Jeremiah 42

42 ¹ Then all the commanders of the forces, along with Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came forward ² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please hear our plea, and pray for us to your Father, for all this remnant — for we are only a few left out of many, as you can see." ³ that your Father may show us the way we should go and the thing we should do."

⁴ Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. I will indeed pray to your Father according to your words, and whatever your Father answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you."

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, "May our Father be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to do everything your Father sends you to tell us." ⁶ Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of our Father, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of our Father."

⁷ At the end of ten days the word of our Father came to Jeremiah. ⁸ So he called Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, ⁹ and said to them, "This is what our Father of Israel says — the One to whom you sent me to present your plea before him: ¹⁰ If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I relent of the disaster 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 our Father, for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his grasp. ¹² I will show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and let you return to your own land.

¹³ But if you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' so that you do not obey the voice of your Father, ¹⁴ saying, 'No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, hear no sound of the trumpet, and never go hungry, and there we will stay' ¹⁵ —then hear the word of our Father, remnant of Judah. This is what the Father of heaven's armies, the Father of Israel says: If you are determined to go to Egypt and settle there, ¹⁶ then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you dread will follow close behind you into Egypt, and there you will die. ¹⁷ All the people who are determined to go to Egypt and settle there will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I am bringing upon them. ¹⁸ For this is what the Father of heaven's armies, the Father of Israel says: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing, horror, reproach, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.

¹⁹ Our Father has spoken to you, remnant of Judah: Do not go to Egypt. Know for certain that I have warned you today. ²⁰ For you have led yourselves astray at the cost of your own lives when you sent me to your Father, saying, 'Pray for us to our Father, and whatever he says, tell us and we will do it.' ²¹ And I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of your Father in any of the things he sent me to tell you. ²² Now therefore know for certain that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague in the place where you desire to go to settle."