Study Desk

"So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there [temporarily] will die by the sword, by famine and by virulent disease; none of them will remain or survive the disaster that I am going to bring on them."'"

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "As My anger and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will become detested, an object of horror, a curse and a people scorned; and you will no longer see this place."

And so I have told you today, but you have not listened to the voice of the LORD your God, in anything that He has sent me to tell you.

"But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so they may [either] put us to death or exile us to Babylon."

So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people disobeyed the voice of the LORD [which told them] to stay in the land of Judah.

So they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not obey the voice of the LORD) and they went in as far as Tahpanhes.

'Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; so they have become a ruin and a desolation, as it is this day.

so none of the survivors from the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to live there will survive, even though they lift up their souls in longing to return to the land of Judah, [the place] to which they long to return to live; none will return except a few refugees.'"

'And this will be the sign to you,' says the LORD, 'that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for harm.'

"As I live," says the King, Whose name is the LORD of hosts, "Surely like Tabor among the mountains Or like Carmel by the sea, So shall he [the great king of Babylon] come.

"Because of the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of the war-horses [of the Babylonian king], The rattling of his chariots, and the rumbling of his wheels, The fathers have not looked and turned back for their children, So weak are their hands [with terror]

"So joy and gladness are taken away From the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. And I have made the wine cease from the wine presses; No one treads the grapes with shouting. Their shouting is not joyful shouting [but is instead, a battle cry].

"How it is broken down! How they have wailed! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab will become a laughingstock and a [horrifying] terror to all who are around him."

'So I will cause Elam to be shattered (dismayed) before their enemies And before those who seek their lives; And I will bring disaster on them, Even My fierce anger,' says the LORD. 'And I will send the sword after them Until I have consumed them.

"Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is His name. He will most certainly plead their case and defend their cause So that He may bring rest to their land, But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.

"As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah and their neighboring cities," says the LORD, "So no man will live there; Nor shall any son of man live there."

"Do not let him (the Chaldean defender) who bends his bow bend it, Nor let him rise up in his coat of armor. So do not spare her young men; Devote her entire army to destruction.

"Now beware so that you do not lose heart, And so that you are not afraid at the rumor that will be heard in the land— For the rumor shall come one year, And after that another rumor in another year, And violence shall be in the land, Ruler against ruler—

So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the disaster which would come on Babylon, [that is] all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.

and say, 'You, O LORD, have promised concerning this place to cut it off and destroy it, so that there shall be nothing living in it, neither man nor animal, but it will be perpetually desolate.'