Jeremiah 42; Jeremiah 43; Jeremiah 44; Jeremiah 45

1 While there, Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah went to Jeremiah the prophet. All the army officers and all the people, from the least important to the greatest, went along, too.

2 They said to him, "Jeremiah, please listen to what we ask. Pray to the Lord your God for all the people left alive from the family of Judah. At one time there were many of us, but you can see that there are few of us now.

3 So pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do."

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet answered, "I understand what you want me to do. I will pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything he says and not hide anything from you."

5 Then the people said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and loyal witness against us if we don't do everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us.

6 It does not matter if we like the message or not. We will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you. We will obey what he says so good things will happen to us."

7 Ten days later the Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah.

8 Then Jeremiah called for Johanan son of Kareah, the army officers with him, and all the other people, from the least important to the greatest.

9 Jeremiah said to them, "You sent me to ask the Lord for what you wanted. This is what the God of Israel says:

10 'If you will stay in Judah, I will build you up and not tear you down. I will plant you and not pull you up, because I am sad about the disaster I brought on you.

11 Now you fear the king of Babylon, but don't be afraid of him. Don't be afraid of him,' says the Lord, 'because I am with you. I will save you and rescue you from his power.

12 I will be kind to you, and he will also treat you with mercy and let you stay in your land.'

13 "But if you say, 'We will not stay in Judah,' you will disobey the Lord your God.

14 Or you might say, 'No, we will go and live in Egypt. There we will not see war, or hear the trumpets of war, or be hungry.'

15 If you say that, listen to the message of the Lord, you who are left alive from Judah. This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: 'If you make up your mind to go and live in Egypt, these things will happen:

16 You are afraid of war, but it will find you in the land of Egypt. And you are worried about hunger, but it will follow you into Egypt, and you will die there.

17 Everyone who goes to live in Egypt will die in war or from hunger or terrible disease. No one who goes to Egypt will live; no one will escape the terrible things I will bring to them.'

18 "This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: 'I showed my anger against the people of Jerusalem. In the same way I will show my anger against you when you go to Egypt. Other nations will speak evil of you. People will be shocked by what will happen to you. You will become a curse word, and people will insult you. And you will never see Judah again.'

19 "You who are left alive in Judah, the Lord has told you, 'Don't go to Egypt.' Be sure you understand this; I warn you today

20 that you are making a mistake that will cause your deaths. You sent me to the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us everything the Lord our God says, and we will do it.'

21 So today I have told you, but you have not obeyed the Lord your God in all that he sent me to tell you.

22 So now be sure you understand this: You want to go to live in Egypt, but you will die there by war, hunger, or terrible diseases."

1 So Jeremiah finished telling the people the message from the Lord their God; he told them everything the Lord their God had sent him to tell them.

2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and some other men were too proud. They said to Jeremiah, "You are lying! The Lord our God did not send you to say, 'You must not go to Egypt to live there.'

3 Baruch son of Neriah is causing you to be against us. He wants you to hand us over to the Babylonians so they can kill us or capture us and take us to Babylon."

4 So Johanan, the army officers, and all the people disobeyed the Lord's command to stay in Judah.

5 But Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers led away those who were left alive from Judah. They were the people who had run away from the Babylonians to other countries but then had come back to live in Judah.

6 They led away the men, women, and children, and the king's daughters. Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had put Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan in charge of those people. Johanan also took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.

7 These people did not listen to the Lord. So they all went to Egypt to the city of Tahpanhes.

8 In Tahpanhes the Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah:

9 "Take some large stones. Bury them in the clay in the brick pavement in front of the king of Egypt's palace in Tahpanhes. Do this while the Jews are watching you.

10 Then say to them, 'This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I will soon send for my servant, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones I have buried, and he will spread his covering for shade above them.

11 He will come here and attack Egypt. He will bring death to those who are supposed to die. He will make prisoners of those who are to be taken captive, and he will bring war to those who are to be killed with a sword.

12 Nebuchadnezzar will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt and burn them. And he will take the idols away as captives. As a shepherd wraps himself in his clothes, so Nebuchadnezzar will wrap Egypt around him. Then he will safely leave Egypt.

13 He will destroy the stone pillars in the temple of the sun god in Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.'"

1 Jeremiah received a message from the Lord for all the Jews living in Egypt -- in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in southern Egypt. This was the message:

2 "The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: You saw all the terrible things I brought on Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, which are ruins today with no one living in them.

3 It is because the people who lived there did evil. They made me angry by burning incense and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew.

4 I sent all my servants, the prophets, to you again and again. By them I said to you, 'Don't do this terrible thing that I hate.'

5 But they did not listen or pay attention. They did not stop doing evil things and burning incense to other gods.

6 So I showed my great anger against them. I poured out my anger in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem so they are only ruins and piles of stones today.

7 "Now the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves? You are cutting off the men and women, children and babies from the family of Judah, leaving yourselves without anyone from the family of Judah.

8 Why do you want to make me angry by making idols? Why do you burn incense to the gods of Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves. Other nations will speak evil of you and make fun of you.

9 Have you forgotten about the evil things your ancestors did? And have you forgotten the evil the kings and queens of Judah did? Have you forgotten about the evil you and your wives did? These things were done in the country of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.

10 Even to this day the people of Judah are still too proud. They have not learned to respect me or to follow my teachings. They have not obeyed the laws I gave you and your ancestors.

11 "So this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disasters on you. I will destroy the whole family of Judah.

12 The few who were left alive from Judah were determined to go to Egypt and settle there, but they will all die in Egypt. They will be killed in war or die from hunger. From the least important to the greatest, they will be killed in war or die from hunger. Other nations will speak evil about them. People will be shocked by what has happened to them. They will become a curse word, and people will insult them.

13 I will punish those people who have gone to live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem, using swords, hunger, and terrible diseases.

14 Of the people of Judah who were left alive and have gone to live in Egypt, none will escape my punishment. They want to return to Judah and live there, but none of them will live to return to Judah, except a few people who will escape."

15 A large group of the people of Judah who lived in southern Egypt were meeting together. Among them were many women of Judah who were burning incense to other gods, and their husbands knew it. All these people said to Jeremiah,

16 "We will not listen to the message from the Lord that you spoke to us.

17 We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen Goddess, and we will certainly do everything we promised. We will burn incense and pour out drink offerings to worship her, just as we, our ancestors, kings, and officers did in the past. All of us did these things in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were successful, and nothing bad happened to us.

18 But since we stopped making sacrifices to the Queen Goddess and stopped pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had great problems. Our people have also been killed in war and by hunger."

19 The women said, "Our husbands knew what we were doing. We had their permission to burn incense to the Queen Goddess and to pour out drink offerings to her. Our husbands knew we were making cakes that looked like her and were pouring out drink offerings to her."

20 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people -- men and women -- who answered him.

21 He said to them, "The Lord remembered that you and your ancestors, kings and officers, and the people of the land burned incense in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. He remembered and thought about it.

22 Then he could not be patient with you any longer. He hated the terrible things you did. So he made your country an empty desert, where no one lives. Other people curse that country. And so it is today.

23 All this happened because you burned incense to other gods. You sinned against the Lord. You did not obey him or follow his teachings or the laws he gave you. You did not keep your part of the agreement with him. So this disaster has happened to you. It is there for you to see."

24 Then Jeremiah said to all those men and women, "People of Judah who are now in Egypt, hear the word of the Lord:

25 The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives did what you said you would do. You said, 'We will certainly keep the promises we made. We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen Goddess and to pour out drink offerings to her.' So, go ahead. Do the things you promised, and keep your promises.

26 But hear the word of the Lord. Listen, all you Jews living in Egypt. The Lord says, 'I have sworn by my great name: The people of Judah now living in Egypt will never again use my name to make promises. They will never again say in Egypt, "As surely as the Lord God lives. . ."

27 I am watching over them, not to take care of them, but to hurt them. The Jews who live in Egypt will die from swords or hunger until they are all destroyed.

28 A few will escape being killed by the sword and will come back to Judah from Egypt. Then, of the people of Judah who came to live in Egypt, those who are left alive will know if my word or their word came true.

29 I will give you a sign that I will punish you here in Egypt,' says the Lord. 'When you see it happen, you will know that my promises to hurt you will really happen.'

30 This is what the Lord says: 'Hophra king of Egypt has enemies who want to kill him. Soon I will hand him over to his enemies just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who wanted to kill him.'"

1 It was the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. Jeremiah the prophet told these things to Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote them on a scroll:

2 "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:

3 You have said, 'How terrible it is for me! The Lord has given me sorrow along with my pain. I am tired because of my suffering and cannot rest.'"

4 The Lord said, "Say this to Baruch: 'This is what the Lord says: I will soon tear down what I have built, and I will pull up what I have planted everywhere in Judah.

5 Baruch, you are looking for great things for yourself. Don't look for them, because I will bring disaster on all the people, says the Lord. You will have to go many places, but I will let you escape alive wherever you go.'"