1Then 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, 2and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our petition be presented before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us: 3that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do." 4Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you; look, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall happen that whatever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you." 5Then they said to Jeremiah, "The LORD be a true and faithful witness among us, if we do not do according to all the word with which the LORD your God shall send you to us. 6Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God."

7It happened after ten days, that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. 8Then 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, 9and said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition 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. 11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him, says the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. 12I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.' 13But if you say, 'We will not dwell in this land'; so that you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, 14saying, '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': 15now therefore hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there; 16then 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. 17So 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.'

18For thus says the LORD of hosts, 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.' 19The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, 'Do not go into Egypt': know certainly that I have testified to you this day. 20For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it': 21and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything for which he has sent me to you. 22Now 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."