Jer 43 | EE | STEP | So Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God. He told them everything that the LORD had sent him to tell them.

Jeremiah 43

1 So Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God. He told them everything that the LORD had sent him to tell them. 2 Then Hoshaiah’s son Azariah and Kareah’s son Johanan and some other men spoke to Jeremiah. All those men thought that they knew everything. They thought that they were better than other people. ‘You are speaking lies!’ they said to Jeremiah. ‘The LORD our God has not sent you to say that we must not go to Egypt to live there. 3 But you are doing what Baruch, son of Neriah, wants. He is against us. He wants the soldiers from Babylon to kill us or to take us as prisoners to Babylon.’

4 So Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the officers in the army did not obey the LORD‘s message. They did not stay in Judah. 5 Instead, Johanan and the officers led the people away from Judah. These were the few people who had returned to Judah. They had come from all the countries where their enemies had sent them. 6 They took with them the men, women and children and the king’s daughters. Nebuzaradan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s special soldiers, had let those people remain with Gedaliah. (Gedaliah was Ahikam’s son and Shaphan’s grandson.) And Nebuzaradan had let Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch, son of Neriah, remain there with them. 7 So they did not obey the LORD. They went into Egypt and they went as far as Tahpanhes.

8 The LORD spoke to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes. ‘The king of Egypt’s house is in Tahpanhes. 9 Choose some large stones while the Jews are watching you’, he said. ‘Take them and put them under the path to the king’s house. 10 Then you must speak to the people. Say, “The strong, powerful LORD, the God of Israel, says this: I will send my servant, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, here. He will put his throne here, over these stones that I have hidden. They will make his king’s tent over him. 11 He will come and he will attack Egypt. He will kill those people that I have chosen to die. He will take as prisoners those that I choose to be prisoners. His soldiers will kill those people that I choose to die in that way. 12 He will use fire when he attacks the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them and he will take away their gods. He will do what he wants with Egypt. Nobody will stop him. 13 He will break down the places where the people in Egypt worship in the temple of the sun. And he will burn down the temples of the gods there.”’