Such was the errand upon which the Lord now sent Jeremias to his people. And when Jeremias had delivered all this message to them from the Lord their God,

Azarias, son of Osaias, contradicted him; Johanan, too, the son of Caree, and the other malcontents✻ held the same language. Thou liest, they said, warrant thou hast none from the Lord our God to prevent us taking refuge in Egypt;

it is Baruch, son of Nerias, who sets thee on, thinking to betray us to the Chaldaeans, and have us put to death, or carried away to Babylon.

Thus Johanan, son of Caree, with the army chieftains and all their men in his support, refused to obey the Lord’s bidding and remain where they were in Juda.

He and his fellow chieftains took all the remaining Jews away with them; some of these had been scattered in distant parts, but had now come back to live at home

with their wives and children; others, the king’s daughters among them, had been entrusted by Nabuzardan, the captain of the bodyguard, to Godolias, son of Ahicam, son of Saphan, that had the prophet Jeremias and Baruch son of Nerias at his side.

With all these at their back they crossed the Egyptian frontier, in defiance of the Lord’s bidding, and made their way to Taphnis.

And at Taphnis the word of the Lord came to Jeremias:

Take a load of great stones with thee, and go to the vault✻ under the brick wall by the gate of Pharao’s palace at Taphnis; there bury them, with Jewish folk by to watch thee.

And this message thou shalt give them from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I mean to summon one that is my servant, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and set up a throne for him on these foundations; where these stones lie buried, his canopy shall rise.

He it is that shall come and doom the Egyptians; whom the plague beckons, to the plague, whom exile, to exile, whom the sword, to the sword.

The idols of Egypt he shall carry away into banishment, first setting light to their temples and burning them down. Lightly as shepherd dons cloak, he shall invest himself with sovereignty over its people, and unmolested go his way,

breaking in pieces the statues that adorn Egypt’s sun-temple, the shrines of Egypt burning to the ground.