THE CHALDEANS TREAT JEREMIAH KINDLY. GEDALIAH IS SLAIN, THE JEWS, TAKING JEREMIAH WITH THEM, FLEE INTO EGYPT.
WE have read the promise which the Lord made to Jeremiah, that the Chaldeans would treat him kindly when they should come to take Jerusalem. And now the Lord made his promise come true, for, after the city was taken, the king of Babylon commanded the captain of his army, saying, Take Jeremiah and be good to him, and do him no harm, but do unto him whatever he shall ask of thee. So the captain sent and took Jeremiah out of prison, where the men of Judah had left him, and he said to him, If it please thee to come with me to Babylon, come; and I will take care of thee; but if thou wouldst rather stay here, do not come. All the land is before thee to go wherever it shall please thee to go; or thou canst go and live with Gedaliah, whom the king has made governor over the cities of Judah. Then the captain gave Jeremiah money and food, and let him go; and Jeremiah went and lived with Gedaliah, because he wanted to stay with the people that were still left in the land.
Now some of the Jews had fled out into the fields, and away to other countries, when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem; therefore they were not taken captive with those that went to Babylon. And when they heard that Nebuchadnezzar had left some of the people still living in the land, and had made Gedaliah governor over them, they came back to the land of Judah, to the city of Mizpeh, where Gedaliah lived; for he could not live in Jerusalem because it was destroyed. And Gedaliah spoke kindly to the Jews who came to him and said to them, Do not be afraid to come back to live in your own land. For if you will stay here and sow your seed and gather in your grain, and serve the king of Babylon, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. So the people came and lived in the land, and gathered in much fruit and grain from their fields.
Then some men came to Gedaliah and spoke to him, saying, Dost thou not know that the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael, one of the princes of Judah, to slay thee? And one of the men who came to tell him this, spoke secretly to Gedaliah, and said, Let me go therefore and put Ishmael to death, and no one shall know of it; for why should he slay thee and cause all the people who are left in the land to be scattered and destroyed? But Gedaliah would not believe what the man said; he answered him, saying, Thou shalt not put Ishmael to death, for what thou tellest me about him is not true. Yet what the man said was true; for after that, Ishmael came, and ten men with him, to Gedaliah's house, pretending that they wanted only to eat at his table. But after they had eaten they rose up and slew him; and Ishmael fled away into the land of the Ammonites. Then all the people were afraid lest the king of Babylon should come and punish them, because Gedaliah, whom he had made governor over them, was slain.
And they came to Jeremiah, and said, Pray for us to the Lord, that he may show us where we shall go and what we shall do. Jeremiah answered, I will pray for you as you ask me, and whatever the Lord shall tell me, I will tell you; I will hide nothing from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, All that the Lord shall command us, we will do; whether it be good or whether it be bad for us, we will obey the voice of the Lord, so that he may help us and take care of us.
And Jeremiah prayed to the Lord, and after ten days the Lord answered him, and told him what he should say to the people. So Jeremiah called them to hear, and he said to them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will stay in this land I will bless you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, for I am with you to save you from harm, and I will make him kind to you, so that he shall let you live in your own land. But if you disobey me and say, We will not live in this land, but will go into Egypt, because there we shall have bread enough to eat, and shall have no more war, then, after you have gone, the war and the famine, that you fear, shall follow you, and there in Egypt you shall die, and you shall see your own land no more.
When the people heard these words, all the proud and wicked men among them answered Jeremiah, saying, Thou speakest falsely, for the Lord did not tell thee to say that we should not go down into Egypt, but thou dost want us to stay here, that the Chaldeans may come and put us to death, or carry us away captives to Babylon. So they would not obey the commandment of the Lord, but they took all the people, the men, the women, and the children, who were left in the land of Judah, and Jeremiah also, and brought them down into the land of Egypt. Then those words came true that the prophet Isaiah had spoken more than a hundred years before, when he said, that the land of Judah should be left lonely and desolate; that briars and thorns should grow over it, and that the houses should have no one living in them.