In Mizpah, Johanan was confronted with a new problem. What would happen when the news reached Babylon that all the Chaldean officers in Mizpah had been slain? The entire population knew what Nebuchadrezzar's vengeance meant. They feared to remain in Judah and, at a council of elders called by Johanan, it was determined to leave the fatherland altogether and emigrate to Egypt.
Before making a definite move, however, Johanan and the elders sought the advice of Jeremiah. They came to the prophet with this petition:
"Permit us to bring our petition before you that you may supplicate the Lord your God for us, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few out of many—you yourself see us here—that the Lord your God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do."
Jeremiah answered them:
"I have heard you; behold I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and whatever the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you:"
To which the leaders replied:
"God be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not according to all the word with which the Lord your God shall send you to us. Whether it be good or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send you, that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."
Jeremiah took ten days to consider the matter. Then the message came to him from the Lord his God and he delivered it to Johanan and his chieftains:
"If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you, up; for I am sorry for the evil that I have done to you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand."
Johanan and the chieftains had hoped that Jeremiah would advise them to go to Egypt. They were disappointed. They took time, therefore, to discuss the matter further among themselves.