Jeremiah 40:13-43
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Assassination of Gedaliah. 13 Now Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the military leaders in the field came to Gedaliah in Mizpah 14 and said to him, “Surely you are aware that Baalis, the Ammonite king,[a] has sent Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, to assassinate you?”(A) But Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, would not believe them. 15 Then Johanan, son of Kareah, said secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah: “Please let me go and kill Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; no one will know it. What if he assassinates you? All the Judahites who have now rallied behind you would scatter and the remnant of Judah would perish.” 16 Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, answered Johanan, son of Kareah, “You must not do that. What you are saying about Ishmael is a lie!”
Chapter 41
1 In the seventh month, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of royal descent, one of the king’s nobles, came with ten men to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, at Mizpah.(B) While they were together at table in Mizpah, 2 Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and the ten with him, stood up and struck down Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with swords. They killed him, since the king of Babylon had set him over the land; 3 Ishmael also killed all the Judahites of military age who were with Gedaliah and the Chaldean soldiers stationed there.
4 The day after the murder of Gedaliah, before anyone learned about it, 5 eighty men, in ragged clothes, with beards shaved off and gashes on their bodies, came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, bringing grain offerings and incense for the house of the Lord. 6 Weeping as he went, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, set out from Mizpah to meet them. “Come to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam,” he said as he met them. 7 Once they were inside the city, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and his men slaughtered them and threw them into the cistern. 8 Ten of them said to Ishmael: “Do not kill us! We have stores of wheat and barley, oil and honey hidden in the field.” So he spared them and did not kill them as he had killed their companions. 9 The cistern into which Ishmael threw all the bodies of the men he had killed was the large one King Asa made to defend himself against Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, filled this cistern with the slain.(C)
10 Ishmael led away the rest of the people left in Mizpah, including the princesses,[b] whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had consigned to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. With these captives, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
Flight to Egypt. 11 But when Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders with him heard about the crimes Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had committed, 12 they took all their men and set out to attack Ishmael, son of Nethaniah. They overtook him at the great pool in Gibeon.[c] 13 At the sight of Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders, the people with Ishmael rejoiced; 14 all of those whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah went back to Johanan, son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, escaped from Johanan with eight men and fled to the Ammonites. 16 Then Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the military leaders took charge of all the rest of the people whom Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had taken away from Mizpah after he killed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam—the soldiers, the women with children, and court officials, whom he brought back from Gibeon. 17 They set out and stopped at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go into Egypt. 18 They were afraid of the Chaldeans, because Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had slain Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had set over the land.
Chapter 42
1 Then all the military leaders, including Johanan, son of Kareah, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, 2 approached Jeremiah the prophet and said, “Please grant our petition; pray for us to the Lord, your God, for all this remnant. As you see, only a few of us remain, but once we were many. 3 May the Lord, your God, show us the way we should take and what we should do.” 4 “Very well!” Jeremiah the prophet answered them: “I will pray to the Lord, your God, as you desire; whatever the Lord answers, I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.”(D) 5 And they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not follow all the instructions the Lord, your God, sends us through you.(E) 6 Whether we like it or not, we will obey the command of the Lord, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us for obeying the command of the Lord, our God.”(F)
7 Ten days passed before the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he called Johanan, son of Kareah, his army leaders, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, 9 and said to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to offer your petition: 10 If indeed you will remain in this land, I will build you up, and not tear you down; I will plant you, not uproot you; for I repent of the evil I have done you.(G) 11 Do not fear the king of Babylon, as you do now. Do not fear him—oracle of the Lord—for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power.(H) 12 I will take pity on you, so that he will have pity on you and let you return to your land.(I) 13 But if you keep saying, “We will not stay in this land,” thus disobeying the voice of the Lord, your God, 14 and saying, “No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, nor hear the trumpet alarm, nor hunger for bread. There we will live!”(J) 15 then listen to the word of the Lord, remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are set on going to Egypt and settling down there once you arrive, 16 the sword you fear shall overtake you in the land of Egypt; the hunger you dread shall pursue you to Egypt and there you shall die.(K) 17 All those determined to go to Egypt to live shall die by the sword, famine, and disease: not one shall survive or escape the evil that I am bringing upon them.(L) 18 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my furious wrath was poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my anger be poured out on you when you reach Egypt. You shall become a malediction and a horror, a curse and a reproach, and you shall never see this place again.(M)
19 The Lord has spoken to you, remnant of Judah. Do not go to Egypt! Mark well that I am warning you this day. 20 At the cost of your lives you have been deceitful, for you yourselves sent me to the Lord, your God, saying, “Pray for us to the Lord, our God; whatever the Lord, our God, shall say, tell us and we will do it.” 21 Today I have told you, but you have not listened to the voice of the Lord your God, in anything that he has sent me to tell you.(N) 22 Have no doubt about this: you shall die by the sword, famine, and disease in the place where you want to go and live.(O)
Chapter 43
1 When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words the Lord, their God, sent to them, 2 Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the others had the insolence to say to Jeremiah: “You lie; the Lord, our God, did not send you to tell us, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there.’ 3 Baruch, son of Neriah, is inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans to be killed or exiled to Babylon.”(P)
4 So Johanan, son of Kareah, and the rest of the leaders and the people did not listen to the voice of the Lord to stay in the land of Judah.(Q) 5 Instead, Johanan, son of Kareah, and the military leaders took along all the remnant of Judah who had been dispersed among the nations and then had returned to dwell in the land of Judah: 6 men, women, and children, the princesses and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had consigned to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah.(R) 7 They went to Egypt—they did not listen to the voice of the Lord—and came to Tahpanhes.(S)
Jeremiah in Egypt. 8 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes: 9 Take some large stones in your hand and set them in mortar in the terrace at the entrance to the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes, while the Judahites watch. 10 Then say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He will place his throne upon these stones which I, Jeremiah, have set up, and stretch his canopy above them.(T) 11 He shall come and strike the land of Egypt: with death, those marked for death; with exile, those marked for exile; with the sword, those marked for the sword.(U) 12 He shall set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods, burn the gods and carry them off. He shall pick the land of Egypt clean, as a shepherd picks lice off his cloak, and then depart victorious.(V) 13 He shall smash the obelisks at the Temple of the Sun in the land of Egypt and destroy with fire the temples of the Egyptian gods.
Footnotes
- 40:14 In an attempt, perhaps, to weaken Babylon’s hold on the area and to add Judah to the Ammonite kingdom, Baalis supported Ishmael’s claim to the throne of David (cf. 41:1 for Ishmael’s genealogy).
- 41:10 The princesses: the women of Judah’s royal house.
- 41:12 Gibeon: modern El-Jib; northwest of Jerusalem. A huge pit carved into limestone provided water in time of siege, here called the great pool, lit., “many waters”; cf. 2 Sm 2:12–14.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.