Jeremiah 42:14-16

14 and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’

15 then hear the word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there,

16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.

Jeremiah 42:14-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH CAHPTER 42

This chapter contains a request of the Jews to Jeremiah, to pray to the Lord for them to direct them, and the Lord's answer to it. The request is made by the captains and all the people, Jer 42:1-3; which Jeremiah undertook to present to the Lord, Jer 42:4; they promising to go according to the direction that should be given, Jer 42:5,6. After ten days an answer is returned, and the prophet calls the captains and people together to hear it, Jer 42:7,8; the purport of which was, that if they continued in the land of Judah, it would be well with them, and they would be safe, Jer 42:9-12; but if they went into Egypt, they should die by the sword, famine, and pestilence, and be a curse and reproach, and never see their own land more, Jer 42:13-18; they are charged with dissimulation and disobedience, Jer 42:19-21; and the chapter is concluded with an assurance of their perishing by the above judgments in the place they were desirous of dwelling in, Jer 42:22.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 11:4-5; S Deuteronomy 17:16; S Isaiah 30:2
• 2. S Joshua 6:20; S Matthew 24:31
• 3. S Deuteronomy 8:3; 1 Samuel 2:5; Proverbs 10:3; Isaiah 65:13; Matthew 4:2-4
• 4. Jeremiah 44:24
• 5. S Leviticus 26:33; Ezekiel 11:8; Ezekiel 14:17
• 6. S Jeremiah 41:18
• 7. S Genesis 41:55
• 8. S Genesis 2:17; 2 Chronicles 25:4; S Job 21:20; Ezekiel 3:19; Ezekiel 18:4