40 The word that occurred to Jeremiah from Jehovah after Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard sent him from Ramah, when he took him while he was bound with handcuffs in the midst of all the exiles of Jerusalem and of Judah, who were being taken into exile in Babylon. 2 Then the chief of the bodyguard took Jeremiah and said to him: “Jehovah your God himself spoke this calamity against this place, 3 that Jehovah might bring [it] true and do just as he has spoken, because YOU people have sinned against Jehovah and have not obeyed his voice. And this thing has happened to YOU. 4 And now, look! I have let you loose today from the handcuffs that were upon your hands. If it is good in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, come, and I shall keep my eye upon you. But if it is bad in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, refrain. See! The entire land is before you. To wherever it is good and right in your eyes to go, go there.”

5 And he was yet not one that would return, when [Nebuzaradan said]: “Do return to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has commissioned over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him in the midst of the people; or to wherever it is right in your eyes to go, go.”

And the chief of the bodyguard then gave him a food allowance and a present and let him go. 6 Accordingly Jeremiah came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah and took up dwelling with him in the midst of the people who were left remaining in the land.

7 In time all the chiefs of the military forces who were in the field, they and their men, got to hear that the king of Babylon had commissioned Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and that he had commissioned him [over] the men and women and little children and some of the lowly people of the land, who had not been taken into exile in Babylon. 8 So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. 9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan proceeded to swear to them and to their men, saying: “Do not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans. Continue dwelling in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with YOU. 10 And as for me, here I am dwelling in Mizpah, in order to stand before the Chaldeans who will come to us. And as for YOU yourselves, gather wine and summer fruits and oil and put [them] in YOUR vessels and dwell in YOUR cities that YOU have seized.”

11 And all the Jews that were in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom and those who were in all the [other] lands, they also heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant to Judah and that he had commissioned over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan. 12 And all the Jews began to return from all the places to which they had been dispersed, and they kept coming into the land of Judah to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they went gathering wine and summer fruits in very great quantity.

13 As for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the chiefs of the military forces who were in the field, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. 14 And they proceeded to say to him: “Do you not at all know that Baalis, the king of the sons of Ammon, himself has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to strike you to the soul?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them.

15 And Johanan the son of Kareah himself said to Gedaliah, in a place of concealment in Mizpah: “I want to go, now, and strike down Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, as no one at all will know. Why should he strike you to the soul, and why must all those of Judah who are being collected together to you be scattered and the remnant of Judah perish?” 16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah: “Do not do this thing, for it is a falsehood that you are speaking concerning Ishmael.”

41 So it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama of the royal offspring and [of the] principal men of the king and ten other men with him came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And there they began to eat bread together in Mizpah. 2 Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men that happened to be with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword. So he put to death the one whom the king of Babylon had commissioned over the land. 3 And all the Jews who happened to be with him, that is, with Gedaliah, in Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, that is, the men of war, Ishmael struck down.

4 And it came about on the second day of the putting of Gedaliah to death, when there was no one at all that knew [it], 5 then there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved off and with their garments ripped apart and with cuts made upon themselves, and there were grain offering and frankincense in their hand to bring to the house of Jehovah. 6 So Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping while he was walking along. And it came about that as soon as he encountered them he proceeded to say to them: “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” 7 But it occurred that as soon as they came into the midst of the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went slaughtering them [and throwing them] into the midst of the cistern, he and the men that were with him.

8 But there were ten men that were found among them who immediately said to Ishmael: “Do not put us to death, for there exist in our possession hidden treasures in the field, wheat and barley and oil and honey.” So he refrained, and he did not put them to death in the midst of their brothers. 9 Now the cistern into which Ishmael threw all the carcasses of the men that he had struck down was a great cistern, the one that King Asa had made because of Baasha the king of Israel. It was the one that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled with those slain.

10 Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people who were in Mizpah, the daughters of the king and all the people who were remaining over in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard had put in the custody of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. So Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and went off to cross over to the sons of Ammon.

11 In time Johanan the son of Kareah and all the chiefs of the military forces who were with him got to hear all the bad that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done. 12 Consequently they took all the men and went off to fight against Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and found him by the abundant waters that were in Gibeon.

13 Then it came about that as soon as all the people that were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the chiefs of the military forces who were with him, they began to rejoice. 14 And all the people whom Ishmael had led captive from Mizpah proceeded to turn around and return and go to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15 And as for Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, he escaped with eight men from before Johanan, that he might go to the sons of Ammon.

16 Johanan the son of Kareah and all the chiefs of the military forces who were with him now took all the remnant of the people whom they brought back from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, able-bodied men, men of war, and the wives and the little children and the court officials, whom he brought back from Gibeon. 17 So they went and took up dwelling in the lodging place of Chimham that was beside Bethlehem, in order to go on and enter into Egypt, 18 because of the Chaldeans; for they had become afraid because of them, since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had commissioned over the land.

42 Then all the chiefs of the military forces and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah and all the people, from the smallest one even to the greatest one, approached 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet: “May our request for favor, please, fall before you, and do you pray in our behalf to Jehovah your God, in behalf of all this remnant, for we have been left remaining, a few out of many, just as your eyes are seeing us. 3 And may Jehovah your God tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.”

4 At that Jeremiah the prophet said to them: “I have heard. Here I am praying to Jehovah YOUR God according to YOUR words; and it will certainly occur that every word that Jehovah gives in answer to YOU I shall tell YOU. I shall not hold back from YOU a word.”

5 And they, for their part, said to Jeremiah: “May Jehovah prove to be a true and faithful witness against us if it is not according to every word with which Jehovah your God sends you to us that we shall exactly do. 6 Whether good or bad, it is the voice of Jehovah our God to whom we are sending you that we shall obey, to the intent that it may go well with us because we obey the voice of Jehovah our God.”

7 Now it came about at the end of ten days that the word of Jehovah proceeded to occur to Jeremiah. 8 So he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and for all the chiefs of the military forces who were with him and for all the people, from the smallest one even to the greatest one; 9 and he went on to say to them: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel, to whom YOU sent me to cause your request for favor to fall before him, has said, 10 ‘If YOU will without fail keep dwelling in this land, I will also build YOU up and I shall not tear [YOU] down, and I will plant YOU and I shall not uproot [YOU]; for I shall certainly feel regret over the calamity that I have caused to YOU. 11 Do not be afraid because of the king of Babylon, of whom YOU are in fear.’

“‘Do not be afraid because of him,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘for I am with YOU, in order to save YOU and to deliver YOU out of his hand. 12 And I shall give to YOU mercies, and he will certainly have mercy upon YOU and return YOU to YOUR own soil.

13 “‘But if YOU are saying: “No; we are not going to dwell in this land!” in order to disobey the voice of Jehovah YOUR God, 14 saying: “No, but into the land of Egypt we shall enter, where we shall see no war and the sound of the horn we shall not hear and for bread we shall not go hungry; and there is where we shall dwell”; 15 even now therefore hear the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah. This is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, has said: “If YOU yourselves positively set YOUR faces to enter into Egypt and YOU actually enter in to reside there as aliens, 16 it must also occur that the very sword of which YOU are afraid will there catch up with YOU in the land of Egypt, and the very famine at which YOU are in a fright will there closely follow after YOU to Egypt; and there is where YOU will die. 17 And it will come about that all the men that have set their faces to enter into Egypt to reside there as aliens will be the ones to die by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence; and they will not come to have a survivor or an escapee, because of the calamity that I am bringing in upon them.”’

18 “For this is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, has said, ‘Just as my anger and my rage have been poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my rage will be poured out upon YOU because of YOUR entering into Egypt, and YOU will certainly become a curse and an object of astonishment and a malediction and a reproach, and you will no more see this place.’

19 “Jehovah has spoken against YOU, O remnant of Judah. Do not enter into Egypt. YOU should positively know that I have borne witness against YOU today, 20 that YOU have committed error against YOUR souls; for YOU yourselves have sent me to Jehovah YOUR God, saying, ‘Pray in our behalf to Jehovah our God; and according to everything that Jehovah our God says tell us that way, and we shall certainly do.’ 21 And I tell YOU today, but YOU will certainly not obey the voice of Jehovah YOUR God or anything with which he has sent me to YOU. 22 And now YOU should positively know that by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence YOU will die in the place into which YOU do delight to enter to reside as aliens.”

43 Now it came about that as soon as Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of Jehovah their God with which Jehovah their God had sent him to them, even all these words, 2 Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the presumptuous men proceeded to say to Jeremiah: “It is a falsehood that you are speaking. Jehovah our God has not sent you, saying, ‘Do not enter into Egypt to reside there as aliens.’ 3 But Baruch the son of Neriah is instigating you against us for the purpose of giving us into the hand of the Chaldeans, to put us to death or to take us into exile in Babylon.”

4 And Johanan the son of Kareah and all the chiefs of the military forces and all the people did not obey the voice of Jehovah, to keep on dwelling in the land of Judah. 5 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the chiefs of the military forces took all the remnant of Judah that had returned from all the nations to which they had been dispersed, in order to reside for a while in the land of Judah, 6 even the able-bodied men and the wives and the little children and the daughters of the king and every soul that Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard had let stay with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 And they finally came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of Jehovah; and they came gradually as far as Tahpanhes.

8 Then the word of Jehovah occurred to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying: 9 “Take in your hand great stones, and you must hide them in the mortar in the terrace of bricks that is at the entrance of the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes before the eyes of the Jewish men. 10 And you must say to them, ‘This is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, has said: “Here I am sending and I will take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will place his throne right above these stones that I have hidden, and he will certainly extend his state tent over them. 11 And he must come in and strike the land of Egypt. Whoever is [due] for deadly plague will be for deadly plague, and whoever is [due] for captivity will be for captivity, and whoever is [due] for the sword will be for the sword. 12 And I will set a fire ablaze in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he will certainly burn them and lead them captive and wrap himself up in the land of Egypt, just as a shepherd wraps himself up in his garment, and he will actually go out from there in peace. 13 And he will certainly break to pieces the pillars of Beth-shemesh, which is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.”’”