Study Desk

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who is sending you to inquire of Me, 'Behold, Pharaoh's army, which has marched out to help you, is going back to its own land of Egypt.

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "This is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'If you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.

"Go and tell Ebed-melech the Cushite that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill My words against this city for harm and not for good, and on that day they will be fulfilled before your eyes.

The captain of the guard found Jeremiah and said to him, "The LORD your God decreed this disaster on this place,

Jeremiah the prophet and said, "May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on behalf of this entire remnant. For few of us remain of the many, as you can see with your own eyes.

Pray that the LORD your God may tell us the way we should walk and the thing we should do."

"I have heard you," replied Jeremiah the prophet. "I will surely pray to the LORD your God as you request, and I will tell you everything that the LORD answers; I will not withhold a word from you."

Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act upon every word that the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us, for we will obey the voice of the LORD our God!"

Jeremiah told them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition:

But if you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' and so disobey the voice of the LORD your God,

then 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,

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.'

For you have deceived yourselves by sending me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us, and we will do it.'

For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in all He has sent me to tell you.

When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God-everything that the LORD had sent him to say-

then Azariah son of Hoshaiah, 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 reside there.'

Then say to them, 'This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.

"This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster I brought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, they lie today in ruins and desolation

So now, this is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves? You are cutting off from Judah man and woman, child and infant, leaving yourselves without a remnant,