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

²Now the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God promised this disaster against this place;

³and the LORD has brought it and done just as He promised. Because you people sinned against the LORD and did not listen to His voice, this thing has happened to you.

⁴But now, behold, I am setting you free today from the chains that are on your hands. If you would prefer to come with me to Babylon, come along, and I will look after you; but if you would prefer not to come with me to Babylon, do not come. Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right for you to go.”

⁵As Jeremiah was still not going back, he said, “Go on back then to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or else go anywhere it seems right for you to go.” So the captain of the bodyguard gave him a ration and a gift, and let him go.

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

⁷Now all the commanders of the forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land, and that he 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.

⁸So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with 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, both they and their men.

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

¹⁰Now as for me, behold, I am going to stay in Mizpah to stand for you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather wine, summer fruit, and oil, and put them in your storage vessels, and live in your cities that you have taken over.”

¹¹Likewise, also all the Jews who were in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom, and who were in all the other countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah, and that he had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.

¹²Then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been scattered and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruit in great abundance.

¹³Now Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah,

¹⁴and said to him, “Are you well aware that Baalis the king of the sons of Ammon 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 no one will know! Why should he take your life, so that all the Jews who are gathered to you would be scattered and the remnant of Judah would perish?”

¹⁶But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “Do not do this thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael.”

¹Now in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king, along with ten men, came to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. While they were eating bread together there in Mizpah,

²Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him rose up, and struck and killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and put to death the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

³Ishmael also struck and killed all the Jews who were with him, that is with Gedaliah in Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

⁴Now it happened on the next day after the killing of Gedaliah, when no one knew about it,

⁵that eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria with their beards shaved off, their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, having grain offerings and incense in their hands to bring to the house of the LORD.

⁶Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went; and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!”

⁷Yet it turned out that as soon as they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw them into the cistern.

⁸But ten men who were found among them said to Ishmael, “Do not put us to death, for we have supplies of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the field.” So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their companions.

⁹Now as for the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men whom he had struck and killed because of Gedaliah, it was the one that King Asa had constructed on account of Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the dead.

¹⁰Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who were left in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had put in the custody of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and proceeded to cross over to the sons of Ammon.

¹¹But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him heard about all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done.

¹²So they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and they found him by the large pool that is in Gibeon.

¹³Now as soon as all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him, they were joyful.

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

¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the sons of Ammon.

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

¹⁷And they went and stayed in Geruth Chimham, which is beside Bethlehem, in order to proceed into Egypt

¹⁸because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck and killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

¹Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the small to the great approached

²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our pleading come before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God for all this remnant—since we have been left only a few out of many, just as your own eyes now see us—

³that the LORD your God will tell 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. Behold, I am going to pray to the LORD your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the LORD gives you as an answer. I will not withhold a word from you.”

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which the LORD your God will send you to us.

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

⁷Now at the end of ten days 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 for all the people from the small to the great,

⁹and said to them, “This is what the LORD says, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before Him:

¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay 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 of the disaster that I have inflicted on you.

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his hand.

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

¹³But if you are going to say, “We will not stay in this land,” so as not to 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 a trumpet, or hunger for bread, and we will stay there”;

¹⁵then in that case listen to the word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “If you really set your minds to enter Egypt and go in to reside there,

¹⁶then the sword, of which you are afraid, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there.

¹⁷So all the people who set their minds to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine, or by plague; and they will have no refugees or survivors from the disaster that I am going to bring on them.” ’ ”

¹⁸For this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “As My anger and wrath have gushed out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will gush out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation, and a disgrace; and you will not see this place again.”

¹⁹The LORD has spoken to you, you remnant of Judah, “Do not go to Egypt!” You know for certain that I have admonished you today.

²⁰For you have only deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, “Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.”

²¹So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God in whatever He has sent me to tell you.

²²And now you shall know for certain that you will die by the sword, by famine, or by plague in the place where you desire to go to reside.

¹But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent to them, had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—that is, all these words—

²Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to reside there’;

³but Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us in order to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so they will 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, did not obey the voice of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah.

⁵Instead, Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took the entire remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been scattered, in order to reside in the land of Judah—

⁶the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, together with Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah—

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

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

⁹“Take some large stones in your hands and hide them in the mortar in the brick terrace which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of some of the Jews;

¹⁰and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I am going to send men and get My servant Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and I am going to set his throne over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them.

¹¹He will also come and strike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword.

¹²And I shall set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will depart from there safely.

¹³He will also smash to pieces the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.” ’ ”