1Then all the commanders of the army, and Yoḥanan son of Qarĕaḥ, and Yezanyah son of Hoshayah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near

2and said to Yirmeyahu the prophet, “We beg you, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to יהוה your Elohim, for all this remnant, for we are few left of many, as your eyes see us.

3“And let יהוה your Elohim show us the way in which we should walk and the word we should do.”

4And Yirmeyahu the prophet said to them, “I have heard. See, I am praying to יהוה your Elohim according to your words, and it shall be that I declare to you all the word יהוה answers you. I withhold not a word from you.”

5And they said to Yirmeyahu, “Let יהוה be a true and steadfast witness between us, if we do not do according to all the word which יהוה your Elohim sends us by you.

6“Whether good or evil, let us obey the voice of יהוה our Elohim to whom we send you, in order that it might be well with us when we obey the voice of יהוה our Elohim.”

7And after ten days it came to be that the word of יהוה came to Yirmeyahu.

8So he called Yoḥanan son of Qarĕaḥ, and all the commanders of the army which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

9and said to them, “Thus said יהוה, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him,

10‘If you would indeed stay in this land, then I shall build you and not pull you down, and I shall plant you and not pluck you up. For I have relented of the evil I have done to you.

11‘Do not be afraid of the sovereign of Baḇel, of whom you are afraid. Do not be afraid of him,’ declares יהוה, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand.

12‘And I shall show you compassion, so that he has compassion on you and let you return to your own land.’

13“But if you say, ‘We are not staying in this land,’ and so disobey the voice of יהוה your Elohim,

14saying, ‘No, but we are going to the land of Mitsrayim so that we see no fighting, nor hear the sound of the ram’s horn, nor hunger for bread, and there we shall stay,’

15then hear the word of יהוה, O remnant of Yehuḏah! Thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘If you indeed set your faces to enter Mitsrayim, and shall go to sojourn there,

16then it shall be that the sword which you feared overtakes you there in the land of Mitsrayim, and the scarcity of food of which you were afraid clings to you there in Mitsrayim, and you die there.

17‘And so it shall be with all the men who set their faces to go to Mitsrayim to sojourn there: they shall die by the sword, by scarcity of food, and by pestilence, and not one of them shall survive or escape from the evil I am bringing upon them.’

18“For thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘As My displeasure and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, so shall My wrath be poured out on you when you enter Mitsrayim. And you shall be an oath, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, and you shall see this place no more.’

19“יהוה has spoken about you, O remnant of Yehuḏah, ‘Do not go to Mitsrayim!’ Know for certain that I have warned you this day.

20“For you deceived yourselves when you sent me to יהוה your Elohim, saying, ‘Pray for us to יהוה our Elohim, and according to all that יהוה your Elohim says, so declare to us and we shall do it.’

21“So I have declared it to you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of יהוה your Elohim in all which He has sent me to you.

22“And now, know for certain that you shall die by the sword, by scarcity of food, and by pestilence in the place where you have desired to go to sojourn.”