1. Then all the army officers, including Johanan, Kareah’s son, and Jezaniah, Hoshaiah’s son, and the rest of the people, from the least to the greatest, approached
2. Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, "We have something to ask you: Please pray to the Lord your God for us, this small group, for as you can see we were once many but now are very few.
3. May the Lord your God show us where we should go and what we should do."
4. The prophet Jeremiah replied, "Yes, I’ll pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. And I’ll tell you whatever the Lord says; I won’t hide anything from you."
5. Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to do everything that the Lord your God tells us through you.
6. Whether we like it or not, we will obey all that the Lord our God says. We will obey the Lord our God, to whom we’re sending you, so it may go well for us."
7. Ten days later Jeremiah received the Lord’s word.
8. So he called Johanan, Kareah’s son, and all the army officers with him and the rest of the people, from the least to the greatest,
9. and he said to them: You have sent me to present your plea to the Lord, and this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
10. If you live in this land, I will build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not dig you up because I grieve over the disaster I have brought upon you.