Single lesson
Jeremiah Is Taken to Egypt
Jeremiah 42:1–43:13
Students will trace this account from the people’s request to Jeremiah through their refusal, journey to Egypt, and the sign at Tahpanhes. They will compare what they promised, what Yahweh said, and what they actually did.
Before you teach
Leaders and people from the least to the greatest ask Jeremiah to pray and seek Yahweh’s direction for the remnant. After ten days, Jeremiah brings Yahweh’s answer about staying in the land and warns against going to Egypt. The passage then records their refusal, the move to Egypt, and another word from Yahweh there.
Students will be able to sequence Jeremiah 42:1 to 43:13 and explain from the text that the remnant asked for Yahweh’s word, promised to obey it, then refused it and still received Yahweh’s warning in Egypt.
Welcome: Track the promise they made
6 minGive students three columns on a board or page: Request, Yahweh’s answer, Response. Read Jeremiah 42:1-6 aloud. Ask them to record the people’s request and exact promise. Notice who comes, what they ask Jeremiah to do, and that they say they will obey whether the message sounds good or bad.
Jeremiah 42:1, Jeremiah 42:2, Jeremiah 42:3, Jeremiah 42:5, Jeremiah 42:6
Read and explain: Yahweh’s answer after ten days
9 minRead Jeremiah 42:7-12 and 42:19. Point out the delay of ten days before Jeremiah speaks. Students note both command and promise: stay in the land, do not fear the king of Babylon, and do not go into Egypt. Observe the farming images build, plant, pull down, and pluck up as Yahweh’s own words.
Jeremiah 42:7, Jeremiah 42:10, Jeremiah 42:11, Jeremiah 42:12, Jeremiah 42:19
Discuss: Fear, refusal, and the warning
8 minRead Jeremiah 42:13-22. Ask students to compare the people’s hoped-for safety in Egypt with Yahweh’s warning. The passage says the very things they fear, sword and famine, will meet them there. Jeremiah also says they dealt deceitfully against their own souls because they asked for Yahweh’s word and did not obey it.
Jeremiah 42:14, Jeremiah 42:16, Jeremiah 42:17, Jeremiah 42:20, Jeremiah 42:21, Jeremiah 42:22
Respond in writing: Promise and action compared
9 minRead Jeremiah 43:1-7. Students make a two-column comparison titled “What they said” and “What they did”. In one column they quote or summarise Jeremiah 42:5-6. In the other, they note the accusations against Jeremiah, the refusal to obey Yahweh’s voice, and the move to Egypt with the remnant, Jeremiah, and Baruch.
Jeremiah 43:1, Jeremiah 43:2, Jeremiah 43:3, Jeremiah 43:4, Jeremiah 43:5, Jeremiah 43:6, Jeremiah 43:7
Closing: The sign at Tahpanhes
8 minFinish with Jeremiah 43:8-13. Explain that Yahweh still speaks in Egypt and gives Jeremiah a sign involving large stones hidden in brickwork. The sign warns that Nebuchadnezzar will reach Egypt too. Close by asking students to state one text-based lesson about hearing Yahweh’s word and one observation about Yahweh’s continued warning.
Jeremiah 43:8, Jeremiah 43:9, Jeremiah 43:10, Jeremiah 43:11, Jeremiah 43:12, Jeremiah 43:13
Questions to explore
What exactly did the people promise before Jeremiah brought Yahweh’s answer?
Read their own words carefully and notice that they promised obedience whatever the answer was.
Jeremiah 42:5, Jeremiah 42:6
How does the passage contrast the people’s hopes for Egypt with Yahweh’s warning about Egypt?
Set Jeremiah 42:14 beside Jeremiah 42:16-18 and list what they expected and what Yahweh said would happen.
Jeremiah 42:14, Jeremiah 42:16, Jeremiah 42:17, Jeremiah 42:18
What shows that hearing Yahweh’s word is not the same as obeying it in this passage?
Follow the movement from hearing all the words, to accusing Jeremiah, to going into Egypt anyway.
Jeremiah 43:1, Jeremiah 43:2, Jeremiah 43:4, Jeremiah 43:7
Make, think or respond
Promises, Warnings, Actions Chart
What you’ll need
- paper
- pens or pencils
- Bible
- ruler
Try it together
- Draw a three-column chart titled Promise, Yahweh’s Word, and Action.
- Fill the first column from Jeremiah 42:5-6, the second from Jeremiah 42:10-12 and Jeremiah 42:19, and the third from Jeremiah 43:2-7.
- Add a final note from Jeremiah 43:8-13 about what Yahweh says in Egypt.
- Use the finished chart to summarise the passage in four or five sentences.
This task keeps students close to the text and helps them compare what the remnant said, what Yahweh commanded, and what they actually did.
Adapt for your group
- For students who need more support, provide the three chart headings and the verse references to locate before discussion begins.
- For students ready for extension, ask them to add a short observation on how Jeremiah 43:8-13 strengthens the warning already given in Jeremiah 42:16-19.
An optional closing prayer
You may pray: “Lord God, help us to be honest hearers of your word. Guard us from asking for your direction and then refusing it. Help us respond truthfully to what you say.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Jeremiah 42
1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,
2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us,
3 that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the things that we should do.”
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words; and it will happen that whatever thing Yahweh answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God sends you to tell us.
6 Whether it is good, or whether it is bad, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.”
7 After ten days, Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah.
8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
9 and said to them, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him, says:
10 ‘If you will still live in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you.
11 Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don’t be afraid of him,’ says Yahweh, ‘for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
12 I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.
13 “ ‘But if you say, “We will not dwell in this land,” so that you don’t obey Yahweh your God’s voice,
14 saying, “No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;” ’
15 now therefore hear Yahweh’s word, O remnant of Judah! Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there,
16 then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there.
17 So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. None of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.’
18 For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’
19 “Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today.
20 For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’
21 I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed Yahweh your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you.
22 Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”
Jeremiah 43
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.’ ”
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.