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1 And they come nigh -- all the heads of the forces, and  Johanan son of Kareah, and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all  the people from the least even unto the greatest --
2 and they say unto Jeremiah the prophet, `Let, we pray thee,  our supplication fall before thee, and pray for us unto Jehovah  thy God, for all this remnant; for we have been left a few out  of many, as thine eyes do see us;
3 and Jehovah thy God doth declare to us the way in which we  walk, and the thing that we do.'
4 And Jeremiah the prophet saith unto them, `I have heard:  lo, I am praying unto Jehovah your God according to your words,  and it hath come to pass, the whole word that Jehovah answereth  you, I declare to you -- I do not withhold from you a word.'
5 And they have said to Jeremiah, `Jehovah is against us for  a witness true and faithful, if -- according to all the word  with which Jehovah thy God doth send thee unto us -- we do not  so.
6 Whether good or evil, to the voice of Jehovah our God, to  whom we are sending thee, we do hearken; because it is good for  us when we hearken to the voice of Jehovah our God.'
7 And it cometh to pass, at the end of ten days, that there  is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah,
8 and he calleth unto Johanan son of Kareah, and unto all the  heads of the forces that [are] with him, and to all the people,  from the least even unto the greatest,
9 and he saith unto them, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel,  unto whom ye sent me, to cause your supplication to fall before  Him:
10 `If ye do certainly dwell in this land, then I have  builded you up, and I throw not down; and I have planted you,  and I pluck not up; for I have repented concerning the evil  that I have done to you.
11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, whom ye are afraid  of; be not afraid of him -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- for  with you [am] I, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
12 And I give to you mercies, and he hath pitied you, and  caused you to turn back unto your own ground.
13 `And if ye are saying, We do not dwell in this land -- not  to hearken to the voice of Jehovah your God,
14 saying, No; but the land of Egypt we enter, that we see no  war, and the sound of a trumpet do not hear, and for bread be  not hungry; and there do we dwell.
15 And now, therefore, hear ye a word of Jehovah, O remnant  of Judah: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: If ye  really set your faces to enter Egypt, and have gone in to  sojourn there,
16 then it hath come to pass, the sword that ye are afraid  of, doth there overtake you, in the land of Egypt; and the  hunger, because of which ye are sorrowful, doth there cleave  after you in Egypt, and there ye die.
17 `Thus are all the men who have set their faces to enter  Egypt to sojourn there; they die -- by sword, by hunger, and by  pestilence, and there is not to them a remnant and an escaped  one, because of the evil that I am bringing in upon them;
18 for thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: As poured  out hath been Mine anger and My fury on the inhabitants of  Jerusalem, so poured out is My fury upon you in your entering  Egypt, and ye have been for an execration, and for an  astonishment, and for a reviling, and for a reproach, and ye do  not see any more this place.
19 `Jehovah hath spoken against you, O remnant of Judah, do  not enter Egypt: know certainly that I have testified against  you to-day;
20 for ye have shewed yourselves perverse in your souls, for  ye sent me unto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto  Jehovah our God, and according to all that Jehovah our God  saith, so declare to us, and we have done [it];
21 and I declare to you to-day, and ye have not hearkened to  the voice of Jehovah your God, and to anything with which He  hath sent me unto you.
22 And now, know ye certainly that by sword, by famine, and  by pestilence ye die, in the place that ye have desired to go  in to sojourn there.'