Gedaliah is assassinated, then the Judeans flee to Israel for fear of reprisals from Nebuchadnezzar, even though Jeremiah tells them not to. Jeremiah is forced to go to Egypt with them, and he prophesies against them and Egypt when he gets there: 2 Kings 25:23–26; Jeremiah 40:11–43:13

It was a real problem. The new governor of Judah had just been assassinated. Should the surviving Judeans flee, or should they stay and risk the anger of Nebuchadnezzar?

They asked Jeremiah for God’s instructions, promising:

^{Jeremiah 42:5-6}May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do! Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.

Unfortunately, when Jeremiah said they should stay, their answer wasn’t what they’d promised:

^{Jeremiah 43:2} .. all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, ‘You lie! The Lord our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt! Baruch son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.’