Jeremiah 41:18

⁵Now while he had not yet gone back, “Go back then,” he said, “to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go.

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.

⁴“I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna.^[+] Yes, I tell you, fear him.

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.

²then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You shall not go into Egypt to live there;’ ³but Baruch the son of Neriah has turned you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.”

¹¹“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me?

¹²“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass? ¹³Have you forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?

²⁵But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring came, and ten men with him, and struck Gedaliah so that he died, with the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah.

¹⁶but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will be swift. ¹⁷One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.