Luke 9:51 16then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow on your heels into Egypt, and you will die there.[ † ]Jeremiah 44:13-27Ezekiel 11:8Amos 9:1-4 17So all who resolve to go to Egypt to reside there will die by sword and famine and plague. Not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring upon them.’[ † ]Jeremiah 44:14-28
18For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’[ † ]2 Chronicles 36:16-19Jeremiah 7:20Deuteronomy 29:21Isaiah 65:15Jeremiah 18:16Jeremiah 24:9Jeremiah 26:6Jeremiah 29:18-22Jeremiah 44:12
19The Lord has told you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for sure that I have warned you today![ † ]Deuteronomy 17:16Isaiah 30:1-7 20For you have deceived yourselves by sending me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray to the Lord our God on our behalf, and as for all that the Lord our God says, tell it to us and we will do it.’
21For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in all He has sent me to tell you.[ † ]Isaiah 30:1-7 22Now therefore, know for sure that by sword and famine and plague you will die in the place where you desire to go to reside.”[ † ]Jeremiah 42:17Ezekiel 6:11