Chapter 42

And they come nigh -- all the heads of the forces, and Johanan son of Kareah, and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest --

and they say unto Jeremiah the prophet, `Let, we pray thee, our supplication fall before thee, and pray for us unto Yehovah thy God, for all this remnant; for we have been left a few out of many, as thine eyes do see us;

and Yehovah thy God doth declare to us the way in which we walk, and the thing that we do.`

And Jeremiah the prophet saith unto them, `I have heard: lo, I am praying unto Yehovah your God according to your words, and it hath come to pass, the whole word that Yehovah answereth you, I declare to you -- I do not withhold from you a word.`

And they have said to Jeremiah, `Yehovah is against us for a witness true and faithful, if -- according to all the word with which Yehovah thy God doth send thee unto us -- we do not so.

Whether good or evil, to the voice of Yehovah our God, to whom we are sending thee, we do hearken; because it is good for us when we hearken to the voice of Yehovah our God.`

And it cometh to pass, at the end of ten days, that there is a word of Yehovah unto Jeremiah,

and he calleth unto Johanan son of Kareah, and unto all the heads of the forces that are with him, and to all the people, from the least even unto the greatest,

and he saith unto them, `Thus said Yehovah, God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me, to cause your supplication to fall before Him:

`If ye do certainly dwell in this land, then I have builded you up, and I throw not down; and I have planted you, and I pluck not up; for I have repented concerning the evil that I have done to you.

Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, whom ye are afraid of; be not afraid of him -- an affirmation of Yehovah -- for with you am I, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

And I give to you mercies, and he hath pitied you, and caused you to turn back unto your own ground.

`And if ye are saying, We do not dwell in this land -- not to hearken to the voice of Yehovah your God,

saying, No; but the land of Egypt we enter, that we see no war, and the sound of a trumpet do not hear, and for bread be not hungry; and there do we dwell.

And now, therefore, hear ye a word of Yehovah, O remnant of Judah: Thus said Yehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: If ye really set your faces to enter Egypt, and have gone in to sojourn there,

then it hath come to pass, the sword that ye are afraid of, doth there overtake you, in the land of Egypt; and the hunger, because of which ye are sorrowful, doth there cleave after you in Egypt, and there ye die.

`Thus are all the men who have set their faces to enter Egypt to sojourn there; they die -- by sword, by hunger, and by pestilence, and there is not to them a remnant and an escaped one, because of the evil that I am bringing in upon them;

for thus said Yehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: As poured out hath been Mine anger and My fury on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so poured out is My fury upon you in your entering Egypt, and ye have been for an execration, and for an astonishment, and for a reviling, and for a reproach, and ye do not see any more this place.

`Yehovah hath spoken against you, O remnant of Judah, do not enter Egypt: know certainly that I have testified against you to-day;

for ye have shewed yourselves perverse in your souls, for ye sent me unto Yehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Yehovah our God, and according to all that Yehovah our God saith, so declare to us, and we have done it;

and I declare to you to-day, and ye have not hearkened to the voice of Yehovah your God, and to anything with which He hath sent me unto you.

And now, know ye certainly that by sword, by famine, and by pestilence ye die, in the place that ye have desired to go in to sojourn there.`