¹ Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near.

² And said to Jeremiah the prophet, We beseech thee, let our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us to the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes do behold us:)

³ That the LORD thy God may show us the way in which we may walk, and the thing that we may do.

⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for which The LORD thy God shall send thee to us.

⁶ Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

⁷ And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

⁸ Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

⁹ And said to them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;

¹⁰ If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent of the evil that I have done to you.

¹¹ Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD; for I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

¹² And I will show mercies to you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

¹³ But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,

¹⁴ Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor hunger for bread; and there will we dwell:

¹⁵ And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

¹⁶ Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.

¹⁷ So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.

¹⁸ For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As my anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem: so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.

¹⁹ The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

²⁰ For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me to the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it.

²¹ And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for which he hath sent me to you.

²² Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

¹² And I gave the evidence of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.

¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

² Thus says Yahweh to me: Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck;

³ and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah;

⁴ and give them a command to their masters, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, You shall tell your masters:

⁵ I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.

⁶ Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the animals of the field also have I given him to serve him.

⁷ All the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondservant.

⁸ It shall happen, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says Yahweh, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

⁹ But as for you, don't you listen to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon:

¹⁰ for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.

¹¹ But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, that [nation] will I let remain in their own land, says Yahweh; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

¹² I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

¹³ Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴ Don't listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you.

¹⁵ For I have not sent them, says Yahweh, but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you.

¹⁶ Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Don't listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, Behold, the vessels of Yahweh's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you.

¹⁷ Don't listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should this city become a desolation?

¹⁸ But if they be prophets, and if the word of Yahweh be with them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of Armies, that the vessels which are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don't go to Babylon.

¹⁹ For thus says Yahweh of Armies concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that are left in this city,

²⁰ which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;

²¹ yes, thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem:

²² They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the day that I visit them, says Yahweh; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.