Jeremiah 42 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
586 BC, in the unsettled weeks after Gedaliah's assassination
Location
A stopping place near Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, on the road toward Egypt
Audience
Judean survivors deciding whether to stay in the land, and later readers weighing what happens when people ask for guidance they have already decided to ignore
Situation
Johanan and the whole remaining company ask Jeremiah to seek a word from God and swear they will obey whatever comes. Ten days later the answer arrives: stay in the land and be safe, go to Egypt and die there by sword, famine, and disease.
Key Background
The ten-day gap matters because it shows the prophet did not produce an answer on demand, which distinguished him from court prophets who told rulers what they wanted immediately. Egypt was the obvious refuge, close by, wealthy, and already hosting Judean communities, so the instruction to stay in a wrecked and dangerous homeland ran against every practical instinct. The oath the group swears before hearing the answer sets up the chapter's real subject, which is a decision already made and dressed up as a request for guidance.
Then all the — including Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah — and all the people, from the to the most came forward
and said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Please — hear our request. to on our behalf, for all of us who are left here. Because as you can see, there are only a few of us remaining out of what was once a large population."
"Ask Yahweh your God to show us where we should go and what we should do."
The prophet Jeremiah said to them, "I hear you. I will pray to Yahweh your God just as you've asked, and whatever Yahweh answers, I will tell you everything. I from you."
Then they said to Jeremiah, "May Yahweh be a and against us if we don't do exactly what Yahweh your God tells us through you."
the is what we to or not, we will obey — the one we're sending you to. We will obey so that things will go well for us, because we will be listening to
Yahweh's word came to Jeremiah.
So he called together Johanan son of Kareah, all the military commanders who were with him, and all the people from the least important to the most important.
He told them, "This is what Yahweh, the of says — the one you sent me to bring your request to:
"'If you stay in this land, I will you up — not you down. I will you — not you. Because I am over the disaster I have brought on you."
"Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, the one you're so afraid of right now. Don't be afraid of him" — this is — "because I am with you to you and you from his power."
"I will show you and he will have on you and let you return to your own land."
"But if you say, 'We're not going to stay in this land' — refusing to listen to Yahweh your God —"
"and instead say, 'No — we're going to Egypt, where we won't see war, won't hear the sound of the and won't go hungry for bread. That's where we'll live' — "
"then hear Yahweh's word, you of This is what Yahweh, the of the God of Israel, says: 'If you are absolutely determined to go to Egypt, and you go to settle there — "
"the you're so afraid of will catch up to you right there in Egypt, and the you're so worried about will follow you all the way to Egypt. You will die there."
"Every person who is determined to go to Egypt and settle there will die by the sword, by famine, and by Not a single one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.'"
"Because this is what Yahweh, the Commander of angel armies, the God of Israel, says: 'Just as my was out on the people of Jerusalem, my will be out on you when you enter Egypt. You will become an of a a and a And you will never see this place again.'"
"Yahweh has spoken to you, remnant of Judah: Do not go to Egypt. Understand clearly that I am you today."
"Because you have You're the ones who sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, 'Pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf, and tell us everything Yahweh our God says, and we'll do it.'"
I have told you today, and you have not to Yahweh your God — not in anything he sent me to tell you.
So now, for you will die by the sword, by famine, and by disease in the where you to go and live.