Jeremiah 42:20

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁷After ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, ⁸and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest. ⁹Jeremiah told them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition: ¹⁰If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I shall relent of the disaster I have brought upon 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 to save you and deliver you from him. ¹²And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own land. ¹³But if you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' and so disobey the voice of the LORD your God, ¹⁴and if you say, 'No, but we will go to the land of Egypt and live there, where we will not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or hunger for food,' ¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: If you are determined to go to Egypt and reside there, ¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow on your heels into Egypt, and you will die there.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For ye: God made known to the prophet their dissimulation; which he shunned not to declare to them. Jeremiah 3:10, Jeremiah 17:10, Psalms 18:44, Psalms 65:3, Ezekiel 14:3, Ezekiel 14:4, Ezekiel 33:31, Matthew 22:15-18, Matthew 22:35, Galatians 6:7

dissembled in your hearts: Heb. have used deceit against your souls, Numbers 16:38, James 1:22

Pray: Jeremiah 42:2

Reciprocal: Exodus 8:29 - deal 2 Samuel 15:8 - I will serve 2 Chronicles 10:6 - took counsel 2 Chronicles 18:5 - Shall we go Isaiah 29:13 - Forasmuch Isaiah 30:2 - and have Isaiah 57:11 - that thou Isaiah 58:2 - they ask Isaiah 59:13 - lying Jeremiah 37:3 - Pray Jeremiah 38:14 - I will Jeremiah 42:1 - came Jeremiah 44:7 - against Ezekiel 33:4 - whosoever heareth Ezekiel 33:30 - Come Hosea 7:13 - spoken Matthew 22:17 - What Mark 12:14 - Master John 6:28 - What Acts 4:10 - known

Cross-References

Genesis 6:22
So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.

Genesis 42:15
And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Genesis 42:26
and they loaded the grain on their donkeys and departed.

Genesis 42:34
But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.'"

Genesis 43:5
But if you will not send him, we will not go; for the man told us, 'You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.'"

Genesis 43:19
So they approached Joseph's steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

Genesis 44:23
But you said to your servants, 'Unless your younger brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.'

John 2:5
His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For ye dissembled in your hearts,.... Did not honestly and faithfully declare their intentions; they said one thing with their mouths, and meant another in their minds; they pretended they would act according to the will of God, as it should be made known to them by him, when they were determined to take their own way. Some render it, "ye have deceived [me] in your hearts" z; the prophet, so Kimchi; by that which was in their hearts, not declaring what was their real intention and design: or, "ye have deceived your souls" a; you have deceived yourselves and one another; I have not deceived you, nor the Lord, but you have put a cheat upon your own souls: or, "you have used deceit against your souls" b; to the hurt of them, to your present ruin and everlasting destruction:

when ye sent me unto the Lord your God; the prophet did not go of himself, they desired him to go:

saying, pray for us unto the Lord our God; to be directed in the way they should go; so that the prophet did nothing but what they desired him to do:

and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do [it]; they pressed him to a faithful declaration of the will of God to them, and promised they would act according to it. Now he had done all this; he had been wire God, prayed unto him as they requested, and had brought them his mind and will, and made a faithful relation of it, and yet they did not attend to it; so that the deceit was not in him, but in them, as follows:

z התעיתם בנפשותיכם "seduxistis [me] animis vestris", so some in Vatablus; "fefellistis me", Munster. So Ben Melech. a "Fecistis errare animas vestras", Pagninus; "fefellistis", Calvin. b "Seduxeritis vos contra animas vestras", Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye dissembled in your hearts - Or, “ye have led yourselves astray,” i. e., your sending me to ask counsel of God was an act of self-delusion. You felt so sure that God would direct you to go into Egypt, that now that He has spoken to the contrary, you are unable to reconcile yourselves to it.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 42:20. For ye dissembled in your hearts — What a most miserable and incorrigible people! Ingratitude, hypocrisy, rebellion, and cruelty seem to have been enthroned in their hearts! And what are they still? Just what their fathers were, except in the mere article of idolatry; and that they do not practise because they are indifferent to their own religion and to that of all others. Examine their devotions and their lives, and see whether Charity herself can say they believe in the God of Abraham!