Jer 42-44 | ESV | STEP | Then all the commanders of the forces , and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah , and all the people from the least to the greatest , came near

1 Then ^aall the commanders of the forces, and ^bJohanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of ^cHoshaiah, and all the people ^dfrom the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let ^eour plea for mercy come before you, and ^fpray to the Lord your God for us, for all ^gthis remnant— ^hbecause we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— 3 that ⁱthe Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” 4 Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and ^jwhatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. ^kI will keep nothing back from you.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, ^l“May the Lord be a true and ^mfaithful witness against us ⁿif we do not act according to all the word ^owith which the Lord your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, ^pthat it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

7 ^qAt the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he summoned ^rJohanan the son of Kareah and ^sall the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people ^tfrom the least to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ^uto whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him: 10 If you will remain in this land, ^vthen I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; ^wfor I relent of the disaster that I did to you. 11 ^xDo not fear the king of Babylon, ^yof whom you are afraid. ^zDo not fear him, declares the Lord, ^aafor I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 12 ^abI will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. 13 ^acBut if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God 14 and saying, ‘No, ^adwe will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or ^aehear the sound of the trumpet or ^afbe hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^agIf you set your faces to enter Egypt ^ahand go to live there, 16 then the sword ^aithat you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, ^ajand there you shall die. 17 All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have ^akno remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.

18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^alAs 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. ^amYou shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. 19 The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ^an‘Do not go to Egypt.’ ^aoKnow for a certainty that I have warned you this day 20 that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. ^apFor you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ^aq‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and ^arwhatever the Lord our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything ^asthat he sent me to tell you. 22 ^atNow therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

Jeremiah 43

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

1 When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord their God had sent him to them, 2 Azariah the son of ^auHoshaiah and ^avJohanan the son of Kareah and ^awall the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, ^ax‘Do not go to Egypt to live there,’ 3 but ^ayBaruch the son of Neriah ^azhas set you against us, ^bato deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.” 4 So ^bbJohanan the son of Kareah and all ^bcthe commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord, to remain in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took ^bdall the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven— 6 ^bethe men, the women, the children, ^bfthe princesses, and every person whom ^bgNebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with ^bhGedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they arrived at ^biTahpanhes.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in ^bjTahpanhes: 9 “Take in your hands large stones and hide them in the mortar in the pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in ^bkTahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah, 10 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^blmy servant, ^bmand I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. 11 He shall come ^bnand strike the land of Egypt, ^bogiving over to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword. 12 ^bpI shall kindle a fire ^bqin the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them ^brand carry them away captive. ^bsAnd he shall clean the land of Egypt ^btas a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace. 13 He shall break the ^buobelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, ^bvand the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.’”

Jeremiah 44

Judgment for Idolatry

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at ^bwMigdol, at ^bxTahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of ^byPathros, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day ^bzthey are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, 3 because of the evil that they committed, ^caprovoking me to anger, ^cbin that they went to make offerings ^ccand serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4 ^cdYet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ 5 ^ceBut they did not listen ^cfor incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. 6 ^cgTherefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, ^chand they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day. 7 And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil ^ciagainst yourselves, to cut off from you ^cjman and woman, ^ckinfant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? 8 ^clWhy do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, ^cmmaking offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become ^cna curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, ^cothe evil of the kings of Judah, ^cpthe evil of their ^{▼▼Hebrew his} wives, your own evil, ^crand the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day, ^csnor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.

11 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^ctBehold, I will set my face against you for harm, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have ^cuset their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. ^cvIn the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine ^cwthey shall be consumed. ^cxFrom the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, ^cyand they shall become an oath, a horror, ^cza curse, and a taunt. 13 ^daI will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 ^dbso that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive ^dcor return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, ^ddexcept some fugitives.”

15 Then all the men who knew that ^detheir wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in ^dfPathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, ^dgwe will not listen to you. 17 ^dhBut we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to ^dithe queen of heaven ^djand pour out drink offerings to her, ^dkas we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to ^dlthe queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything ^dmand have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said, ^{▼▼Compare Syriac; Hebrew lacks And the women said} “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven ^doand poured out drink offerings to her, was it ^dpwithout our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, ^dqmen and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 ^dr“As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, ^dsdid not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? 22 ^dtThe Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and ^duthe abominations that you committed. ^dvTherefore your land has become ^dwa desolation and a waste and a curse, ^dxwithout inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 It is because you made offerings ^dyand because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies ^dzthat this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.”

24 Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, ^eaall you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^ebYou and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made, ^ecto make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm your vows and perform your vows! 26 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ^edall you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ^eeBehold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, ^efthat my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, ^egsaying, ‘As the Lord God lives.’ 27 ^ehBehold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. ^eiAll the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. 28 ^ejAnd those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, ^ekfew in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who came to the land of Egypt to live, ^elshall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs. 29 This shall be the sign to you, declares the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, in order that you may know that ^emmy words will surely stand against you for harm: 30 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give ^enPharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies ^eoand into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave ^epZedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”