Jeremiah 42
The bottom has fallen out for the survivors of Judah. The Babylonians have burned Jerusalem; the gentle governor Gedaliah, who had promised them safety if they stayed, has been assassinated; Ishmael has murdered and scattered people before fleeing. Now a frightened remnant - all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah… and all the people from the least even unto the greatest (v. 1) - gathers around Jeremiah with a request that sounds like the very model of faith: pray for us unto the LORD thy God… that the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do (vv. 2-3). They are afraid Babylon will hold them responsible for Gedaliah's death, and Egypt looks like escape. But before they hear a word, they bind themselves with a solemn oath of obedience.3
Jeremiah agrees to pray and promises to hold nothing back. Then comes a detail easy to rush past: it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah (v. 7). Ten days of silence - ten days the prophet had to wait, and the people had to wait, before God spoke. When the word comes, it is clear and full of mercy: stay in the land, do not fear the king of Babylon, for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand (v. 11). But it carries a hard edge for the path they have privately chosen: if they go down to Egypt, the very sword and famine they dread will catch them there.
The chapter ends by naming the disease beneath the symptom. For all their devout language, Jeremiah tells them plainly: ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God (v. 20). They had not really come to ask; they had come hoping for a blessing on a decision already made. It is one of the most searching moments in the book - a warning that the words of prayer can be entirely right while the heart behind them is already closed. The God who answers here is near enough to save those who will truly obey Him, and honest enough to tell them that His word will not bless the road they have already chosen.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Jeremiah 42:1-6Pray for Us Unto the LORD
1Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near, 2And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) 3That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. 4Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you. 5Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us. 6Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
The scene opens with a community in pieces. The leaders are named - all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah - and behind them stands the whole frightened remnant, all the people from the least even unto the greatest (v. 1). These are the survivors of catastrophe. Jerusalem is ash; the governor Gedaliah, who had told them they would be safe if they simply stayed and served the king of Babylon, has been cut down; Ishmael has spilled blood and fled. They are afraid - reasonably afraid - that Babylon will hold them responsible and come to finish what it started. And so they come to the prophet with a request that, on its face, is exactly the right one: Let… our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God… for we are left but a few of many (v. 2). They want God's direction, and they say so in the humblest terms. There is nothing wrong with a word of this prayer. The trouble, as the chapter will slowly reveal, is not in the words at all. It is somewhere underneath them.
Their request narrows to a single, beautiful petition: That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do (v. 3). This is the language of someone who genuinely wants to be led - the way wherein we may walk, the thing that we may do. Jeremiah answers them with complete integrity. He does not flatter them or guess at what they want to hear; he commits to deliver the unfiltered word: whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you (v. 4). It is worth pausing on the prophet's honesty here, because it sets up everything that follows. Jeremiah will report exactly what God says, no matter how unwelcome - I will keep nothing back. The remnant is about to receive a perfectly clear, perfectly faithful answer. Whatever goes wrong from here cannot be blamed on a muddled message or a prophet who softened the truth. The word will come straight. The only variable left is the heart that receives it.
Then the people do something that raises the stakes enormously: they swear an oath. The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us (v. 5). They call God Himself to be the witness against them if they fail to obey. And they spell out the terms with a phrase that ought to be the high-water mark of surrender: Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God… that it may be well with us (v. 6). Whether it be good, or whether it be evil - whether the answer pleases us or wounds us, whether it is the road we hoped for or the one we dread, we will obey. On paper this is total submission. It is the very thing faith is supposed to say. But notice what they have done: they have promised to obey before they have heard, which is right - and yet, as the chapter will show, they have promised it while the destination was already chosen in their hearts. An oath is only as honest as the heart that swears it. They will keep every word of the wording and break the whole of the meaning.
Jeremiah 42:7-12For I Am With You to Save You
7And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah. 8Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him; 10If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. 11Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. 12And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
One small clause carries more weight than its length suggests: it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah (v. 7). Ten days of silence. The people had sworn their urgent oath and were desperate to move; the prophet had promised to bring back whatever God said - and then nothing, for ten days. Scripture rarely tells us why God waits, and it does not explain here. But the delay does its own work. It tests whether the remnant's professed readiness to obey can survive even the strain of waiting, before any hard answer has arrived. Faith that says whatever You say, we will do must often first prove itself in the silence before the answer, when nothing is happening and the pressure to act on our own is greatest. The ten days are a mercy and a sieve at once: a mercy, because God will not be hurried into a careless word; a sieve, because a heart already set on its plan grows restless in the waiting and begins, quietly, to move toward what it had already chosen. By the time the word finally comes, we may suspect the remnant has already left in spirit, whatever their feet are doing.3
When the word comes, it is astonishingly gentle. If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you (v. 10). The verbs are tender and double-sided - build and not pull down, plant and not pluck up. They are the very words by which Jeremiah was first commissioned, the great pair of his whole ministry; now they turn entirely toward mercy. To build and plant is the language of a future, of roots going down and walls going up, of a people given a place to stay and grow. And the staggering line is the last one: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. The judgment that fell on Judah was real, but God speaks here like one ready to relent, grieved over the suffering and prepared to reverse it for any who will simply stay. The condition could not be smaller: if ye will still abide in this land. No heroic act is required, no long pilgrimage, no impossible feat - only to remain where God has placed them and trust Him there. The whole rich future hangs on a single, humble willingness not to run.
God meets their fear by name. He knows precisely what they dread - reprisal from Babylon for Gedaliah's murder - and He addresses it head-on: Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand (v. 11). The command be not afraid is doubled, as if to press past their panic and make them hear it twice. And the reason given is the oldest and deepest comfort in all of Scripture: I am with you. Not the danger is not real, not nothing bad will happen - but I am with you to save you, and to deliver you. Their safety was never going to come from the right geography; it would come from the LORD's presence wherever they were. He even promises to bend the heart of their conqueror toward them: I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land (v. 12). The same God who had used Babylon as the rod of judgment now offers to make Babylon the instrument of mercy. Everything they were afraid of, He promised to handle - if they would only stay and let Him be with them in the frightening place.
Jeremiah 42:13-18The Sword Ye Feared Shall Overtake You There
13But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God, 14Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: 15And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; 16Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die. 17So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. 18For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Now God speaks to the other road - and notice how exactly He quotes the daydream in their hearts. But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land… Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell (vv. 13-14). This is the vision Egypt held out: a place of no war, no alarming trumpet, no hunger of bread. It is the fantasy of total safety, the picture every frightened heart paints of the escape it longs for. And the chapter has already let slip how firmly this picture had taken hold - the word God uses is that they would wholly set their faces toward Egypt (v. 15). Their faces were already turned. The decision was made; the prayer had been a formality laid over a settled choice. But God answers the daydream by simply telling the truth about it. The safety Egypt seemed to promise was an illusion, and a fatal one. What looks like refuge when fear is doing the deciding is very often the most dangerous place of all.
The reply is devastating in its precision: the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die (v. 16). Read it slowly and the terrible logic emerges. The remnant was fleeing the sword and the famine. Egypt promised escape from exactly those two things. And God says: the very sword you fear will overtake you there; the very famine you dread will follow close after you there. The things they ran from would run them down in the place they ran to. There is a sober truth written into this verse that reaches far beyond one ancient decision: the thing we flee in disobedience often catches us precisely where we flee to. Egypt could not outrun God's word. None of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them (v. 17). The reassurance of verse 11 and the warning of verse 16 are two sides of one truth - the LORD's presence is the only real safety, and to flee from His word toward an imagined refuge is to run straight into the thing you feared.
The warning closes on its gravest note. As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt (v. 18). They had just lived through what God's judgment on Jerusalem looked like - the burning, the siege, the exile. Now they are told that going to Egypt against His word would call down the same thing upon themselves: they would become an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, and they would see this place no more. It is a hard word, and it is meant to be. But it is not the word of a God indifferent to them; it is precisely because He has just promised to build and plant and save them that the alternative is laid out so starkly. Love that warns plainly is not the opposite of mercy; it is mercy refusing to let people walk off a cliff in comfortable silence. God is telling them the full truth of both roads - life and a future on the one hand, ruin on the other - so that the choice before them is utterly clear and nothing is hidden.
Jeremiah 42:19-22Ye Dissembled in Your Hearts
19The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day. 20For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. 21And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. 22Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.
Jeremiah brings the message to its point with a solemn formality, twice pressing the word certainly. Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day (v. 19). He has done his part completely. The word was clear, the warning was plain, nothing was kept back - I have admonished you this day. Whatever the remnant does now, they cannot say they did not know. There is a weight in this that goes beyond the moment. To be admonished, warned plainly with the truth, is itself an act of mercy - God does not let people drift into ruin without a word. And it also removes every excuse. The people had asked to be shown the way wherein we may walk (v. 3); they have now been shown it, in unmistakable terms, with both the blessing and the danger spelled out. The matter no longer rests on whether they understood. It rests entirely on whether they will obey what they plainly understood - which is exactly where Jeremiah now turns the light.
Here the chapter lays bare the thing it has been circling from the start: For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God… and we will do it (v. 20). The whole devout performance is exposed. When they said pray for us, when they swore whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey - they had already decided. The asking was a show; the surrender was theater; the answer was chosen before the question left their lips. And the deception, Jeremiah says, was not first of all aimed at him or even at God - it was in your hearts. They had deceived themselves. This is the most penetrating line in the chapter, because it names a thing almost everyone has done: dressing a decision already made in the clothes of prayer, asking God to confirm what we have settled on rather than to direct what is still open. It is possible to go through every motion of seeking God - the right words, the reverent posture, even the costly-sounding vow - while the heart was never actually willing to be told no. That is not seeking guidance. It is seeking a blessing on our own way and calling it prayer.
The verdict follows with quiet force: And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you (v. 21). Notice the precise echo. In verse 6 they had said, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God - the Hebrew shama be-qol, to hear-and-do. Now the same words come back as an indictment: ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God. They had promised to hear the voice; they would not hear it. And so the chapter ends where their own choice was carrying them: know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go (v. 22). That last phrase - the place whither ye desire to go - is the saddest in the chapter. Their ruin would meet them not where God sent them but where their own desire pulled them. The verse hangs over every reader as a question. They had asked God to show them the way; He showed it; and they preferred their own. The danger of the chapter is not that we cannot find God's guidance. It is that we may find it, and want our own way more.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Jeremiah 42 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for the doubled verb shama be-qol (v. 6, “obey the voice”) and for the difficult verb hit'etem (v. 20), where the people are told they had led their own hearts astray when they sent Jeremiah to inquire.
- Jeremiah 42 ↔ Luke 22 · Matthew 28 · Hebrews 13Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Jeremiah 42 to the rest of Scripture - the vow to obey whether it be good, or whether it be evil (v. 6) read beside not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42), and the promise I am with you to save you (v. 11) read alongside I am with you alway (Matt. 28:20) and I will never leave thee (Heb. 13:5).
- Jeremiah 42 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Jeremiah 42 - the legal weight of the oath in verses 5-6, the ten-day wait for the word in verse 7, the reassurance formula I am with you to save you in verse 11, and the much-discussed charge of self-deception in verse 20.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Pray for Us Unto the LORD
- Matthew 15:8This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.The exact gap the chapter exposes - right words in verse 6, a heart already turned away.
- Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.The same verb shama as “obey the voice” in verse 6 - to truly hear is already to heed.
- James 1:22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.The danger beneath the oath of verse 6 - hearing the word while deceiving oneself about doing it.
- 1 Samuel 15:22to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.The heart of the chapter - God seeks obedience to His voice, not the ceremony of asking (vv. 5-6).
- John 14:13-14Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do... If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.The access the remnant sought through a prophet (v. 2), opened directly in Christ.
For I Am With You to Save You
- Matthew 28:20lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.The promise of verse 11 made permanent - the saving presence of God with His people, without end.
- Matthew 1:23they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.The deepest fulfilment of “I am with you” (v. 11) - God drawing near to save in person.
- Hebrews 13:5-6I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear.The courage of verse 11 - freedom from fear grounded in God’s abiding presence.
- Jeremiah 1:10to root out, and to pull down... to build, and to plant.The build-and-plant words of verse 10 - Jeremiah’s commissioning verbs, here turned wholly to mercy.
- Isaiah 41:10Fear thou not; for I am with thee... I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.The same answer to fear as verse 11 - not the absence of danger, but the presence of God.
The Sword Ye Feared Shall Overtake You There
- Proverbs 14:12There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.The illusion of verses 13-16 - the road that looks like safety leading to death.
- Jonah 1:3But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD... and went down into it.The same impulse as verses 13-14 - fleeing God’s word toward an imagined escape.
- Amos 9:2-3though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them... I will command the serpent, and he shall bite them.The truth of verse 16 - there is no place to flee that escapes the reach of God’s word.
- Deuteronomy 17:16he shall not... cause the people to return to Egypt... the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.Why turning back to Egypt (vv. 14-15) was a reversal of God’s whole redemption of Israel.
- Isaiah 31:1Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help... but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel.The recurring snare of verses 13-15 - trusting Egypt for safety instead of the LORD.
Ye Dissembled in Your Hearts
- Luke 22:42Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.The true surrender the remnant only counterfeited (vv. 6, 20) - a will laid down before the answer.
- Matthew 6:10Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.The prayer the remnant could not pray (v. 20) - God’s will sought above our own.
- Jeremiah 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?The self-deception named in verse 20 - a heart that misleads even its owner.
- James 1:22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.The exact charge of verses 20-21 - hearing the word, then deceiving oneself instead of doing it.
- Luke 6:46And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?The contradiction of verses 5-6 and 21 - calling on the LORD while refusing to obey His voice.