Jeremias 46

¹ The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations:

² Concerning Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh–necho the king of Egypt, which was posted by the river Euphrates in Karkemish, which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoyakim the son of Josiah the king of Judah.

³ Make ye ready shield and buckler, and draw near to the battle.

⁴ Harness the horses, and mount, ye horsemen, and stand forth with helmets: sharpen the spears, and put on the coats of mail.

⁵ Wherefore have I seen them dismayed, moving backward? while their mighty ones are beaten down, and seek safety in flight, and look not back? There is terror round about, saith the Lord.

⁶ The swift cannot flee away, nor can the mighty man escape: toward the north by the shore of the river Euphrates do they stumble and fall.

⁷ Who is this that cometh up like a stream, whose waters are upheaved like the rivers?

⁸ Egypt cometh up like a stream, and like the rivers are the waters upheaved; and he saith, I will go up, I will cover the land; I will destroy the city and those that dwell therein.

⁹ Come up, ye horses; and rush along wildly, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth: Cush and Put, that grasp the shield, and the Ludim, that grasp and bend the bow.

¹⁰ And this same day is for the Lord, the Eternal of hosts, a day of vengeance, to be avenged on his adversaries; that the sword may devour, and may be satiated and made drunken with their blood; for there is a sacrifice for the Lord the Eternal of hosts in the north country by the river Euphrates.

¹¹ Go up into Gil’ad, and fetch balm, O virgin, daughter of Egypt: in vain usest thou many remedies; there is no recovery for thee.

¹² Nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry of anguish hath filled the earth; for the mighty man over the mighty have they stumbled, together are both of them fallen.

¹³ The word which the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, concerning the coming of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, to smite the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ Announce ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Thachpanches: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thyself; for the sword devoureth round about thee.

¹⁵ Why are thy valiant men swept away? not one hath stood, because the Lord did drive him off.

¹⁶ He caused many to stumble; yea, one also fell over the other; and they said, Arise, and let us return to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from before the wasting sword.

¹⁷ They called out there, Pharaoh is king of Egypt, it was but vaunting, he hath let the time appointed pass by.

¹⁸ As I live, saith the King, the Lord of hosts is his name, Surely as Thabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel is by the sea, so shall he come.

¹⁹ Appurtenances of exile make for thyself, O thou inhabitress, daughter of Egypt; for Noph shall be made a waste and be left desolate without an inhabitant.

²⁰ O fairest heifer, Egypt! the butcher from the north cometh, he cometh.

²¹ Also her hired troops in the midst of her are like fatted calves; for they also are turned round, are fled away together, they do not stand; because the day of their calamity is come upon them, the time of their punishment.

²² Her cry shall come like the hissing of a serpent; for with an army shall they march, and with axes do they come against her, like hewers of wood.

²³ They cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched out; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and there is no number to them.

²⁴ Ashamed hath been made the daughter of Egypt: she hath been given up into the hand of the people of the north.

²⁵ The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, hath said, Behold, I will send visitation on Ahmon of No, and on Pharaoh, and on Egypt, and on her gods, and on her kings; even on Pharaoh, and on those that trust on him;

²⁶ And I will give them up into the hand of those that seek their life, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward shall she be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.

²⁷ But thou,––fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel; for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity: and Jacob shall return, and he shall be at rest and at ease, with none to make him afraid.

²⁸ Thou,––fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the Lord; for I am with thee: and although I make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, yet of thee will I not make a full end; and I will correct thee in measure; yet wholly will I not leave thee unpunished.