Chapter 43
1 When Jeremiah had finished relating to the people all these words that the Lord, their God, had sent him to reveal to them, 2 Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the rest of the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling blatant lies. The Lord, our God, did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt and settle there.’ 3 Rather it is Baruch, the son of Neriah, who continues to incite you against us and keeps urging you to hand us over to the Chaldeans so that they can put us to death or deport us into exile in Babylon.”
4 Therefore, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the military leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s command to remain in the land of Judah. 5 Instead Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the military leaders led away the entire remnant of Judah who had been scattered among all the nations and who then had returned to settle in the land of Judah: 6 men, women, and children, the daughters of the king, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had entrusted to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, including the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch, the son of Neriah. 7 In disobedience to the Lord’s command, they traveled to the land of Egypt and arrived at Tahpanhes.
Invasion of Egypt. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes. 9 “Take some large stones and bury them in the cement in the terrace at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, while the men of Judah can see you. 10 Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I intend to send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will set his throne upon these stones that I have buried, and he will spread his canopy over them. 11 He will come and ravage the land of Egypt:
“ ‘Those destined for the plague, to plague,
those for captivity, to captivity,
and those for the sword, to the sword.
12 “ ‘He will set fire to the temple of the gods of Egypt, burning their gods and carrying them off. He will scour the land of Egypt as a shepherd scrubs off the vermin from his cloak, and he will depart from there safely. 13 He will smash the obelisks of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will destroy the temples of the Egyptian gods with fire.’ ”