42 Then all the army chiefs, and Jo·haʹnan the son of Ka·reʹah, Yez·a·nyʹah the son of Ho·shayʹah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, approached 2 and said to Yeremyah the prophet: “Hear, please, our request for favor, and pray in our behalf to Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl}, in behalf of all this remnant, for just a few of many are left, as you can see. 3 May Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl} tell us the way we should walk and what we should do.”
4 Yeremyah the prophet replied to them: “I have heard you, and I am praying to Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl} according to your request; and every word that Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} answers you, I will tell you. I will not hold back a word from you.”
5 They replied to Yeremyah: “May Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do exactly as Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl} instructs us through you. 6 Whether good or bad, we will obey the voice of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl}, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us because we obey the voice of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl}.”
7 Now ten days later the word of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} came to Yeremyah. 8 So he called for Jo·haʹnan the son of Ka·reʹah and for all the army chiefs who were with him and for all the people, from the least to the greatest. 9 He said to them: “This is what Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} the Al {pre. Ahl} of Isra'Al says, to whom you sent me to present your request for favor before him: 10 ‘If you will indeed remain in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will feel regret over the calamity I have caused you. 11 Do not be afraid because of the king of Babylon, whom you fear.’
“‘Do not be afraid because of him,’ declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}, ‘for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you out of his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and return you to your own land.
13 “‘But if you say, “No, we will not remain in this land!” and you disobey the voice of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl} 14 by saying, “No, we will go instead to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the horn or hunger for bread; there is where we will live,” 15 then hear the word of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}, O remnant of Judah. This is what Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} of armies, the Al {pre. Ahl} of Isra'Al, says: “If you are absolutely determined to go to Egypt and you go there to reside, 16 then the very sword you are afraid of will catch up with you there in the land of Egypt, and the very famine you fear will follow after you to Egypt, and there you will die. 17 And all the men who are determined to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. None of them will survive or escape the calamity that I will bring on them.”’
18 “For this is what Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} of armies, the Al {pre. Ahl} of Isra'Al, says: ‘Just as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Yerushalom, so my wrath will be poured out on you if you go to Egypt, and you will become a curse, an object of horror, a malediction, and a reproach, and you will never again see this place.’
19 “Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} has spoken against you, O remnant of Judah. Do not go to Egypt. You should know for a certainty that I have warned you today 20 that your error will cost you your lives. For you sent me to Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl}, saying, ‘Pray in our behalf to Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl}, and tell us everything that Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl} says, and we will do it.’ 21 And I told you today, but you will not obey the voice of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl} or do anything he sent me to tell you. 22 Therefore, know for a certainty that by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence you will die in the place where you desire to go and reside.”