10 ‘If you will stay in Judah, I will make you strong. I will not destroy you. I will plant you, and I will not pull you up. This is because I am sad about the disaster I brought on you.
11 Now you are afraid of the king of Babylon. But don’t be afraid of him. Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon,’ says the Lord. ‘I am with you. I will save you. I will rescue you from his power.
12 I will be kind to you. And the king of Babylon will also treat you with mercy. He will bring you back to your land.’
13 “But you might say, ‘We will not stay in Judah.’ If you say that, you will disobey the Lord your God.
14 Or you might say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt. We will not be bothered with war there. We will not hear the trumpets of war. And in Egypt we will not be hungry.’
15 If you say that, listen to the message of the Lord. It is to you who are left alive from Judah. This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you make up your mind to go and live in Egypt, these things will happen:
16 You are afraid of war. But it will defeat you in the land of Egypt. And you are worried about hunger. But you will be hungry in Egypt. You will die there.