1. Then all the army leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Heshaiah, came with people of every class
2. and said to me, “Please do what we ask you! Pray to the Lord our God for us. Pray for all of us who have survived. Once there were many of us; but now only a few of us are left, as you can see.
3. Pray that the Lord our God will show us the way we should go and what we should do.”
4. I answered, “Very well, then. I will pray to the Lord our God, just as you have asked, and whatever he says, I will tell you. I will not keep back anything from you.”
5. Then they said to me, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not obey all the commands that the Lord our God gives you for us.
6. Whether it pleases us or not, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are asking you to pray. All will go well with us if we obey him.”
7. Ten days later the Lord spoke to me;
8. so I called together Johanan, all the army leaders who were with him, and all the other people.
9. I said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me with your request has said,
10. ‘If you are willing to go on living in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not pull you up. The destruction I brought on you has caused me great sorrow.
11. Stop being afraid of the king of Babylonia. I am with you, and I will rescue you from his power.
12. Because I am merciful, I will make him have mercy on you and let you go back home. I, the Lord, have spoken.’