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J EREMIA H 4 3
and not uproot you. For I am sorry about all the
punishment I have had to bring upon you. 11 Do
not fear the king of Babylon anymore,’ says the
Lord. ‘For I am with you and will save you and
rescue you from his power. 12 I will be merciful to
you by making him kind, so he will let you stay
here in your land.’
13 “But if you refuse to obey the Lord your
God, and if you say, ‘We will not stay here; 14 instead, we will go to Egypt where we will be free
from war, the call to arms, and hunger,’ 15 then
hear the Lord’s message to the remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined
to go to Egypt and live there, 16 the very war and
famine you fear will catch up to you, and you
will die there. 17 That is the fate awaiting every
one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt.
Yes, you will die from war, famine, and disease.
None of you will escape the disaster I will bring
upon you there.’
18 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and
fury have been poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so they will be poured out on you when
you enter Egypt. You will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. And you will
never see your homeland again.’
19 “Listen, you remnant of Judah. The Lord
has told you: ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Don’t forget
this warning I have given you today. 20 For you
were not being honest when you sent me to pray
to the Lord your God for you. You said, ‘Just tell
us what the Lord our God says, and we will do
it!’ 21 And today I have told you exactly what
he said, but you will not obey the Lord your
God any better now than you have in the past.
22 So you can be sure that you will die from war,
famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist
on going.”
Jeremiah Taken to Egypt
When Jeremiah had finished giving this
message from the Lord their God to all
the people, 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud
men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The Lord our
God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt! 3 Baruch
son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by
the Babylonians* or be carried off into exile.”
4 So Johanan and the other military leaders
and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s
command to stay in Judah. 5 Johanan and the
other leaders took with them all the people
who had returned from the nearby countries
to which they had fled. 6 In the crowd were men,
women, and children, the king’s daughters, and
all those whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of
the guard, had left with Gedaliah. The prophet
Jeremiah and Baruch were also included. 7 The
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people refused to obey the voice of the Lord
and went to Egypt, going as far as the city of
Tahpanhes.
8 Then at Tah pan hes, the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 9 “While
the people of Judah are watching, take some
large rocks and bury them under the pavement
stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here
in Tahpanhes. 10 Then say to the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly
bring my servant Nebuchadnezzar,* king of
Babylon, here to Egypt. I will set his throne
over these stones that I have hidden. He will
spread his royal canopy over them. 11 And
when he comes, he will destroy the land of
Egypt. He will bring death to those destined for
death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and war to those destined for war. 12 He will
set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods; he will
burn the temples and carry the idols away as
plunder. He will pick clean the land of Egypt as
a shepherd picks fleas from his cloak. And he
himself will leave unharmed. 13 He will break
down the sacred pillars standing in the temple
of the sun* in Egypt, and he will burn down the
temples of Egypt’s gods.’”
Judgment for Idolatry
This is the message Jeremiah received
concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes,
and Memphis,* and in southern Egypt* as well:
2 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I
brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. 3 They
provoked my anger with all their wickedness.
They burned incense and worshiped other
gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of
your ancestors had ever even known.
4 “Again and again I sent my servants, the
prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these
horrible things that I hate so much.’ 5 But my
people would not listen or turn back from their
wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to
these gods. 6 And so my fury boiled over and
fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the
streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate
ruin today.
7 “And now the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, asks you: Why are you
destroying yourselves? For not one of you will
survive—not a man, woman, or child among
you who has come here from Judah, not even
the babies in your arms. 8 Why provoke my anger
by burning incense to the idols you have made
here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves
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43:3 Or Chaldeans. 43:10 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant
spelling of Nebuchadnezzar. 43:13 Or in Heliopolis.
44:1a Hebrew Noph. 44:1b Hebrew in Pathros.