1Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan son of Kareah, and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest drew near,
2and they said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our plea fall before you, and pray on our behalf to Yahweh your God, for all this remnant—for we are left few from many, as your eyes see us.”
3May Yahweh your God tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.
4Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Behold, I am praying to Yahweh your God according to your words, and whatever Yahweh answers you I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.”
5And they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to every word with which Yahweh your God sends you to us.
6Whether good or evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.”
7Now at the end of ten days the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.
8Then he called to Johanan son of Kareah and to all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and to all the people from the least to the greatest,
9and he said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before him:
10If you will indeed remain in this land, then I will build you up and not tear down, and I will plant you and not uproot; for I relent concerning the disaster that I brought upon you.
11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him, declares Yahweh, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
12I will grant you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and let you return to your own land.
13But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ so as not to obey the voice of Yahweh your God,
14saying, ‘No! Rather we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war and not hear the sound of the trumpet and not hunger for bread, and there we will remain’—
15then now therefore hear the word of Yahweh, remnant of Judah. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: If you indeed set your faces to go to Egypt, and you go to sojourn there,
16then the sword that you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine about which you are anxious will cling to you there in Egypt, and there you will die.
17So all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to sojourn there will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they will have no survivor or fugitive from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.
18For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Just 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 go to Egypt; and you will become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a reproach, and you will not see this place again.
19Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: Do not go to Egypt. Know for certain that I have warned you today.
20For you have gone astray at the cost of your own lives, for you yourselves sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God, and according to all that Yahweh our God says, so tell us, and we will do it.’
21So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God, nor anything with which he sent me to you.
22Now therefore know for certain that by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence you will die in the place where you desire to go to sojourn.
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