Jeremiah 42:9-18

New King James Version

⁹ and 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 remain in this land, then ^(A)I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I ^(B)relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. ¹¹ Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ^(C)‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. ¹² And ^(D)I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’

¹³ “But if ^(E)you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, ¹⁴ saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of ^(F)Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’— ¹⁵ Then hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you ^(G)wholly^[a] set ^(H)your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, ¹⁶ then it shall be that the ^(I)sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. ¹⁷ So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And ^(J)none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’

¹⁸ “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been ^(K)poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And ^(L)you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’