11 " 'Do not be afraid of the king of Babylonia. You are afraid of him now. Do not be,' announces the Lord. 'I am with you. I will keep you safe. I will save you from his powerful hands.
12 I will show you my loving concern. Then he will have concern for you. And he will let you return to your land.'
13 "But suppose you say, 'We won't stay in this land.' If you do, you will be disobeying the Lord your God.
14 And suppose you say, 'No! We'll go and live in Egypt. There we won't have to face war anymore. We won't hear the trumpets of war. And we won't get hungry.'
15 "Then listen to what the Lord says to you who are left in Judah. He is the Lord who rules over all. He is the God of Israel. He says, 'Have you already made up your minds to go to Egypt? Are you going to settle down there?
16 " 'Then the war you fear will catch up with you there. The hunger you are afraid of will follow you into Egypt. And you will die there.
17 In fact, that will happen to all those who go and settle in Egypt. All of them will die of war, hunger and plague. Not one of them will live. None of them will escape the trouble I will bring on them.'