Jeremiah 43 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
586 BC, shortly after the answer at Bethlehem, in the months following Jerusalem's fall
Location
The road from Judah into Egypt, ending at Tahpanhes, a fortress town in the eastern Nile delta on the frontier route
Audience
Judeans who ended up in Egypt and exiles in Babylon, both watching the last community in the homeland dissolve
Situation
The leaders reject the message as a lie invented by Baruch, and take the entire remnant, including Jeremiah and Baruch, down to Egypt. At Tahpanhes Jeremiah buries large stones in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh's building and says Nebuchadnezzar will one day set his throne over that very spot.
Key Background
Tahpanhes was a border garrison where foreign mercenaries and traders settled, so a Judean refugee community there was ordinary rather than remarkable. Prophets often delivered messages as physical acts rather than speeches, and burying stones where a conqueror's canopy would later stand made the prediction visible and permanent in a way words were not. Nebuchadnezzar did campaign against Egypt years later, and the chapter's claim that no refuge lay outside God's reach is aimed at people who assumed a border crossing would keep them safe.
When Jeremiah finished telling all the people every word that their had sent him to deliver — the entire message —
Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the men spoke up to Jeremiah: "You're Yahweh our God never sent you to tell us, 'Don't go to Egypt to settle there.'
It's son of Neriah who's turning you against us, trying to hand us over to the so they'll kill us or drag us off to Babylon as
So Johanan son of Kareah, all the and all the people refused to obey Yahweh's command to stay in the of
Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the military commanders took the entire of Judah — everyone who had come back from all the nations where they'd been and had returned to live in Judah:
the men, women, and children, the and every person that Nebuzaradan the of the had left with son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan — including Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.
They went to Egypt, because they refused to to And they made it all the way to
Then to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes:
"Pick up some large stones and, while the Judean men are watching, them in the of the brick pavement at the entrance to in Tahpanhes.
Then tell them, 'This is what Yahweh, the of the God of Israel, says: I'm about to send for my king of Babylon, and I'll set his throne right over these stones I've had buried here. He'll spread his above them.
When he comes, he'll strike Egypt. Those for death will get death. Those for captivity will get captivity. Those for the will get the
I'll set fire to the of Nebuchadnezzar will burn them down and carry the idol-statues away. He'll the a and he'll walk out of there untouched.
He'll smash the of the of the in Egypt and burn down the temples of Egypt's gods.'"