42 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached²Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the LORD your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left.³Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

⁴“I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will certainly pray to the LORD your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the LORD says and will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us.⁶Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.”

⁷Ten days later the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.⁸So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest.⁹He said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says:¹⁰‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you.¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands.¹²I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’

¹³“However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the LORD your God,¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there,¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.¹⁷Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’¹⁸This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.’

¹⁹“Remnant of Judah, the LORD has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today²⁰that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the LORD your God and said, ‘Pray to the LORD our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’²¹I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the LORD your God in all he sent me to tell you.²²So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.”

43 When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them—²Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’³But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”

⁴So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah.⁵Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered.⁶They also led away all those whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan—the men, the women, the children and the king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah along with them.⁷So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the LORD and went as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸In Tahpanhes the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:⁹“While the Jews are watching, take some large stones with you and bury them in clay in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes.¹⁰Then say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them.¹¹He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.¹²He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn their temples and take their gods captive. As a shepherd picks his garment clean of lice, so he will pick Egypt clean and depart.¹³There in the temple of the sun in Egypt he will demolish the sacred pillars and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”

Disaster Because of Idolatry

44 This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis—and in Upper Egypt:²“This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins³because of the evil they have done. They aroused my anger by burning incense to and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew.⁴Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’⁵But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.⁶Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.

⁷“Now this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant?⁸Why arouse my anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations on earth.⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your ancestors and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?¹⁰To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.

¹¹“Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah.¹²I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach.¹³I will punish those who live in Egypt with the sword, famine and plague, as I punished Jerusalem.¹⁴None of the remnant of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, to which they long to return and live; none will return except a few fugitives.”

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah,¹⁶“We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD!¹⁷We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.¹⁸But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

¹⁹The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him,²¹“Did not the LORD remember and call to mind the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials and the people of the land?²²When the LORD could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became a curse and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.²³Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.”

The Appeal Renewed

2 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.²And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.³Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.⁴No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.⁵Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.⁶The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.⁷Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

⁸Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel,⁹for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.¹⁰Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

¹¹Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him,
    we will also live with him;
¹²if we endure,
    we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
    he will also disown us;
¹³if we are faithless,
    he remains faithful,
    for he cannot disown himself.

Dealing With False Teachers

¹⁴Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.¹⁵Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.¹⁶Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.¹⁷Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,¹⁸who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.¹⁹Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

²⁰In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use.²¹Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

Psalm 92

92 It is good to praise the LORD
    and make music to your name, O Most High,
²proclaiming your love in the morning
    and your faithfulness at night,
³to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
    and the melody of the harp.

⁴For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
    I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
⁵How great are your works, LORD,
    how profound your thoughts!
⁶Senseless people do not know,
    fools do not understand,
⁷that though the wicked spring up like grass
    and all evildoers flourish,
    they will be destroyed forever.

⁸But you, LORD, are forever exalted.

⁹For surely your enemies, LORD,
    surely your enemies will perish;
    all evildoers will be scattered.
¹⁰You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox;
    fine oils have been poured on me.
¹¹My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
    my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

¹²The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
    they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
¹³planted in the house of the LORD,
    they will flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴They will still bear fruit in old age,
    they will stay fresh and green,
¹⁵proclaiming, “The LORD is upright;
    he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Psalm 93

93 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
    the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength;
    indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.
²Your throne was established long ago;
    you are from all eternity.

³The seas have lifted up, LORD,
    the seas have lifted up their voice;
    the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
⁴Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
    mightier than the breakers of the sea—
    the LORD on high is mighty.

⁵Your statutes, LORD, stand firm;
    holiness adorns your house
    for endless days.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
    and a rod for the backs of fools!
⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
    or you yourself will be just like him.
⁵Answer a fool according to his folly,
    or he will be wise in his own eyes.