Jeremiah Is Taken to Egypt

¹I finished telling the people everything that the Lord their God had sent me to tell them.

²Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other arrogant men said to me, “You are lying. The Lord our God did not send you to tell us not to go and live in Egypt.

³Baruch son of Neriah has stirred you up against us, so that the Babylonians will gain power over us and can either kill us or take us away to Babylonia.”

⁴So neither Johanan nor any of the army officers nor any of the people would obey the Lord's command to remain in the land of Judah.

⁵Then Johanan and all the army officers took everybody left in Judah away to Egypt, together with all the people who had returned from the nations where they had been scattered:

⁶the men, the women, the children, and the king's daughters. They took everyone whom Nebuzaradan the commanding officer had left under the care of Gedaliah, including Baruch and me.

⁷They disobeyed the Lord's command and went into Egypt as far as the city of Tahpanhes.

⁸There the Lord said to me,

⁹“Get some large stones and bury them in the mortar of the pavement in front of the entrance to the government building here in the city, and let some of the Israelites see you do it.

¹⁰Then tell them that I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, am going to bring my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to this place, and he will put his throne over these stones that you buried, and will spread the royal tent over them.

¹¹Nebuchadnezzar will come and defeat Egypt. Those people who are doomed to die of disease will die of disease, those doomed to be taken away as prisoners will be taken away as prisoners, and those doomed to be killed in war will be killed in war.

¹²I will set fire to the temples of Egypt's gods, and the king of Babylonia will either burn their gods or carry them off. As shepherds pick their clothes clean of lice, so the king of Babylonia will pick the land of Egypt clean and then leave victorious.

¹³He will destroy the sacred stone monuments at Heliopolis in Egypt and will burn down the temples of the Egyptian gods.”

The Lord's Message to the Israelites in Egypt

¹The Lord spoke to me concerning all the Israelites living in Egypt, in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the southern part of the country.

²The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, said, “You yourselves have seen the destruction I brought on Jerusalem and all the other cities of Judah. Even now they are still in ruins, and no one lives in them

³because their people had done evil and had made me angry. They offered sacrifices to other gods and served gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever worshiped.

⁴I kept sending you my servants the prophets, who told you not to do this terrible thing that I hate.

⁵But you would not listen or pay any attention. You would not give up your evil practice of sacrificing to other gods.

⁶So I poured out my anger and fury on the towns of Judah and on the streets of Jerusalem, and I set them on fire. They were left in ruins and became a horrifying sight, as they are today.

⁷“And so I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, now ask why you are doing such an evil thing to yourselves. Do you want to bring destruction on men and women, children and babies, so that none of your people will be left?

⁸Why do you make me angry by worshiping idols and by sacrificing to other gods here in Egypt, where you have come to live? Are you doing this just to destroy yourselves, so that every nation on earth will make fun of you and use your name as a curse?

⁹Have you forgotten all the wicked things that have been done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem by your ancestors, by the kings of Judah and their wives, and by you and your wives?

¹⁰But to this day you have not humbled yourselves. You have not honored me or lived according to all the laws that I gave you and your ancestors.

¹¹“So then, I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, will turn against you and destroy all Judah.

¹²As for the people of Judah who are left and are determined to go and live in Egypt, I will see to it that all of them are destroyed. All of them, great and small, will die in Egypt, either in war or of starvation. They will be a horrifying sight; people will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.

¹³I will punish those who live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem—with war, starvation, and disease.

¹⁴None of the people of Judah who are left and have come to Egypt to live will escape or survive. Not one of them will return to Judah, where they long to live once again. No one will return except a few refugees.”

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives offered sacrifices to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, including the Israelites who lived in southern Egypt—a large crowd in all—said to me,

¹⁶“We refuse to listen to what you have told us in the name of the Lord.

¹⁷We will do everything that we said we would. We will offer sacrifices to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out wine offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our king and our leaders, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food, we were prosperous, and had no troubles.

¹⁸But ever since we stopped sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven and stopped pouring out wine offerings to her, we have had nothing, and our people have died in war and of starvation.”

¹⁹And the women added, “When we baked cakes shaped like the Queen of Heaven, offered sacrifices to her, and poured out wine offerings to her, our husbands approved of what we were doing.”

²⁰Then I said to all the men and the women who had answered me in this way,

²¹“As for the sacrifices which you and your ancestors, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land offered in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—do you think that the Lord did not know about them or that he forgot them?

²²This very day your land lies in ruins and no one lives in it. It has become a horrifying sight, and people use its name as a curse because the Lord could no longer endure your wicked and evil practices.

²³This present disaster has come on you because you offered sacrifices to other gods and sinned against the Lord by not obeying all his commands.”

^24-25I told all the people, especially the women, what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, was saying to the people of Judah living in Egypt: “Both you and your wives have made solemn promises to the Queen of Heaven. You promised that you would offer sacrifices to her and pour out wine offerings to her, and you have kept your promises. Very well, then! Keep your promises! Carry out your vows!

²⁶But now listen to the vow that I, the Lord, have made in my mighty name to all you Israelites in Egypt: Never again will I let any of you use my name to make a vow by saying, ‘I swear by the living Sovereign Lord!’

²⁷I will see to it that you will not prosper, but will be destroyed. All of you will die, either in war or of disease, until not one of you is left.

²⁸But a few of you will escape death and return from Egypt to Judah. Then the survivors will know whose words have come true, mine or theirs.

²⁹I, the Lord, will give you proof that I will punish you in this place and that my promise to bring destruction on you will come true.

³⁰I will hand over King Hophra of Egypt to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I handed over King Zedekiah of Judah to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, who was his enemy and wanted to kill him.”

Israel's Victory

¹When the soldiers heard what had happened, they were horrified

²and began to tremble with fear. They all scattered in different directions from the camp, making no effort to stay together as they tried to escape along the paths in the mountains and valleys.

³The soldiers who had camped in the mountains around Bethulia also began to retreat. Then all the Israelite soldiers came charging down on them.

⁴Uzziah sent messengers to the towns of Betomesthaim, Bebai, Choba, and Kola, and throughout the land of Israel to tell everyone what had happened and to urge them to join in pursuing and destroying the enemy.

⁵When they received the message, they all attacked the Assyrians and chased them as far as Choba, slaughtering them as they went. Even the people of Jerusalem and others living in the mountains joined the attack when the messengers told them what had happened in the Assyrian camp. The people of the regions of Gilead and Galilee blocked the path of the retreating Assyrians and inflicted heavy losses on them. They pursued them as far as the region around Damascus.

⁶The rest of the people in Bethulia went down to the Assyrian camp, plundered it and carried away enough loot to make themselves very rich.

⁷When the Israelite soldiers returned from the slaughter, they helped themselves to what was left. There was so much of it that the people of the towns and villages in the hill country also shared in the loot.

Israel Celebrates the Victory

⁸The High Priest Joakim and the Council of Israel came from Jerusalem to see for themselves what great things the Lord had done for his people and to meet Judith and congratulate her.

⁹When they arrived, they all praised her, You are Jerusalem's crowning glory, the heroine of Israel, the pride and joy of our people!

¹⁰You have won this great victory for Israel by yourself. God, the Almighty, is pleased with what you have done. May he bless you as long as you live. All the people responded, Amen.

¹¹It took the people thirty days to finish looting the camp of the Assyrians. Judith was given Holofernes' tent, all his silver, his bowls, his couches, and all his furniture. She took them and loaded as much as she could on her mule; then she brought her wagons and loaded them too.

¹²All the Israelite women came to see her; they sang her praises and danced in her honor. On this joyful occasion Judith and the other women waved ivy-covered branches

¹³and wore wreaths of olive leaves on their heads. Judith took her place at the head of the procession to lead the women as they danced. All the men of Israel followed, wearing wreaths of flowers on their heads, carrying their weapons, and singing songs of praise.

Judith's Song of Praise

¹Then Judith sang a song of thanksgiving there with all Israel present, and the people joined in this song of praise.

²She sang, Praise my God and sing to him; praise the Lord with drums and cymbals; play a new song for him. Praise him and call on him for help.

³The Lord is a warrior who ends war. He rescued me from my pursuers and brought me back to his people's camp.

⁴Down from the mountains of the north came the Assyrians, with their tens of thousands of soldiers. Their troops blocked the rivers in the valleys; their cavalry covered the mountains.

⁵They threatened to set fire to our country, slaughter our young men, dash our babies to the ground, take our children away as captives, and carry off all our young women.

⁶But the Lord Almighty tricked them; he used a woman to stop them.

⁷Their hero was not slain by young soldiers or attacked and killed by mighty giants. It was Judith, the daughter of Merari, who brought him down with her beauty.

⁸She gave victory to the oppressed people of Israel, when she took off her widow's clothes, and put on a linen dress to entice him. She put on her rich perfumes and tied a ribbon around her hair.

⁹Her dainty sandal caught his eye; her beauty captured his heart. Then the sword slashed through his neck.

¹⁰The Persians trembled at her daring; the Medes were amazed at her bravery.

¹¹Then our people shouted in victory. They had been weak and oppressed, but they forced the enemy to retreat in panic and fear.

¹²We are the descendants of slaves, but our enemies turned and ran; we killed them like runaway slaves. They were destroyed by the army of the Lord.

¹³I will sing a new song to my God. O Lord, you are strong and glorious! You have never been defeated.

¹⁴Let all your creatures serve you. You gave the command, and all of them came into being; you breathed on them, and all of them were created. No one can oppose your command.

¹⁵The mountains and the seas tremble, and rocks melt like wax when you come near. But there is mercy for all who obey you.

¹⁶The Lord is more pleased with those who obey him than with all the choice meat on the altar, or with all the most fragrant sacrifices.

¹⁷The nations who rise up against my people are doomed. The Lord Almighty will punish them on Judgment Day. He will send fire and worms to devour their bodies, and they will weep in pain forever.

Judith's Fame

¹⁸When the people arrived in Jerusalem, they purified themselves and worshiped God. They presented their burnt offerings, freewill offerings, and gifts.

¹⁹Judith dedicated to God all of Holofernes' property, which the people had given to her. And as a special offering in fulfillment of a vow, she presented to the Lord the mosquito net which she had taken from Holofernes' bed.

²⁰For three months the people continued to celebrate in front of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Judith stayed there with them.

²¹When the celebrations had ended, everyone returned home, and Judith went back to Bethulia to live on her own estate. For the rest of her life she was famous throughout the land of Israel.

²²Many men wanted to marry her, but she never remarried after the death of her husband Manasseh.

^23-24Her fame continued to spread, and she lived in the house her husband had left her. Before she died, Judith divided her property among her husband's and her own close relatives and set her slave woman free. When she died in Bethulia at the age of 105, she was buried beside her husband, and the people of Israel mourned her death for seven days.

²⁵As long as Judith lived, and for many years after her death, no one dared to threaten the people of Israel.

¹⁷Friends always show their love. What are relatives for if not to share trouble?

¹⁸Only someone with no sense would promise to be responsible for someone else's debts.

¹⁹To like sin is to like making trouble. If you brag all the time, you are asking for trouble.

²⁰Anyone who thinks and speaks evil can expect to find nothing good—only disaster.