Jeremiah 46:1-19

Prophecies concerning Egypt

46¹ The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about the nations. ² Of Egypt: about the army of Pharaoh-neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. ³ Get out the breastplate and body-cover, and come together to the fight. ⁴ Make the horses ready, and get up, you horsemen, and take your places with your head-dresses; make the spears sharp and put on the breastplates. ⁵ What have I seen? they are overcome with fear and turned back; their men of war are broken and have gone in flight, not looking back: fear is on every side, says the Lord. ⁶ Let not the quick-footed go in flight, or the man of war get away; on the north, by the river Euphrates, they are slipping and falling. ⁷ Who is this coming up like the Nile, whose waters are lifting their heads like the rivers? ⁸ Egypt is coming up like the Nile, and his waters are lifting their heads like the rivers, and he says, I will go up, covering the earth; I will send destruction on the town and its people. ⁹ Go up, you horses; go rushing on, you carriages of war; go out, you men of war: Cush and Put, gripping the body-cover, and the Ludim, with bent bows. ¹⁰ But that day is the day of the Lord, the Lord of armies, a day of punishment when he will take payment from his haters: and the sword will have all its desire, drinking their blood in full measure: for there is an offering to the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the north country by the river Euphrates. ¹¹ Go up to Gilead and take sweet oil, O virgin daughter of Egypt: there is no help in all your medical arts; nothing will make you well.

¹² Your shame has come to the ears of the nations, and the earth is full of your cry: for the strong man is falling against the strong, they have come down together. ¹³ The word which the Lord said to Jeremiah the prophet, of how Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, would come and make war on the land of Egypt. ¹⁴ Give the news in Migdol, make it public in Noph: say, Take up your positions and make yourselves ready; for on every side of you the sword has made destruction. ¹⁵ Why has Apis, your strong one, gone in flight? he was not able to keep his place, because the Lord was forcing him down with strength. ¹⁶ ... are stopped in their going, they are falling; and they say one to another, Let us get up and go back to our people, to the land of our birth, away from the cruel sword. ¹⁷ Give a name to Pharaoh, king of Egypt: A noise who has let the time go by. ¹⁸ By my life, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies, truly, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so will he come. ¹⁹ O daughter living in Egypt, make ready the vessels of a prisoner: for Noph will become a waste, it will be burned up and become unpeopled.