Jeremiah 42:10-18

10 ‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you.

11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands.

12 I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’

13 “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the LORD your God,

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.

17 Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’

18 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse^[a] and an object of horror, a curse^[b] and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.’

Jeremiah 42:10-18 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. Jeremiah 43:4
• 2. S Jeremiah 24:6
• 3. S Deuteronomy 30:9; Jeremiah 31:28
• 4. S Deuteronomy 29:28; Ecclesiastes 3:2; Jeremiah 45:4; Ezekiel 36:36; Daniel 11:4
• 5. S 2 Chronicles 34:24; Isaiah 30:26; S Jeremiah 18:8
• 6. Jeremiah 27:11
• 7. S Numbers 14:9; S 1 Samuel 15:24; Psalms 23:4; Matthew 10:28; 2 Timothy 1:7
• 8. Psalms 18:27; Psalms 69:35; S Psalms 119:94; S Isaiah 63:1; Hebrews 7:25; Isaiah 43:5
• 9. S Psalms 3:7; S Proverbs 20:22; S Jeremiah 1:8; Romans 8:31
• 10. S Exodus 3:21; S 2 Samuel 24:14; 2 Corinthians 1:3
• 11. S Genesis 31:3; S Nehemiah 1:9; Psalms 106:44-46
• 12. S Deuteronomy 11:28; Jeremiah 44:16
• 13. Numbers 11:4-5; S Deuteronomy 17:16; S Isaiah 30:2
• 14. S Joshua 6:20; S Matthew 24:31
• 15. S Deuteronomy 8:3; 1 Samuel 2:5; Proverbs 10:3; Isaiah 65:13; Matthew 4:2-4
• 16. Jeremiah 44:24
• 17. S Leviticus 26:33; Ezekiel 11:8; Ezekiel 14:17
• 18. S Jeremiah 41:18
• 19. S Genesis 41:55
• 20. S Genesis 2:17; 2 Chronicles 25:4; S Job 21:20; Ezekiel 3:19; Ezekiel 18:4
• 21. ver 22; S Jeremiah 21:7; Jeremiah 44:13
• 22. Deuteronomy 29:18-20; S 2 Chronicles 12:7; Jeremiah 7:20
• 23. S 2 Chronicles 36:19; Jeremiah 39:1-9
• 24. S Numbers 5:27; S Jeremiah 25:18
• 25. S Deuteronomy 28:25,37; Jeremiah 29:18
• 26. S Psalms 44:13
• 27. S Jeremiah 22:10

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, your name will be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, others will see that you are cursed.
• [b]. That is, your name will be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, others will see that you are cursed.