Jeremiah 27:8

²¹For the Lord GOD says: “How much more when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword, the famine, the evil animals, and the pestilence—to cut off from it man and animal!

¹⁰I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.’”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The LORD, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you will go out to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire. You will live, along with your house. ¹⁸But if you will not go out to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you won’t escape out of their hand.’”

¹⁹Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.”

¹⁹“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘As I live, I will surely bring on his own head my oath that he has despised and my covenant that he has broken. ²⁰I will spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me. ²¹All his fugitives in all his bands will fall by the sword, and those who remain will be scattered toward every wind. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it.’

³For through the LORD’s anger this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. ⁵So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

¹⁰‘If you will still live in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you. ¹¹Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don’t be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. ¹²I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.

¹³“‘But if you say, “We will not dwell in this land,” so that you don’t obey the LORD your God’s voice, ¹⁴saying, “No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;”’ ¹⁵now therefore hear the LORD’s word, O remnant of Judah! The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there, ¹⁶then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there. ¹⁷So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. None of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.’ ¹⁸For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’

⁹Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, “Don’t be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.

²⁸It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “You shall surely drink. ²⁹For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You will not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of Armies.”’