Jeremiah 43 - Easy To Read Version

¹ So Jeremiah finished telling the people the message from the Lord their God. Jeremiah told them everything that the Lord had sent him to tell the people.

² Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and some other men were proud and stubborn. Those people became angry at Jeremiah. Those men said to Jeremiah, “Jeremiah, you are lying! The Lord our God didn’t send you to say to us, ‘You people must not go to Egypt to live there.’

³ Jeremiah, we think that Baruch son of Neriah is encouraging you to be against us. He wants you to give us to the Babylonian people. He wants you to do this so they can kill us. Or he wants you to do this so that they can make us captives {\cf2\super [347]} and carry us to Babylon.”

⁴ So Johanan, the army officers, and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command. The Lord had commanded them to stay in Judah.

⁵ But instead of obeying the Lord, Johanan and the army officers took those survivors {\cf2\super [348]} from Judah to Egypt. In the past, the enemy had taken those survivors to other countries. But they had come back to Judah.

⁶ Now, Johanan and all the army officers took all the men, women, and children and led them to Egypt. Among those people were the king’s daughters. (Nebuzaradan had put Gedaliah in charge of those people. Nebuzaradan was the commander of the king of Babylon’s special guards.) Johanan also took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.

⁷ Those people didn’t listen to the Lord. So all those people went to Egypt. They went to the town of Tahpanhes. {\cf2\super [349]}

⁸ In the town of Tahpanhes, Jeremiah received this message from the Lord:

⁹ “Jeremiah, get some large stones. Take them and bury them in the clay and brick sidewalk in front of Pharaoh’s official building in Tahpanhes. Do this while the men of Judah are watching you.

¹⁰ Then say to those men of Judah that are watching you: ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I will send for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to come here. He is my servant. And I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here. Nebuchadnezzar will spread his canopy {\cf2\super [350]} above these stones.

¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar will come here and attack Egypt. He will bring death to those that are to die. He will bring captivity to those that are to be taken captive. And he will bring the sword to those that are to be killed with a sword.

¹² Nebuchadnezzar will start a fire in the temples of the false gods of Egypt. He will burn those temples and he will take those idols away. A shepherd picks the bugs and stickers off of his clothes to make them clean. In the same way, Nebuchadnezzar will pick Egypt clean. Then he will safely leave Egypt.

¹³ Nebuchadnezzar will destroy the memorial stones {\cf2\super [351]} that are in the temple of the Sun God {\cf2\super [352]} in Egypt. And he will burn down the temples of the false gods of Egypt.’”