42Jeremiah 42

The People Ask Jeremiah to Pray for Them

1Then all the army leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, came with people of every classSelect Jeremiah 42:1

2and said to me, “Please do what we ask you! Pray to the Lord our God for us. Pray for all of us who have survived. Once there were many of us; but now only a few of us are left, as you can see.Select Jeremiah 42:2

3Pray that the Lord our God will show us the way we should go and what we should do.”Select Jeremiah 42:3

4I answered, “Very well, then. I will pray to the Lord our God, just as you have asked, and whatever he says, I will tell you. I will not keep back anything from you.”Select Jeremiah 42:4

5Then they said to me, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not obey all the commands that the Lord our God gives you for us.Select Jeremiah 42:5

6Whether it pleases us or not, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are asking you to pray. All will go well with us if we obey him.”Select Jeremiah 42:6

The 's Answer to Jeremiah's Prayer

7Ten days later the Lord spoke to me;Select Jeremiah 42:7

8so I called together Johanan, all the army leaders who were with him, and all the other people.Select Jeremiah 42:8

9I said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me with your request has said,Select Jeremiah 42:9

10‘If you are willing to go on living in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not pull you up. The destruction I brought on you has caused me great sorrow.Select Jeremiah 42:10

11Stop being afraid of the king of Babylonia. I am with you, and I will rescue you from his power.Select Jeremiah 42:11

12Because I am merciful, I will make him have mercy on you and let you go back home. I, the Lord, have spoken.’Select Jeremiah 42:12

15“But you people who are left in Judah must not disobey the Lord your God and refuse to live in this land. You must not say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we won't face war any more or hear the call to battle or go hungry.’ If you say this, then the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you are determined to go and live in Egypt,Select Jeremiah 42:15

16then the war that you fear will overtake you, and the hunger you dread will follow you, and you will die there in Egypt.Select Jeremiah 42:16

17All the people who are determined to go and live in Egypt will die either in war or of starvation or disease. Not one of them will survive, not one will escape the disaster that I am going to bring on them.’Select Jeremiah 42:17

18“The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Just as my anger and fury were poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so my fury will be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will be a horrifying sight; people will make fun of you and use your name as a curse. You will never see this place again.’”Select Jeremiah 42:18

19Then I continued, “The Lord has told you people who are left in Judah not to go to Egypt. And so I warn you nowSelect Jeremiah 42:19

20that you are making a fatal mistake. You asked me to pray to the Lord our God for you, and you promised that you would do everything that he commands.Select Jeremiah 42:20

21And now I have told you, but you are disobeying everything that the Lord our God sent me to tell you.Select Jeremiah 42:21

22So then, remember this: you will die in war or of starvation or disease in the land where you want to go and live.”Select Jeremiah 42:22