Do Not Go to Egypt
Jeremiah 49, verse 1. All the leaders of the army, Johanan and Azariah the son of Mahseiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, Jeremiah 49, verse 2. came to Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Let our supplication now come before your face, and pray to the Lord your God concerning those who remain, for we few are left out of the many, as your eyes see. Jeremiah 49, verse 3. Let the Lord your God proclaim to us the way wherein we should walk and the thing we should do.” Jeremiah 49, verse 4. Then Jeremiah said to them, “I hear you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord our God according to your words, and it shall come to pass, whatever word the Lord shall answer I will declare to you. I will not conceal any word from you.” Jeremiah 49, verse 5. They said to Jeremiah, “Let the Lord be between us as a righteous and faithful witness, if we will do every word the Lord sends us, Jeremiah 49, verse 6. and whether it be good or evil, we will heed the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be beneficial for us; for we will heed the voice of the Lord our God.” Jeremiah 49, verse 7. So it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after ten days. Jeremiah 49, verse 8. Thus he called Johanan, and all the leaders of the army, and all the people, from the least even to the greatest, Jeremiah 49, verse 9. and said to them, “Thus says the Lord: Jeremiah 49, verse 10. ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, I will build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I will put an end to the calamities I did to you. Jeremiah 49, verse 11. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear. Do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘because I am with you to deliver you, and to save you from his hand. Jeremiah 49, verse 12. I will show you compassion and have mercy on you. I will return you to your land.’ Jeremiah 49, verse 13. “But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land, so as not to heed the voice of the Lord; Jeremiah 49, verse 14. for we shall go into the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’; Jeremiah 49, verse 15. then hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord: ‘If you have set your face to Egypt to enter and dwell there, Jeremiah 49, verse 16. then it shall be that the sword you feared shall find you in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you have regard shall overtake you in Egypt; and there you shall die. Jeremiah 49, verse 17. So all the men and all the foreigners who set their faces to the land of Egypt to dwell there, they shall die by the sword and famine. Not one of them shall escape from the evils I will bring upon them.’ Jeremiah 49, verse 18. “For thus says the Lord: ‘As My anger fell upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall My anger fall upon you when you enter Egypt. You shall be as an impassable land and under the authority of others. You shall be as a curse and a disgrace, and you shall see this place no more.’ Jeremiah 49, verse 19. These are the words the Lord said concerning you, O remnant of Judah: ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ So now, know this as a certainty, Jeremiah 49, verse 20. that you did evil in your souls when you sent to me, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord, and according to all the Lord speaks to you we will do.’ Jeremiah 49, verse 21. But you did not heed the voice of the Lord which He sent me for you. Jeremiah 49, verse 22. So now you shall die by the sword and by famine in the place you desire to go and dwell.”