The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros:
“This is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah, and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one lives in them
because of their wickedness that they did to provoke me by burning incense and by serving other gods that they did not know; not they, nor you, nor your fathers.
However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them again and again, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’
But they did not listen, nor incline their ear to turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.
Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became wasted and desolate as they are this day.
So now this is what Yahweh the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child, out of the midst of Judah, thus leaving yourselves with no remnant?
Why do you continue to make me angry with the work of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you will be cut off and so that you will be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives that they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
They have not become humble even to this day, nor have they feared me nor walked in my law or in my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.
Therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
I will take the remnant of Judah that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they will fall. They will be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They will die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine, and they will be an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
For I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence,
so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there for a while will escape or be left to return into the land of Judah, to which they are longing in their souls to return and live there. For none will return except a few refugees.”
Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly including all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, saying,
“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we will not listen to you.
But we will do, yes, do every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no evil.
But since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.
“And,” the women added, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made cakes for her in her image and pour out drink offerings to her?”
Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and to the women, even to all the people who had given him that answer,
“The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials and the people of the land, was it not those very things that Yahweh remembered and that came up into his heart?
Yahweh could no longer endure your evil deeds; the abominations that you have committed. That is why your land has become a desolation, and an object of horror, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
It is because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against Yahweh and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies, that this evil has happened to you, as it is this day.”
Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including to all the women, “Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt.
This is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have spoken with your mouths (and with your hands have done it), saying, ‘We will fulfill, yes, fulfill our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm, yes, confirm your vows! And fulfill, yes, fulfill your vows!
But hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who live in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Yahweh, that my name will no more be named by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the Lord Yahweh lives.’
Behold, I am watching over them for evil and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by the famine until there is an end of them.
Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah few in number, and all the remnant of Judah who have come into the land of Egypt to live there will know whose word will stand, mine or theirs!
And this will be the sign to you, says Yahweh, that I will punish you in this place, so that you will know that my words will stand, yes, stand against you for evil.
This is what Yahweh says: Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”