1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near, 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us: 3 that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do. 4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words; and it shall happen that whatever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you. 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don't do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us. 6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God. 7 It happened after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. 8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9 and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him: 10 If you will still live in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you. 11 Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid of him, says Yahweh: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. 12 I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land. 13 But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you don't obey the voice of Yahweh your God, 14 saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: 15 now therefore hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there; 16 then it shall happen, that the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, shall follow close behind you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them. 18 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more. 19 Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, Don't you go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you this day. 20 For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it: 21 and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for which he has sent me to you. 22 Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to live there.
Johanan and the remnant of the people desire Jeremiah to ask counsel of God what they should do, Jeremiah 42:1-3. The prophet assures them of safety in Judea, but destruction in Egypt, Jeremiah 42:4-18; and reproves their hypocrisy in asking counsel with which they had no intention to comply, Jeremiah 42:19-22.
INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 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, Jeremiah 42:1; which Jeremiah undertook to present to the Lord, Jeremiah 42:4; they promising to go according to the direction that should be given, Jeremiah 42:5. After ten days an answer is returned, and the prophet calls the captains and people together to hear it, Jeremiah 42:7; 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, Jeremiah 42:9; 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, Jeremiah 42:13; they are charged with dissimulation and disobedience, Jeremiah 42:19; and the chapter is concluded with an assurance of their perishing by the above judgments in the place they were desirous of dwelling in, Jeremiah 42:22.
(Jeremiah 42:1-6) Johanan desires Jeremiah to ask counsel of God.
(v. 7-22) They are assured of safety in Judea, but of destruction in Egypt.
The Word of God Concerning the Flight to Egypt
At the halting-place near Bethlehem the captains and the people whom they led deem it necessary to inquire through Jeremiah as to the will of God regarding their intention; they betake themselves to the prophet with the request that he would address God in prayer for them regarding this matter, and they promise that they will, in any case, comply with the message that he may receive from God (Jeremiah 42:1-6). Whereupon, after ten days, the word of the Lord came to the prophet, vv. 7-22, to the effect that, if they remained in the country, the Lord would take pity on them and protect them from the Chaldeans, and establish them; but, should they go to Egypt, against the will of the Lord, then the evil which they feared would follow them thither, so that they would perish by the sword, hunger, and pestilence.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.