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all the commanders of the armies, along with Johanan son Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near; 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said, “Please, let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, on behalf of all this remnant. For there are but few of us who remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes. 3 Let the Lord your God show us the way we should go and what we should do.”
4 The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “I have heard you. I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and whatever the Lord answers you, I will tell you. I will not hold anything back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not act according to everything that the Lord your God will send you to tell us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us, for we will obey the voice of the Lord our God.”
7 Now after ten days had passed, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, 8 and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the army who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.
9 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, to whom you sent me to present your petition: 10 ‘If you will stay in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you. For I am grieved about the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him’, declares the Lord, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 I will show you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and allow you to return to your own land’.
13 “But if you say: ‘We will not stay in this land’, and disobey the voice of the Lord your God, 14 and if you say: ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and we will live there’, 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you have set your faces to enter Egypt and live there, 16 then the sword that you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you are afraid of will follow close behind you there in Egypt, and there you will die. 17 So it will be, that all of the men who set their faces to go Egypt and settle there will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. Then no one will survive or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them’.
18 “For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when enter Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and scorn, and of condemnation and ridicule, and you will never see this place again’.
19 “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah: ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know for certain that I have warned you this day. 20 For you have led yourselves astray when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord your God says, tell us and we will do it’. 21 So I have declared it to you today, and you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that He has sent me to tell you. 22 Now therefore, know for certain that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and live.”