A Warning against Going to Egypt
And all the princes of the forces drew near — Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from least to greatest —
and they said to Jeremiah the prophet: Let our plea fall now before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant; for we are left few from many, as your eyes see us.
And let the LORD your God tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.
And Jeremiah the prophet said to them: I have heard. See, I am praying to the LORD your God according to your words; and it will be that every word the LORD answers you I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.
And they said to Jeremiah: May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to every word with which the LORD your God sends you to us.
Whether good or evil, to the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, we will listen; so that it may be good for us, for we will obey the voice of the LORD our God.
And it was at the end of ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
And he called to Johanan son of Kareah and to all the princes of the forces who were with him, and to all the people from least to greatest,
and he said to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to make your plea fall before him:
If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you and not demolish, and I will plant you and not uproot; for I have relented of the evil I did to you.
Do not fear before the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him — the utterance of the LORD — for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
And I will give you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and bring you back to your ground.
But if you say, We will not stay in this land — so as not to obey the voice of the LORD your God —
saying: No, for to the land of Egypt we will come, where we will not see war and not hear the sound of the horn and not hunger for bread; and there we will stay —
then now hear the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you indeed set your faces to come to Egypt and come to sojourn there,
then the sword that you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine over which you are anxious will cling after you there in Egypt; and there you will die.
And all the men who set their faces to come to Egypt to sojourn there will die by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence; and they will have no survivor or escapee from the evil that I am bringing on them.
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you come to Egypt; and you will become an imprecation and a horror and a curse and a reproach, and you will not see this place again.
The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: Do not come to Egypt. Know surely that I have testified against you today.
For you have led yourselves astray in your own souls, for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying: Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God says, so tell us and we will do it.
And I have told you today, and you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, or anything with which he sent me to you.
And now, know surely that by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence you will die in the place where you desire to come to sojourn.