And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.
Ver. 26. And came to Egypt.] Their rendezvous was at Bethlehem; where when the prophet Jeremiah had forbidden them from God to go to Egypt upon pain of utter destruction, they nevertheless would needlessly go, and did: taking along with them also Jeremiah and Baruch. Jer 43:4
“ Ah quoties docta plus valet arte malum! ”
Jeremiah, though their prisoner, ceased not to reprove them in Egypt for their obstinacy and idolatry, and to foretell their destruction: for the which his ungrateful countrymen stoned him to death, as other histories report. Hoc fuit διδακτρον, saith one. This was the reward that that faithful servant of God received for his one and forty years' pains taken amongst them.