The Living Bible (251 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took Jeremiah to Ramah along with all the exiled people of Jerusalem and Judah who were being sent to Babylon, but then released him.
2-3
The captain called for Jeremiah and said, “The Lord your God has brought this disaster on this land, just as he said he would. For these people have sinned against the Lord. That is why it happened.
4
Now I am going to take off your chains and let you go. If you want to come with me to Babylon, fine; I will see that you are well cared for. But if you don’t want to come, don’t. The world is before you—go where you like.
5
If you decide to stay, then return to Gedaliah, who has been appointed as governor of Judah by the king of Babylon, and stay with the remnant he rules. But it’s up to you; go where you like.”
Then Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah some food and money and let him go.
6
So Jeremiah returned to Gedaliah and lived in Judah with the people left in the land.
7
Now when the leaders of the Jewish guerrilla bands in the countryside heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor over the poor of the land who were left behind, and had not exiled everyone to Babylon,
8
they came to see Gedaliah at Mizpah, where his headquarters were. These are the names of the leaders who came: Ishmael (son of Nethaniah), Johanan and Jonathan (sons of Kareah), Seraiah (son of Tanhumeth), the sons of Ephai (the Netophathite), Jezaniah (son of a Maacathite), and their men.
9
And Gedaliah assured them that it would be safe to surrender to the Babylonians.
“Stay here and serve the king of Babylon,” he said, “and all will go well for you.
10
As for me, I will stay at Mizpah and intercede for you with the Babylonians who will come here to oversee my administration. Settle in any city you wish and live off the land. Harvest the grapes and summer fruits and olives and store them away.”
11
When the Jews in Moab and among the Ammonites and in Edom and the other nearby countries heard that a few people were still left in Judah, and that the king of Babylon had not taken them all away, and that Gedaliah was the governor,
12
they all began to return to Judah from the many places to which they had fled. They stopped at Mizpah to discuss their plans with Gedaliah and then went out to the deserted farms and gathered a great harvest of wine grapes and other crops.
13-14
But soon afterwards Johanan (son of Kareah) and the other guerrilla leaders came to Mizpah to warn Gedaliah that Baalis, king of the Ammonites, had sent Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) to assassinate him. But Gedaliah wouldn’t believe them.
15
Then Johanan had a private conference with Gedaliah. Johanan volunteered to kill Ishmael secretly.
“Why should we let him come and murder you?” Johanan asked. “What will happen then to the Jews who have returned? Why should this remnant be scattered and lost?”
16
But Gedaliah said, “I forbid you to do any such thing, for you are lying about Ishmael.”
But in October, Ishmael (son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama), who was a member of the royal family and one of the king’s top officials, arrived in Mizpah, accompanied by ten men. Gedaliah invited them to dinner.
2
While they were eating, Ishmael and the ten men in league with him suddenly jumped up, pulled out their swords, and killed Gedaliah.
3
Then they went out and slaughtered all the Jewish officials and Babylonian soldiers who were in Mizpah with Gedaliah.
4
The next day, before the outside world knew what had happened,
5
eighty men approached Mizpah from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, to worship at the Temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and were bringing offerings and incense.
6
Ishmael went out from the city to meet them, crying as he went. When he faced them he said, “Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!”
7
Then, when they were all inside the city, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern.
8
The ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their treasures of wheat, barley, oil, and honey they had hidden away.
9
The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one constructed by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against Baasha, king of Israel.
*
10
Ishmael made captives of the king’s daughters and of the people who had been left under Gedaliah’s care in Mizpah by Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard. Soon after, he took them with him when he headed toward the country of the Ammonites.
11
But when Johanan (son of Kareah) and the rest of the guerrilla leaders heard what Ishmael had done,
12
they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the pool near Gibeon.
13-14
The people with Ishmael shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and his men and ran to meet them.
15
Meanwhile Ishmael escaped with eight of his men into the land of the Ammonites.
16-17
Then Johanan and his men went to the village of Geruth Chimham, near Bethlehem, taking with them all those they had rescued—soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs, to prepare to leave for Egypt.
18
For they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when the news reached them that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah the governor, for he had been chosen and appointed by the Babylonian emperor.
Then Johanan and the army captains and all the people, great and small, came to Jeremiah
2
and said, “Please pray for us to the Lord your God, for as you know so well, we are only a tiny remnant of what we were before.
3
Beg the Lord your God to show us what to do and where to go.”
4
“All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will ask him and I will tell you what he says. I will hide nothing from you.”
5
Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the curse of God be on us if we refuse to obey whatever he says we should do!
6
Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we send you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.”
7
Ten days later the Lord gave his reply to Jeremiah.
8
So he called for Johanan and the captains of his forces, and for all the people, great and small,
9
and said to them: “You sent me to the Lord, the God of Israel, with your request, and this is his reply:
10
“Stay here in this land. If you do, I will bless you, and no one will harm you. For I am sorry for all the punishment I have had to give to you.
11
Don’t fear the king of Babylon anymore, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
12
And I will be merciful to you by making him kind so that he will not kill you or make slaves of you but will let you stay here in your land.
13-14
“But if you refuse to obey the Lord and say, ‘We will not stay here,’—and insist on going to Egypt where you think you will be free from war and hunger and alarms,
15
then this is what the Lord replies, O remnant of Judah: The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: If you insist on going to Egypt,
16
the war and famine you fear will follow close behind you, and you will perish there.
17
That is the fate awaiting every one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt. Yes, you will die from sword, famine, and disease. None of you will escape from the evil I will bring upon you there.
18
“For the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Just as my anger and fury were poured out upon the people of Jerusalem, so it will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will be received with disgust and with hatred—you will be cursed and reviled. And you will never again see your own land.
19
For the Lord has said: O remnant of Judah, do not go to Egypt!”
Jeremiah concluded: “Never forget the warning I have given you today.
20
If you go, it will be at the cost of your lives. For you were deceitful when you sent me to pray for you and said, ‘Just tell us what God says and we will do it!’
21
And today I have told you exactly what he said, but you will not obey any more now than you did the other times.
22
Therefore know for a certainty that you will die by sword, famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going.”
When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from God to all the people,
2-3
Azariah (son of Hoshaiah) and Johanan (son of Kareah) and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The Lord our God hasn’t told you to tell us not to go to Egypt! Baruch (son of Neriah) has plotted against us and told you to say this so that we will stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or carried off to Babylon as slaves.”
4
So Johanan and all the guerrilla leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord and stay in Judah.
5
All of them, including all those who had returned from the nearby countries where they had fled, now started off for Egypt with Johanan and the other captains in command.
6
In the crowd were men, women, and children, the king’s daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah. They even forced Jeremiah and Baruch to go with them too.
7
And so they arrived in Egypt at the city of Tahpanhes, for they would not obey the Lord.
8
Then at Tahpanhes, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah again and said:
9
“Call together the men of Judah and, as they watch you, bury large rocks between the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here in Tahpanhes,
10
and tell the men of Judah this: The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will surely bring Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, here to Egypt, for he is my servant. I will set his throne upon these stones that I have hidden. He shall spread his royal canopy over them.
11
And when he comes, he shall destroy the land of Egypt, killing all those I want killed and capturing those I want captured, and many shall die of plague.
12
He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt and burn the idols and carry off the people as his captives. And he shall plunder the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks fleas from his cloak! And he himself shall leave unharmed.
13
And he shall break down the obelisks standing in the city of Heliopolis and burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.”