1 Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from least to greatest, approached
2 and said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Let our supplication fall before you, and pray on our behalf to the LORD your God, for all this remnant; for we are left as a few out of many, as your eyes see us,
3 so that the LORD your God may tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do."
4 The prophet Jeremiah said to them, "I have heard. See, I will pray to the LORD your God as you have said, and every word the LORD answers you I will make known to you; I will not hold back a word from you."
5 They said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act just as the LORD your God sends you to tell us.
6 Whether good or evil, it is the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, that we will listen to, so that it may be well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."
7 Ten days later the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
8 He called Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces with him and all the people from least to greatest,
9 and said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to lay your supplication before him:
10 If you will really stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down, I will plant you and not uproot you; for I relent of the evil I have done to you.
11 Do not fear the king of Babylon, whom you fear; do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his hand.
12 I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and let you return to your own soil.
13 But if you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' and do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God,
14 saying, 'No, we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the horn or hunger for bread, and there we will live,'
15 then hear now the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you have truly set your faces to go into Egypt and you go to live there as sojourners,
16 the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you dread will cling to you there in Egypt, and there you will die.
17 All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to sojourn there will die by sword, famine and pestilence; none of them will survive or escape from the evil I am bringing on them.
18 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: As 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; you will become an execration and a horror, a curse and a taunt, and you will never see this place again.
19 The LORD has spoken to you, remnant of Judah: Do not go to Egypt. Know for sure that I have testified to you today.
20 For you have gone astray at the cost of your souls; you yourselves sent me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.'
21 Today I have told you, but you have not listened to the voice of the LORD your God in anything he sent me to you to say.
22 So now know for sure that by sword, famine and pestilence you will die in the place where you want to go to sojourn."