Down to Egypt Against the Word
1 When Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, with which Yahweh their God had sent him to them, even all these words, 2 then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, ‘You shall not go into Egypt to live there;’ 3 but 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.” 4 So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice, to dwell in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah— 6 the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and every person who Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 They came into the land of Egypt, for they didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice; and they came to Tahpanhes. 8 Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 9 “Take great stones in your hand and hide them in mortar in the brick work which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah. 10 Tell them, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his royal pavilion over them. 11 He will come, and will strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death will be put to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword. 12 I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them, and carry them away captive. He will array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he will go out from there in peace. 13 He will also break the pillars of Beth Shemesh that is in the land of Egypt; and he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.’”
The remnant calls the prophet a liar, takes him to Egypt by force, and he buries paving stones in front of Pharaoh's palace for a throne that is coming.
The rejection is not a wavering but a flat contradiction: You speak falsely. Yahweh our God has not sent you. And the explanation offered for how a true prophet came to say such a thing is the oldest one there is — Baruch has turned you against us. A secretary is blamed for the message, which allows them to reject the word without quite calling Jeremiah a fraud. It also tells how much they had understood: the man who wrote the scroll is imagined as its author.
The departure is total. Johanan takes the men, the women, the children, the king's daughters and everyone Nebuzaradan had left with Gedaliah — and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. They take the prophet with them into the country he told them not to enter. He is a prisoner of the last people in Judah, on a road he warned against, and the book's account of his life ends the way it began, with him going where he did not choose to go.
They settle at Tahpanhes, an Egyptian frontier town, and the first thing he is told to do there is a sign. Take great stones and hide them in the mortar of the brick pavement at the entry to Pharaoh's house, in the sight of the men of Judah. It is done in a foreign capital, at a royal doorstep, with Judean witnesses. The stones are not a monument; they are a footing, laid in advance.
What they are a footing for is stated plainly: I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these stones. The title returns for the last time, and it now covers Egypt as well. The people who fled the reach of Babylon are shown the paving where its king will pitch his tent, and are told that Egypt will be worn by its conqueror the way a herdsman wraps himself in his own cloak. There was no place on the map that solved their problem, and the sign is a piece of civil engineering that says so.
settled What this mark means