Jeremiah 42
42
1Johanan, Jezaniah,#42.1 Jezaniah: Hebrew “Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah”; one ancient translation “Azariah son of Hoshaiah” (see also 43.2 and the note there). the other army officers, and everyone else in the group, came to me 2and said, “Please, Jeremiah, pray to the Lord your God for us. Judah used to have many people, but as you can see, only a few of us are left. 3Ask the Lord to tell us where he wants us to go and what he wants us to do.”
4“All right,” I answered, “I will pray to the Lord your God, and I will tell you everything he says.”
5They answered, “The Lord himself will be our witness that we promise to do whatever he says, 6even if it isn't what we want to do. We will obey the Lord so that all will go well for us.”
7Ten days later, the Lord gave me an answer for 8Johanan, the officers, and the other people. So I called them together 9and told them that the Lord God of Israel had said:
You asked Jeremiah to pray and find out what you should do. 10I am sorry that I had to punish you, and so I now tell you to stay here in Judah, where I will plant you and build you up, instead of tearing you down and uprooting you. 11Don't be afraid of the King of Babylonia. I will protect you from him, 12and I will even force him to have mercy on you and give back your farms.
13But you might keep on saying, “We won't stay here in Judah, and we won't obey the Lord our God. 14We are going to Egypt, where there is plenty of food and no danger of war.”
15People of Judah, you survived when the Babylonian army attacked. Now you are planning to move to Egypt, and if you do go, this is what will happen. 16-17You are afraid of war, starvation, and disease here in Judah, but they will follow you to Egypt and kill you there. None of you will survive the disasters I will send.
18I, the Lord, was angry with the people of Jerusalem and punished them. And if you go to Egypt, I will be angry and punish you the same way. You will never again see your homeland. People will be horrified at what I do to you, and they will use the name of your city as a curse word.
Jeremiah Gives a Warning
19I told the people:
You escaped the disaster that struck Judah, but now the Lord warns you to stay away from Egypt. 20You asked me to pray and find out what the Lord our God wants you to do, and you promised to obey him. But that was a terrible mistake, 21because now that I have given you the Lord's answer, you refuse to obey him. 22And so, you will die in Egypt from war, hunger, and disease.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 42
42
1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Yochanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near, 2and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us, 3that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the things that we should do.”
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words; and it will happen that whatever thing the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to tell us. 6Whether it is good, or whether it is bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”
7 After ten days, the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah. 8Then he called Yochanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9and said to them, “The LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him, says: 10‘If you will still live in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you. 11Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don’t be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. 12I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.
13“‘But if you say, “We will not dwell in this land,” so that you don’t obey the LORD your God’s voice, 14saying, “No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the shofar, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;”’ 15now therefore hear the LORD’s word, O remnant of Judah! The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there, 16then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there. 17So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. None of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.’ 18For the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’
19“The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today. 20For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’ 21I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed the LORD your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you. 22Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”
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