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, Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us:

³ that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do.

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

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don't do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.

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

⁷ It happened after ten days, that the word of Yahweh 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 says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:

¹⁰ If you will still live 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 grieve over the distress that I have brought on you.

¹¹ Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid of him, says Yahweh: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

¹² I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.

¹³ But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you don't obey the voice of Yahweh 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 have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:

¹⁵ now therefore hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there;

¹⁶ then it shall happen, that the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, shall follow close behind you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.

¹⁷ So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live 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 on them.

¹⁸ For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.

¹⁹ Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, Don't you go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you this day.

²⁰ For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:

²¹ and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.

²² Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to live there.

¹ Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.

² Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

³ Yahweh didn't make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.

⁴ Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire,

⁵ (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you the word of Yahweh: for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn't go up onto the mountain;) saying,

⁶ "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

⁷ "You shall have no other gods before me.

⁸ "You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, [nor] any likeness [of anything] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

⁹ you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me;

¹⁰ and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹ "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain: for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

¹² "Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you.

¹³ You shall labor six days, and do all your work;

¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ "Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

¹⁷ "You shall not murder.

¹⁸ "Neither shall you commit adultery.

¹⁹ "Neither shall you steal.

²⁰ "Neither shall you give false testimony against your neighbor.

²¹ "Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

²² These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me.

²³ It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

²⁴ and you said, "Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives.

²⁵ Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any more, then we shall die.

²⁶ For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

²⁷ Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say: and tell us all that Yahweh our God shall tell you; and we will hear it, and do it."

²⁸ Yahweh heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have well said all that they have spoken.

²⁹ Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!

³⁰ "Go tell them, Return to your tents.

³¹ But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it."

³² You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you: you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³³ You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.