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43
1. When Jeremiah finished telling
the people all the words the LORD, their God, sent to them,
2. Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, son of Kareah,
and all the others had the insolence to say to Jeremiah: "You lie; the LORD, our God,
did not send you to tell us, 'Do not to go to Egypt to live there.'
3. Baruch, son of Neriah, is inciting you aginst us,
to hand us over to the Chaldeans to be killed or exiled to Babylon."
4. So Johanan, son of Kareah, and the rest of the leaders
and the people did not listen to the voice of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah.
5. Instead, Johanan, son of Kareah, and the military leaders took along
all the remnant of Judah who had been dispersed among the nations
and then had returned to dwell in the land of Judah:
6. men, women, and children, the princesses and everyone
whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had consigned to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam,
son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah.
7. They went to Egypt ── they did not listen to the voice of the LORD ──
and came to Tahpanhes.
Jeremiah in Egypt.
8. The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes:
9. Take some large stones in your hand and set them in mortar in the terrace
at the entrance to the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes, while the Judahites watch.
10. Then say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
He will place his throne upon these stones which I, Jeremiah, have set up,
and stretch his canopy above them.
11. He shall come and strike the land of Egypt: with death, those marked for death;
with exile, those marked for exile; with the sword, those marked for the sword.
12. He shall set fire to the temples of Egypt's gods, burn the gods and carry them off.
He shall pick the land of Egypt clean, as a shepherd picks lice off his cloak,
and then depart victorious.
13. He shall smash the obelisks at the Temple of the Sun in the land of Egypt
and destroy with fire the temples of the Egyptian gods.
44
1. The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judahites who were living in Egypt,
those living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in Upper Egypt:
2. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
You yourselves have seen all the evil I brought upon Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah.
Today they lie in ruins uninhabited,
3. because of the evil they did to provoke me, going after other gods, offering incense
and serving other gods they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors.
4. Though I repeatedly sent you all my servants the prophets, saying:
"You must not commit this abominable deed I hate,"
5. they did not listen or incline their ears in order to turn from their evil,
no longer offering incense to other gods.
6. Therefore the fury of my anger poured forth and kindled fire in the cities of Judah
and the streets of Jerusalem, to turn them into the ruined wasteland they are today.
7. Now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel:
Why inflict so great an evil upon yourselves, cutting off from Judah man and woman, child
and infant, not leaving yourselves reven a remnant?
8. Why do you provoke me with the works of your hands, offering sacrifice to other gods here
in the land of Egypt where you have come to live?
Will you cut yourselves off and become a curse, a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
9. Have you forgotten the evil of your ancestors, the evil of the kings of Judah,
the evil of their wives, and your own evil and the evil of your wives ──
all that they did in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
10. To this day they have not been crushed down, nor have they shown fear.
They have not followed my law and my statutes that I set before you and your ancestors.
11. Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
I have set my face against you for evil, to cut off all Judah.
12. I will take away the remnant of Judah who insisted on going to the land of Egypt
to live there; in the land of Egypt they shal meet their end.
They shall fall by the sword or be consumed by hunger. From the least to the greatest,
they shall die by sword or hunger; they shall become a malediction, a horror, a curse, a reproach.
13. Thus I will punish those who live in Egypt,
just as I punished Jerusalem, with sword, hunger, and disease,
14. so that none of the remnant of Judah who came to live
in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive. No one shall return to the land of Judah.
Even though they long to return and live there, they shall not return except as refugees.
15. They answered Jeremiah ── all the men who knew that their wives were offering sacrifices
to other gods, all the women standing there in the immense crowd,
and all the people who lived in Lower and Upper Egypt:
16. "Regarding the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD,
we are not listening to you.
17. Rather we will go on doing what we proposed; we will offer incense to the Queen of Heaven
and pour out libations to her, just as we have done, along with our ancestors,
our kings and princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.
Then we had plenty to eat, we prospered, and we suffered no misfortune.
18. But ever since we stopped offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven
and pouring out libations to her, we lack everything and are being destroyed by sword and hunger."
19. And the women said, "When we offered sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven
and poured out libations to her, did we bake cakes in her image
and pour out libations to her without our husbands' consent?"
20. To all the people, men and women, who gave him this answer, Jeremiah said:
21. As for the sacrifices you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem ── you,
your ancestors, your kings and princes, and the people of the land ──
did not the LORD remember them? Did it not enter his mind?
22. The LORD could no longer bear the evil of your deeds, the abominations you were doing;
then your land became a waste, a horror, a curse, without even one inhabitant, as it is today.
23. Because you offered sacrifice and sinned against the LORD,
not listening to the voice of the LORD, not following his law, his statutes, and his decrees,
therefore this evil has overtaken you, as it is today.
24. Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women:
Hear the word of the LORD, all you Judahites in the land of Egypt:
25. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
You and your wives have carried out with your hands what your mouths have spoken:
"We will go on fulfilling the vows we have made to offer sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven
and to pour out libations to her." Very well! keep your vows, fulfill your vows!
26. And then listen to the word of the LORD, all you Judahites living in Egypt;
I swear by my own great name, says the LORD: in the whole land of Egypt;
my name shall no longer be pronounced by the lips of any Judahite, saying, "As the Lord GOD lives."
27. I am watching over them for evil not for good. All the Judahites in Egypt
shall come to an end by sword or famine until they are completely destroyed.
28. Those who escape the sword to return from the land of Egypt
to the land of Judah shall be few in number. The whole remnant of Judah who came to Egypt
to live shall know whose word stands, mine or theirs.
29. And this shall be a sign to you ── oracle of the LORD ── I will punish you in this place
so that you will know that my words stand solidly against you for evil.
30. Thus says the LORD: See! I will hand over Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, to his enemies,
to those seeking his life, just as I handed over Zedekiah, king of Judah,
to his enemy Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, to the one seeking his life.
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