¹ When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, which Yahweh their God had sent him to tell them -- all the words quoted above-

² Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and all those arrogant men, said to Jeremiah, 'You are lying. Yahweh our God did not send you to say, "Do not go to Egypt and settle there."

³ It was Baruch son of Neriah, who keeps inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldaeans so that they can put us to death or deport us to Babylon.'

⁴ So neither Johanan nor any of the military leaders nor any of the people obeyed the voice of Yahweh by staying in the country of Judah.

⁵ Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders led off the entire remnant of Judah, those who had come back from all the nations where they had been driven to live in the country of Judah:

⁶ men, women, children, the royal princesses too, and every single person that Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, including the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah.

⁷ And so, in disobedience to the voice of Yahweh, they reached Egypt and arrived at Tahpanhes.

⁸ At Tahpanhes the word of Yahweh was addressed to Jeremiah as follows,

⁹ 'Take some large stones and bury them in the cement on the terrace outside the entrance of Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes, where the Judaeans can see you.

¹⁰ Then say to them, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Look, I shall send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will place his throne on these stones I have buried, and spread his canopy above them.

¹¹ When he comes, he will defeat Egypt: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for captivity, to captivity; those for the sword, to the sword!

¹² "He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn these gods or take them prisoner; like a shepherd wrapping his cloak round him, so he will wrap Egypt round him, and then leave without anyone laying hands on him.

¹³ He will break the obelisks of the temple of the Sun in Egypt, and burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt." '