Jeremiah 42

Then all the army commanders, along with Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least important to the most important, came forward.

1Then 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 unto the greatest, came near,

NoteThe scene follows the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the murder of Gedaliah, the governor Babylon had installed over the survivors. The people speaking here are the remnant left in Judah, camped near Bethlehem and already moving south toward Egypt. The "army commanders" led surviving bands of Judean fighters rather than a standing army. Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah appears as Azariah son of Hoshaiah in chapter 43:2 and in the ancient Greek version of Jeremiah; the two names may belong to the same man.

2They said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please accept our request, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for this whole group that is left. Once we were many, and now only a few of us remain, as you can see for yourself."

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

3"Ask that the LORD your God will show us which way we should go and what we should do."

3That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.

4Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. I will pray to the LORD your God, just as you have asked. Whatever answer the LORD gives you, I will tell you. I will not hold anything back."

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

5Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to do everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

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

NoteCalling on God as witness was the standard way of swearing a binding oath: the witness is understood to enforce the promise, not merely observe it. The Hebrew preposition can be read either as "between us" (a witness to the agreement) or "against us" (a witness who will testify if we break it), and translations divide on it.

6Whether the answer pleases us or not, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, the one we are sending you to. Then things will go well for us, because we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."

6Whether 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.

7Ten days later, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

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

NoteThe ten-day gap is recorded as a plain fact of the process. A prophet was not thought to produce an answer on demand; waiting for a word to come was normal, and the delay left the group camped and undecided for over a week.

8So he called for Johanan son of Kareah, all the army commanders who were with him, and all the people, from the least important to the most important.

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

9He said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, the God you sent me to with your request:

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

10'If you will stay on in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down. I will plant you and not pull you up, because I am sorry about the disaster I brought on you.

10If 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 me of the evil that I have done unto you.

Note"Build" and "plant" set against "tear down" and "pull up" are a fixed pair of images in Jeremiah for the making and unmaking of a nation, first used of Jeremiah's own commission in chapter 1:10. The King James "I repent me of the evil" uses two words that have shifted since 1611: the verb means to change course or relent, not to feel guilt, and "evil" here is the Hebrew word for harm or disaster, meaning the calamity itself rather than moral wickedness.

11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, the man you are afraid of now. Do not be afraid of him, says the LORD, because I am with you to save you and to rescue you from his power.

11Be 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.

NoteThe king of Babylon is Nebuchadnezzar. Their fear is specific: the governor Babylon had appointed over them had just been assassinated by a member of Judah's royal family, and they expected Babylonian reprisals to fall on everyone left in the land.

12I will show you mercy, so that he will have mercy on you and let you go back to your own land.'

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

NoteThe last clause is ambiguous in Hebrew. It can mean he will let them go back to their own land (which would refer to people already deported or scattered) or that he will let them settle back on their own soil undisturbed. Translators differ.

13But suppose you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' and so you refuse to obey the voice of the LORD your God.

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

14Suppose you say, 'No. We will go to the land of Egypt. There we will not see war, or hear the war horn sound, or go hungry for bread. That is where we will live.'

14Saying, 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:

NoteThe instrument is the shofar, a ram's horn. It was not used for music but as a signal, and the sound people dreaded was its use as an alarm warning that an army was coming. Egypt was the obvious refuge: it lay outside Babylonian control, was reachable in a matter of days, and already held settled communities of Judeans.

15If so, then hear the word of the LORD, you who are left of Judah. This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'If you are set on going to Egypt to live there as foreigners,

15And 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;

Note"LORD of Armies" (the King James "LORD of hosts") renders a title meaning commander of the heavenly armies, an ancient name for God as a warrior at the head of his forces. To "live there as foreigners" translates a word for a resident alien: someone permitted to settle in a country without owning land or holding the rights of a native, and so dependent on local goodwill for protection. The King James "set your faces" is a Hebrew idiom for fixed determination.

16then the sword you are afraid of will catch up with you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you dread will follow close behind you into Egypt, and you will die there.

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

17That is how it will be for every man who is determined to go to Egypt and live there. They will die by the sword, by famine, and by disease. Not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I bring on them.'

17So 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.

NoteSword, famine, and disease form a set phrase repeated throughout Jeremiah. They are the three linked killers of ancient warfare: the attacking army, the starvation caused by a siege cutting off food, and the epidemics that spread among people crowded together with the dead unburied.

18For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'My anger and fury were poured out on the people living in Jerusalem. In the same way my fury will be poured out on you if you go into Egypt. Others will use your name when they curse someone, and they will be horrified at you and insult you. You will never see this place again.'

18For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine 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.

NoteThis describes a curse formula. When a name became "a curse," people used it as the worst thing they could wish on an enemy, "may you end up like them." The four terms together mean the group's fate would become the standard byword for ruin, spoken of with horror and used as an insult.

19The LORD has spoken to you who are left of Judah: 'Do not go to Egypt.' Be certain of this: I have warned you today.

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

Note"Warned" here has a formal, legal weight: testimony delivered publicly in front of witnesses, so that afterward no one can claim not to have known.

20You were not honest in your own hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray to the LORD our God for us. Tell us everything the LORD our God says, and we will do it.'

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

NoteThe King James "ye dissembled in your hearts" uses a word that has since dropped out of ordinary English; it means to act with concealed intent. The Hebrew verb is ambiguous and can mean either that they deceived themselves or that they led themselves astray at the cost of their own lives.

21Today I have told you what he said, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything he sent me to tell you.

21And 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 the which he hath sent me unto you.

22So be certain of this: you will die by the sword, by famine, and by disease in the place where you want to go and live.

22Now 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.