Judgment on the Jews in Egypt
1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying, 2 “The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says, ‘You have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah. Today they are desolate, and no man dwells in them 3 because of their wickedness which they have committed, provoking me to anger by burning incense in service to other gods that they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.
4 However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying: Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate.
5 But they did not listen and did not incline their ear. They did not turn from their wickedness and stop burning incense to other gods. 6 Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they are wasted and desolate, as it is today.’
7 Therefore now the LORD, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘Why are you committing this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child from the midst of Judah, to leave yourselves without anyone remaining, 8 provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to live, that you may be cut off and that you may be an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth?
9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and the wickedness of the kings of Judah and the wickedness of their wives and your own wickedness and the wickedness of your own wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They are not humbled even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.’
11 Therefore the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘I will set my face against you for disaster, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah, who are determined to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. They will fall in the land of Egypt. They will be consumed by sword and by famine. They will die, from the least to the greatest, by sword and by famine. They will be an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
13 For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem, by sword, famine, and pestilence, 14 so that not one from the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will escape or be left to return into the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and live, for no one will return except those who will escape.’ ”
The Stubbornness of the People
15 Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. 17 But we will certainly perform every word which has come from our mouths, burning incense to the queen of the sky and pouring out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of food, and we were well and saw no disaster. 18 But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of the sky and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by sword and by famine.
19 When we burned incense to the queen of the sky and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her and pour out drink offerings to her, without our husbands’ knowledge?”
The Final Judgment
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people; to the men, and to the women, to all the people who had given him an answer, saying, 21 “The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, did God not remember this and bring it to mind? 22 Thus the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the wickedness of your deed and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land has become desolate and an astonishment and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today. 23 Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this disaster has happened to you, as it is today.”
24 Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! 25 The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying: We will surely perform the vows that we have made, burning incense to the queen of the sky and pouring out drink offerings to her.
Go ahead, then. and confirm your vows and do them.’
26 Nevertheless, hear the word the LORD, all Judah who lives in the land of Egypt, ‘I have sworn by my great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that my name will no longer be proclaimed by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying: As the LORD God lives.
27 I am watching over them for disaster and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by sword and by famine until they are all gone. 28 Those who escape sword will return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah few in number. All the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.
29 This will be the sign to you,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for disaster.’ 30 The LORD says, ‘I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.’ ”