Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Jeremiah 42

Jeremiah confronts Judah’s remnant with the gap between their promise to obey God and their determination to seek safety in Egypt.

Johanan, the military captains, and the surviving people of Judah ask Jeremiah to seek God’s direction for them. They promise to obey whatever answer comes. After ten days, Jeremiah delivers YHWH’s word: remain in the land, where God promises protection from Babylon’s king. Egypt seems to offer escape from war and hunger, yet God warns that those dangers will follow them there. Jeremiah closes by exposing their deceit and declaring judgment on their intended flight.

a big decisionfear for the futuresermon or Bible study notes
Read
1Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,
2and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us,
3that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the things that we should do.”
4Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words; and it will happen that whatever thing the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”
5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to tell us.
6Whether it is good, or whether it is bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”
7After ten days, the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah.
8Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
9and said to them, “The LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him, says:
10‘If you will still live in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you.
11Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don’t be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
12I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.
13“‘But if you say, “We will not dwell in this land,” so that you don’t obey the LORD your God’s voice,
14saying, “No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;”’
15now therefore hear the LORD’s word, O remnant of Judah! The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there,
16then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there.
17So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. None of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.’
18For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’
19“The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today.
20For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’
21I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed the LORD your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you.
22Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jeremiah 42:2The survivors’ request for prayer establishes their need for God’s direction and sets up their pledge to obey.
Jeremiah 42:18God names Jerusalem’s judgment as the precedent for the wrath awaiting those who seek refuge in Egypt.
Jeremiah 42:20Jeremiah exposes the deceit beneath their request: they sought God’s answer while resisting the obedience they had promised.
Where this chapter reaches

Isaiah also confronts reliance on Egypt for protection, sharing Jeremiah’s contrast between hoped-for refuge and God’s warning of disaster. Deuteronomy describes covenant curses for disobedience, while Ezekiel shares the language of sword, famine, and pestilence as instruments of God’s judgment.

Jeremiah 42's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What makes Egypt seem safe to the remnant, and how does God’s answer challenge that view?

Write on this

How might the remnant’s pledge and Jeremiah’s closing accusation shape your prayers about a decision?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Jeremiah 42

Why did God tell the people not to go to Egypt in Jeremiah 42?

The remnant expected Egypt to provide relief from war and hunger. God commanded them to remain in Judah and promised to protect them from Babylon’s king. Going to Egypt would reject that command. God warned that the sword, famine, and pestilence would reach them in the place they expected to be safe.

How were the people deceitful in Jeremiah 42:20?

They asked Jeremiah to seek God’s direction and pledged to obey whatever God said. Yet Jeremiah’s closing words identify their desire to go elsewhere and their refusal to obey the answer he delivered. The chapter records no spoken reply from the people after his message; the accusation comes through Jeremiah.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Jeremiah 42. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Jeremiah · 52 chapters
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152
What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).