41 In the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the king’s family, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah. He came with one of the head captains of the king, and ten other men. While they were eating bread together there in Mizpah, ² Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him rose up and killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword. They killed the one whom the king of Babylon had chosen to rule the land. ³ Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Babylonian soldiers who were found there.

⁴ The next day, before anyone knew that Gedaliah had been killed, ⁵ eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria. Their hair was cut from their faces, their clothes were torn, and their bodies were cut. They came with grain gifts and special perfume in their hands to bring to the house of the Lord. ⁶ Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, crying as he went. As he met them he said, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” ⁷ When they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him killed them, and threw them into the well. ⁸ But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us! For we have stores of grain, barley, oil and honey hidden in the field.” So he did not kill them with their friends.

⁹ The well where Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men he had killed because of Gedaliah was the one that King Asa had made because of his fear of Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael the son the Nethaniah filled it with the dead. ¹⁰ Then he put all the rest of the Jews in chains who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people left in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the prison soldiers, had put under the rule of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them and started to cross over to the sons of Ammon.

¹¹ But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the armies that were with him, heard about all the bad things that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done. ¹² So they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah. They found him by the large pool in Gibeon. ¹³ When all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and the captains of the armies with him, they were glad. ¹⁴ So all the people Ishmael had taken from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. ¹⁵ But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah got away from Johanan with eight men and went to the sons of Ammon. ¹⁶ Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the armies that were with him took all the rest of the people whom Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had taken away from Mizpah after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. They took the soldiers, the women, the children, and the servants, whom Johanan had brought back from Gibeon, ¹⁷ and they went and stayed in GeruthChimham near Bethlehem. They were on their way to Egypt ¹⁸ because of the Babylonians. For they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had chosen to rule the land.

The People Want to Go to Egypt

42 Then all the captains of the armies, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great, came near ² and said to Jeremiah the man of God, “Hear what we ask of you. Pray to the Lord your God for us, for all these people who are left. As you see, only a few of us are left out of many. ³ Pray that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go and what we should do.” ⁴ Then Jeremiah the man of God said to them, “I have heard you. I will pray to the Lord your God as you ask. And I will tell you the whole answer that the Lord gives. I will not keep anything from you.” ⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be true and faithful to speak against us if we do not do all that the Lord your God tells you we must do. ⁶ If it is good or bad, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to Whom we are sending you. It will go well with us if we listen to the voice of the Lord our God.”

⁷ At the end of ten days the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. ⁸ Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the armies that were with him, and for all the people both small and great. ⁹ And he said to them, “This is what the Lord the God of Israel says, to Whom you sent me to bring Him what you asked for: ¹⁰ ‘If you will stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down. I will plant you and not pull you up by the roots. For I will change My mind about the trouble that I have given you. ¹¹ Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, who now fills you with fear. Do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord. ‘For I am with you to save you and take you from his hands. ¹² I will show you loving-pity, so that he will have pity on you and let you stay in your own land. ¹³ But if you say, “We will not stay in this land,” and will not listen to 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 a horn or be hungry for bread, and we will stay there,” ¹⁵ then listen to the Word of the Lord, O you who are left of Judah. This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says: “If you set your mind to go into Egypt, and go to live there, ¹⁶ then the sword which you are afraid of will come to you there in the land of Egypt. The hunger you are worried about will follow after you there in Egypt. And there you will die. ¹⁷ So all the men who set their mind to go and live in Egypt will die by the sword and hunger and disease. They will have no one left alive and no one who will get away from the trouble that I will bring to them.’”

¹⁸ “For the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, ‘As My anger has been poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so My anger will be poured out on you when you go into Egypt. You will become a curse, and object of hate. People will say bad things against you. You will be put to shame. And you will never see this place again.’ ¹⁹ O people who are left of Judah, the Lord has said to you, ‘Do not go into Egypt!’ Know for sure that I have told you of the danger today. ²⁰ You have fooled yourselves. You sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Whatever the Lord our God says, tell us and we will do it.’ ²¹ So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the Lord your God in anything that He told me to tell you. ²² So now be sure and know that you will die by the sword and hunger and disease, in the place where you want to go to live.”

Jeremiah Is Taken to Egypt

43 Jeremiah, whom the Lord their God had sent, finished telling all the people all these words of the Lord their God. ² Then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go into Egypt to live.’ ³ But Baruch the son of Neriah is leading you against us to give us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or take us away to Babylon.” ⁴ So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the armies, and all the people, did not obey the voice of the Lord to stay in the land of Judah. ⁵ Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the armies took all the people left of Judah, who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been driven. ⁶ They took the men, women, children, the king’s daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the prison soldiers had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. They also took Jeremiah the man of God and Baruch the son of Neriah. ⁷ And they went into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. They went in as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸ Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, ⁹ “Take some large stones in your hands. And hide them among the stone blocks by the door of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes. Let some of the Jews see you do this. ¹⁰ Tell them, ‘The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “See, I will send for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant. And I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden. He will spread his covering over them. ¹¹ He will come and fight against the land of Egypt. Those who are meant to die will die. Those who are to be taken away will be taken away. And those who are to be killed by the sword will be killed by the sword. ¹² I will set fire to the houses of worship where the gods of Egypt are worshiped. He will burn them and take them away. So he will dress himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd puts on his coat. And he will go away from there in peace. ¹³ He will break to pieces the objects of worship in the house of the Sun god in Egypt. And he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.”’”

The People Will Be Punished in Egypt

44 This word came to Jeremiah for the Jews living in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying, ² “This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have seen all the trouble I have brought to Jerusalem and to all the cities of Judah. See, today they are a waste. No one lives in them. ³ This is because of the sins they did that made Me angry. They kept burning special perfume and worshiping other gods whom they, you, and your fathers had not known. ⁴ Yet I sent you all My servants who spoke for Me again and again, saying, “O, do not do this very sinful thing which I hate!” ⁵ But they did not listen and would not turn from their sinful ways. They would not stop burning special perfume to other gods. ⁶ So My anger was poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they have been destroyed and laid waste, as they are today. ⁷ Now this is what the Lord God of All, the God of Israel, says: “Why are you hurting yourselves so much? Why are you cutting off from Judah man and woman, child and baby, and leaving yourselves without anyone? ⁸ You are making Me angry with the works of your hands. You burn special perfume to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to live. And so you will be cut off and become a curse and a shame among all the nations of the earth. ⁹ Have you forgotten the sins of your fathers, the sins of the kings of Judah, the sins of their wives, your own sins, and the sins of your wives? They sinned in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They have not been sorry for their sins even to this day. They have not feared Me or walked in My Laws which I have given you and your fathers.”’

¹¹ “So the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, ‘I will turn against you and destroy all Judah. ¹² I will take away those left of Judah who have set their mind on going into the land of Egypt to live. They will come to an end in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword or die from hunger. Both the small and the great will die by the sword or hunger. They will be a curse and a cause of fear. They will be spoken against and put to shame. ¹³ I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword and hunger and disease. ¹⁴ So none of those left of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt will be able to leave and go to the land of Judah, where they want to return and live. None will return except a few who run for their lives.’”

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning special perfume to other gods, and all the many women who stood by, and all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to what you have said to us in the name of the Lord! ¹⁷ But we will do everything that we have said we would do. We will burn special perfume to the queen of heaven and pour out drink gifts to her. We will do just as we ourselves, our fathers, our kings and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had much food, and got along well, and had no trouble. ¹⁸ But since we stopped burning special perfume to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink gifts to her, we have been without everything. We have been destroyed by the sword and by hunger.” ¹⁹ And the women said, “When we baked cakes which looked like the queen of heaven, burned special perfume, and poured out our drink gifts, did not our husbands know about it?”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both the men and women, who had given him this answer, ²¹ “As for the special perfume that you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, did not the Lord remember it? Did it not come into His mind? ²² The Lord could no longer stand by while you did such sinful things. You have done very sinful acts. So your land has been laid waste. It has become a hated and cursed land, a place without people, as it is today. ²³ Because you have burned special perfume and have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His Laws or done what He said to do, this trouble has come upon you, as it has this day.” ²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the Word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have said with your mouths and have done it with your hands, saying, “For sure we will keep our promises to burn special perfume to the queen of heaven and pour out drink gifts to her.” Then keep your promises! Do what you have promised!’ ²⁶ But hear the Word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt: ‘I have sworn by My great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that My name will no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The Lord God lives.” ²⁷ For I am watching over them for trouble and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be destroyed by the sword and hunger until there is an end of them. ²⁸ And those who get away from the sword and return from Egypt to the land of Judah will be few. Then all those left of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to live will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs. ²⁹ This will be the special thing for you to see,’ says the Lord. ‘I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will be sure to stand against you for your hurt.’ ³⁰ The Lord says, ‘I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt over to those who hate him and want to kill him. It will be just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who hated him and wanted to kill him.’”