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¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had released him from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken as exiles to Babylon.

²And the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, "The LORD your God promised this disaster on this place.

³Now the LORD has brought it about and has done just as He promised. Because you [people of Judah] have sinned against the LORD and did not listen to and honor His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you.

⁴But now, listen carefully, [because of your innocence] I am freeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If you would prefer to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you [carefully]; but if you would prefer not to come with me to Babylon, then do not do so. Look, all the land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right (convenient) for you to go."

⁵While Jeremiah was still hesitating, the captain of the bodyguard said, "Go on back then to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed [governor] over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or else go wherever it seems right for you to go." So the captain of the bodyguard gave him an allowance of food and a gift and let him go.

⁶Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

⁷Now when all the commanders of the forces that were [scattered] in the open country [of Judah] and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land [of Judah] and had put him in charge of the men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon,

⁸they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

⁹Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and their men, saying, "Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans; stay in this land and serve the king of Babylon, that it may go well with you.

¹⁰As for me, I am going to stay at Mizpah to stand [for you] before the Chaldeans who come to us [ministering to them and looking after the king's interests]; but as for you, gather in wine, summer fruit and oil and store them in your utensils [designed for such purposes], and live in your cities that you have taken over."

¹¹Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab and among the people of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the [other] countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant [of the people] in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them [as governor],

¹²then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came back to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered a great abundance of wine and summer fruits.

¹³Moreover, Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were [scattered] in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah

¹⁴and said to him, "Do you know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them.

¹⁵Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, "Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and not a man will know [who is responsible]. Why should he kill you and cause all the Jews who are gathered near you to be scattered and the remnant of Judah to perish?"

¹⁶But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, "Do not do this thing, for you are lying about Ishmael."

¹Now in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family [of David] and one of the princes of the king, came [at the instigation of the Ammonites] with ten men to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam in Mizpah. As they were eating a meal together there in Mizpah,

²Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and killed the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed [governor] over the land.

³Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were [at the banquet] with Gedaliah at Mizpah, in addition to the Chaldean soldiers who were there.

⁴Now it happened on the second day after the killing of Gedaliah, before anyone knew about it,

⁵that eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria with their beards shaved off and their clothes torn and their bodies cut, carrying in their hands grain offerings and incense to present at the [site of the] house of the LORD [in Jerusalem].

⁶Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping [false tears] as he went. As he met them, he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!"

⁷Yet when they came into the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw them into the cistern (underground water reservoir).

⁸But ten men who were among them said to Ishmael, "Do not kill us! We have stores of wheat and barley and oil and honey hidden in the field." So he stopped and did not kill them along with their companions.

⁹Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men whom he had killed along with Gedaliah was the one which King Asa [of Judah] had made [about three hundred years earlier] on account of King Baasha of Israel [believing that Baasha would lay siege to Mizpah]. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with [the bodies of] those who were killed.

¹⁰Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah—even the king's daughters (ladies of the court) and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had put under the charge of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and crossed over [the Jordan] to [meet his allies] the Ammonites.

¹¹But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him heard of the murderous behavior of Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,

¹²they took all their men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and found him by the great pool in Gibeon.

¹³Now when all the [captive] people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him, they were glad.

¹⁴So all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and joined Johanan the son of Kareah.

¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to join the Ammonites.

¹⁶Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him took from Mizpah all the people whom he had rescued from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: the soldiers, the women, the children, and the high officials whom Johanan had brought back from Gibeon.

¹⁷And they went and stayed in Geruth [the lodging place of] Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt

¹⁸because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed [governor] over the land [and whose death the king might avenge].

¹Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah (Azariah) the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached

²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our petition be presented before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, that is, for all this remnant [of the people of Judah]; for we were once many, but now [only] a few of us are left, as you see with your own eyes, [so please pray]

³that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do."

⁴Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Now hear me, I will pray to the LORD your God in accordance with your words; and I will declare to you whatever message the LORD answers; I will keep nothing back from you."

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to act in accordance with all the things that the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

⁶Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to and honor the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."

⁷Now after ten days [of prayer] had passed the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

⁸Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest,

⁹and said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:

¹⁰'If you will indeed remain in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will relent and be satisfied concerning the disaster that I have inflicted on you [as discipline, and I will replace judgment with compassion].

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear [as if he were deity]; do not be afraid of him,' says the LORD, 'for [he is a mere man, but I am the living, omniscient God and] I am with you [always] to protect you and to deliver you from his hand.

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

¹³But if you are going to say, "We will not stay in this land," and [in so doing] do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God,

¹⁴saying, "No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the [warrior's] trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there,"

¹⁵then in that case listen to the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "If you are really determined to go to Egypt and to reside there [temporarily],

¹⁶then 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 follow closely after you in Egypt, and you will die there.

¹⁷So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there [temporarily] will die by the sword, by famine and by virulent disease; none of them will remain or survive the disaster that I am going to bring on them."'"

¹⁸For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "As My anger and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will become detested, an object of horror, a curse and a people scorned; and you will no longer see this place."

¹⁹The LORD has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, "Do not go into Egypt!" Know with certainty that I [Jeremiah] have warned you and testified to you this day

²⁰that you have deceived yourselves; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, declare it to us and we will do it."

²¹And so I have told you today, but you have not listened to the voice of the LORD your God, in anything that He has sent me to tell you.

²²Now therefore know for certain that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by virulent disease in the land [of Egypt] where you wish to reside [temporarily].

¹Now it happened when Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—that is, all these words—

²Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the proud and insolent men said to Jeremiah, "You are not telling the truth! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'Do not go into Egypt to live there.'

³But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so they may [either] put us to death or exile us to Babylon."

⁴So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people disobeyed the voice of the LORD [which told them] to stay in the land of Judah.

⁵But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven—

⁶the men, women, and children, the king's daughters (ladies of the court), and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; he also took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah.

⁷So they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not obey the voice of the LORD) and they went in as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,

⁹"Take some large stones in your hands and hide them in the mortar in the brickwork [of the terrace] which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of some of the men of Judah;

¹⁰and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne over these stones that I have hidden; and his [majestic, royal] canopy will be spread over them.

¹¹He will also come and strike the land of Egypt, giving those who are [destined] for death, to death, and those who are [destined] for captivity, to captivity, and those who are [destined] for the sword, to the sword.

¹²And [through him] I will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them (Egyptian idols) captive. He will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will go away from there safely.

¹³Nebuchadnezzar will also break the images and shatter the obelisks of Heliopolis in the land of Egypt; and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt."'"