Jeremiah 42

Revised Geneva Translation

42 Then all the captains of the army, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah, the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the most, came

² and said to Jeremiah the Prophet, "Please hear our prayer! And pray for us to the LORD your God for all this remnant (for we remain, a few of many, as your eyes do behold),

³ so that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we may walk, and the thing that we may do!”

⁴ Then, Jeremiah the Prophet said to them, “I have heard! Behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words. And whatever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, “The LORD be a Witness of truth and faith between us if we do not do according to all the things which the LORD your God shall send us by you.

⁶ Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the Voice of the LORD God to Whom we send you, so that it may be well with us when we obey the Voice of the LORD our God.”

⁷ And so, after ten days, the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

⁸ And he called Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army who were with him, and all the people from the least to the most,

⁹ and said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, to Whom you sent me to present your prayers before Him:

¹⁰ ‘If you will dwell in this land, then I will build you and not destroy. And I will plant you and not root you out. For I relent concerning the misery that I have brought upon you.

¹¹ ‘Do not fear the king of Babel, of whom you are afraid. Do not be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘For I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand,

¹² ‘And I will grant you mercy, so that he may have compassion upon you. And he shall cause you to dwell in your own land.

¹³ ‘But if you say, “We will neither dwell in this land nor hear the Voice of the LORD your God,”

¹⁴ ‘saying, “No. But we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war nor hear the sound of the trumpet nor have hunger for bread. And there will we dwell,”

¹⁵ ‘now therefore hear the Word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “If you set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to dwell there,

¹⁶ ‘then the sword that you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt. And the famine about which you worry shall hang upon you there in Egypt. And there you shall die.

¹⁷ ‘And all the men who set their faces to enter into Egypt, to dwell there, shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the plague that I will bring upon them.’

¹⁸ “For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My wrath have been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall My wrath be poured forth upon you when you shall enter into Egypt. And you shall be a detestation and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach. And you shall see this place no more.’

¹⁹ “O, you remnant of Judah! The LORD has said concerning you: ‘Do not go into Egypt!’ Know for certain that I have admonished you this day.

²⁰ “Surely you erred in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and declare to us all that the LORD our God shall say, and we will do it.’

²¹ “For I have declared it you this day, but you have not obeyed the Voice of the LORD your God, nor anything for which He has sent me to you.

²² “Now, therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go and dwell.”