Warning Against Going to Egypt
1 Then yall the commanders of the forces, and zJohanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of aHoshaiah, and all the people bfrom the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let cour plea for mercy come before you, and dpray to the Lord your God for us, for all ethis remnant—fbecause we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— 3 that gthe Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” 4 Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and hwhatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. hI will keep nothing back from you.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, i“May the Lord be a true and jfaithful witness against us kif we do not act according to all the word lwith which the Lord your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, mthat it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”
7 nAt the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he summoned zJohanan the son of Kareah and yall the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people bfrom the least to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, oto whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him: 10 If you will remain in this land, pthen I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; qfor I relent of the disaster that I did to you. 11 rDo not fear the king of Babylon, rof whom you are afraid. sDo not fear him, declares the Lord, sfor I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 12 tI will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. 13 uBut if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God 14 and saying, ‘No, vwe will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or whear the sound of the trumpet or xbe hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: yIf you set your faces to enter Egypt zand go to live there, 16 then the sword athat you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, band there you shall die. 17 All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have cno remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.
18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: dAs my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. eYou shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. 19 The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, f‘Do not go to Egypt.’ gKnow for a certainty that I have warned you this day 20 that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. hFor you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, h‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and iwhatever the Lord our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything jthat he sent me to tell you. 22 kNow therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”
Paul Defends His Ministry
1 iI, Paul, myself entreat you, by the jmeekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you kthat when I am present I may not have to show lboldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the mweapons of nour warfare are not of the flesh but have odivine power pto destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and qevery lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to robey Christ, 6 sbeing ready to punish every disobedience, twhen your obedience is complete.
7 uLook at what is before your eyes. vIf anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as whe is Christ’s, xso also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of your authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but zhis bodily presence is weak, and ahis speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify or bcompare ourselves with some of those who care commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are dwithout understanding.
13 But we will not boast ebeyond limits, but will fboast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, gto reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. hFor we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that ias your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be jgreatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. 17 “Let kthe one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is lnot the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one mwhom the Lord commends.
