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
Don’t go to Egypt!
1Then all the army officers, including Johanan, Kareah’s son, and Jezaniah, Hoshaiah’s son, and the rest of the people, from the least to the greatest, approached 2Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “We have something to ask you: Please pray to the LORD your God for us, this small group, for as you can see we were once many but now are very few. 3May the LORD your God show us where we should go and what we should do.”
4The prophet Jeremiah replied, “Yes, I’ll pray to the LORD your God as you have asked. And I’ll tell you whatever the LORD says; I won’t hide anything from you.”
5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to do everything that the LORD your God tells us through you. 6Whether we like it or not, we will obey all that the LORD our God says. We will obey the LORD our God, to whom we’re sending you, so it may go well for us.”
7Ten days later Jeremiah received the LORD’s word. 8So he called Johanan, Kareah’s son, and all the army officers with him and the rest of the people, from the least to the greatest, 9and he said to them: You have sent me to present your plea to the LORD, and this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 10If you live in this land, I will build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not dig you up because I grieve over the disaster I have brought upon you. 11You don’t have to be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. You don’t have to be afraid of him anymore, declares the LORD, for I will be with you to save you and rescue you from his hand. 12I will be merciful to you, and he will be merciful and return you to your land.
13But if you say, “We won’t live in this land,” you will disobey the LORD your God. 14And if you insist, “No, we’re going to live in Egypt, where there’s no war, battle alarms, or hunger, and there we will stay,” 15then listen to the LORD’s word, you remaining Judeans. The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: If you are determined to go to Egypt and you then go and live there, 16then the war you fear will seize you in the land of Egypt; and the famine you dread will hunt you down in Egypt, and there you will die. 17Every one of you who is determined to go and live in Egypt will die by the sword, famine, and disease. No one will escape the disaster that I will bring upon them there.
18The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Just as my fierce anger was poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so it will be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing, scorn, shock, and disgrace. And you will never see this place again. 19You who survive from Judah, the LORD has told you: Don’t go to Egypt. Know without a doubt that I have warned you this day. 20You are putting your lives at risk#42.20 Or to do evil by sending me to the LORD your God, saying, “Pray for us to the LORD our God; tell us everything the LORD our God says, and we’ll do it.” 21Today I have told you, but you still haven’t obeyed all that the LORD your God has sent me to tell you. 22So know without a doubt that you will die by war, famine, and disease in the place you yearn to go and live.
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