Jeremiah 42:15

15 for this thing, ye remnants of Judah, hear now the word of the Lord. The Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, If ye set your face, for to enter into Egypt, and if ye enter, to dwell there (If ye set your face, to enter into Egypt, and if ye go, to live there),

Jeremiah 42:15 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 42:15

And now therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of
Judah
A small remnant indeed, a few that were left in the land; who ought therefore to have admired the distinguishing goodness of Providence in preserving them in it; where they should have continued and made use of their privilege, to the glory of God and their mutual good: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
the Lord of armies above and below, the Lord God omnipotent, and so able to protect them in their land; and who had a peculiar favour to Israel, and stood in a particular relation to them, and therefore would do it, of which they had no reason to doubt; but, disobliging him, what judgments might they not expect? if you wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt:
are resolved upon it, and are actually engaged in it; turning their faces from Judea towards Egypt, and obstinately pursuing it, nor can be reclaimed from it: the phrase expresses their resolution, impudence, and obstinacy: and go to sojourn there:
to be sojourners and strangers there, as their fathers had been before; the remembrance of which was enough to set them against going into Egypt any more.

Jeremiah 42:15 In-Context

13 Forsooth if ye say, We shall not dwell in this land, neither we shall hear the voice of our Lord God, (But if ye say, We shall not live in this land, nor shall we listen to the voice of the Lord our God,)
14 and say, Nay, but we shall go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see battle, and shall not hear the noise, either sound, of trump, and we shall not suffer hunger, and there we shall dwell; (and say, Nay! but we shall go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see battle, and shall not hear the sound of the trumpet, and we shall not suffer hunger, and we shall live there;)
15 for this thing, ye remnants of Judah, hear now the word of the Lord. The Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, If ye set your face, for to enter into Egypt, and if ye enter, to dwell there (If ye set your face, to enter into Egypt, and if ye go, to live there),
16 the sword which ye dread shall take you there in the land of Egypt, and the hunger for which ye be anguished shall cleave to you in Egypt; and there ye shall die (and ye shall die there).
17 And all the men that setted their face, to enter into Egypt, and to dwell there, shall die by sword, and hunger, and pestilence; no man of them shall dwell still, neither shall escape from the face of [the] evil, which I shall bring on them. (And all those who set their face, to enter into Egypt, and to live there, shall die by the sword, and hunger, and pestilence; not one of them shall still remain, nor shall escape from the face of the evil, which I shall bring upon them.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.