Jeremiah 42:6-16

6 Whether it be good or bad, we will listen to what ADONAI our God says. We are dispatching you to him so that things will go well with us, as we heed what ADONAI our God says."

7 Ten days later the word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu.

8 So he called Yochanan the son of Kareach, all the military commanders with him and all the people, from the least to the greatest,

9 and said to them, "You sent me to present your request to ADONAI the God of Isra'el. This is what he says:

10 'If you will stay in this land, then I will build you up, not pull you down; I will plant you and not uproot you; for I am relenting from the calamity I inflicted on you.

11 Don't be afraid of the king of Bavel - of whom you are afraid. Don't be afraid of him,' says ADONAI, 'for I am with you to save you and to rescue you from his power.

12 I will take pity on you, so that he will take pity on you and cause you to return to your own land.

13 "But if you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' thereby not heeding what ADONAI your God is saying,

14 and instead say, 'No, we will go to the land of Egypt; because there we will not see war or hear the shofar sounding its alarm or be short of food; so we'll stay there';

15 then hear what ADONAI says, remnant of Y'hudah - this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'If you are determined to go to Egypt and stay there,

16 the sword, of which you are afraid, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, of which you are afraid, will pursue you relentlessly there in Egypt; and there you will die.

Jeremiah 42:6-16 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.