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42:1  Johanan, Jezaniah, the other army officers, and everyone else in the group, came to me
42:2  and said, “Please, Jeremiah, pray to the Lord your God for us. Judah used to have many people, but as you can see, only a few of us are left.
42:3  Ask the Lord to tell us where he wants us to go and what he wants us to do.”
42:4  “All right,” I answered, “I will pray to the Lord your God, and I will tell you everything he says.”
42:5  They answered, “The Lord himself will be our witness that we promise to do whatever he says,
42:6  even if it isn't what we want to do. We will obey the Lord so that all will go well for us.”
42:7  Ten days later, the Lord gave me an answer for
42:8  Johanan, the officers, and the other people. So I called them together
42:9  and told them that the Lord God of Israel had said: You asked Jeremiah to pray and find out what you should do.
42:10  I am sorry that I had to punish you, and so I now tell you to stay here in Judah, where I will plant you and build you up, instead of tearing you down and uprooting you.
42:11  Don't be afraid of the King of Babylonia. I will protect you from him,
42:12  and I will even force him to have mercy on you and give back your farms.
42:13  But you might keep on saying, “We won't stay here in Judah, and we won't obey the Lord our God.
42:14  We are going to Egypt, where there is plenty of food and no danger of war.”
42:15  People of Judah, you survived when the Babylonian army attacked. Now you are planning to move to Egypt, and if you do go, this is what will happen.
42:16  You are afraid of war, starvation, and disease here in Judah, but they will follow you to Egypt and kill you there. None of you will survive the disasters I will send.
42:17  You are afraid of war, starvation, and disease here in Judah, but they will follow you to Egypt and kill you there. None of you will survive the disasters I will send.
42:18  I, the Lord, was angry with the people of Jerusalem and punished them. And if you go to Egypt, I will be angry and punish you the same way. You will never again see your homeland. People will be horrified at what I do to you, and they will use the name of your city as a curse word.
42:19  I told the people: You escaped the disaster that struck Judah, but now the Lord warns you to stay away from Egypt.
42:20  You asked me to pray and find out what the Lord our God wants you to do, and you promised to obey him. But that was a terrible mistake,
42:21  because now that I have given you the Lord's answer, you refuse to obey him.
42:22  And so, you will die in Egypt from war, hunger, and disease.