Jeremiah Chapter 42

Jeremiah’s Warning to Stay in Judah

¹ Then Johanan, his commanders, Jezaniah Ben-Hoshaiah, and the people least to greatest came ² to Jeremiah,

“Please honor our petition. Pray for us to Yahveh your God for this remnant. There are just a few of us left, as you can see. ³Pray that Yahveh will tell us what we should do.”

⁴ Jeremiah said,

“I’ll pray to him and not keep back a word of his answer.”  

⁵ They said,

“May Yahveh be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t obey his whole message. ⁶ Whether pleasant or not, we’ll listen so things will go well with us.                                                                                                                          

Jer 42:1-6

⁷ Ten days later, a message came to Jeremiah. ⁸ He called Johanan, his commanders, and the people,

⁹ “Yahveh says, ¹⁰ ‘If you stay in this land, I’ll plant you and build you up, and relent from the catastrophe I’ve inflicted on you. ¹¹ Don’t be afraid; I’ll deliver you from the king of Babylon ¹² and show you mercy so he’ll have mercy and return you to your own land. ¹³ But if you say, ¹⁴ “We’ll go stay in Egypt, where we won’t be near war, hear the bugle, or go hungry,” [ ¹⁵ ] ¹⁶ then the sword you fear will catch up with you, the famine you’re anxious about will follow soon after you arrive, and you’ll die there. ¹⁷ Everybody that goes to Egypt will die by sword, famine, and disease. Nobody will survive the catastrophe I’ll bring.’”    

Jer 42:7-17

¹⁸ “‘As I’ve poured out my anger on the people in Jerusalem, I’ll pour it out on you in Egypt. You’ll become a curse, something abhorred, a disgrace. You won’t be coming back here.’ ¹⁹ Yahveh is telling you today not to go to Egypt! ²⁰ You’re only deceiving yourselves. You said, ‘Pray to Yahveh our God; we’ll do whatever he says.’ ²¹ But you’re not doing it. ²² So understand that you’ll die by sword, famine, and disease where you want to go live.”                     

Jer 42:18-22