Judgment on Egypt

¹The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations:[#Jer 1:10]

²Concerning Egypt, about the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:[#Isa 19; Eze 29:1–32:32; #2Ki 23:29; #Isa 10:9]

³Prepare the small and large shields,[#Isa 21:5; Jer 51:11–12]

and draw near to battle!

⁴Harness the horses;

mount the steeds!

Take your positions

with your helmets,

polish the spears,

put on the armor!

⁵Why have I seen them

dismayed and drawing back?

Their mighty ones are beaten down

and have taken refuge in flight,

and not looking back.

Terror is on every side!

says the Lord .

⁶Let not the swift flee away,

nor the mighty man escape;

they will stumble and fall

towards the north by the Euphrates River.

⁷Who is this that comes up as the Nile,

whose waters surge about as the rivers?

⁸Egypt rises up like the Nile,

and his waters surge about like the rivers.

And he has said, I will go up and will cover the land.

I will surely destroy the city and its inhabitants.

⁹Come up, O horses,

and rage, O chariots!

And let the mighty men come forth:

the Cushites and the Libyans who handle the shield,

and the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.

¹⁰For this is the day of the Lord God of Hosts,

a day of vengeance, so that He may avenge Himself of His adversaries.

And the sword will devour;

and it will be satiated and made drunk with their blood;

for the Lord God of Hosts has a slaughter

in the north country by the Euphrates River.

¹¹Go up into Gilead and take balm,[#Jer 8:22]

O virgin daughter of Egypt;

in vain you shall use many medicines,

for you will not be cured.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame,

and your cry has filled the land;

for the mighty man has stumbled over the mighty,

and they both have fallen together.

Defeat of Egypt Foretold

¹³The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, about Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon coming to strike the land of Egypt.[#Jer 43:10–13; 44:30]

¹⁴Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol,

and pronounce in Memphis and in Tahpanhes;

say, “Stand fast and prepare yourself,

for the sword will devour those about you.”

¹⁵Why have your valiant men become prostrate?

They do not stand because the Lord has thrust them down.

¹⁶He made many to fall.

Indeed, each one has fallen upon another.

Then they said, “Arise and let us go back

to our own people and to the land of our birth,

away from the oppressing sword.”

¹⁷They cried there,

“Pharaoh king of Egypt is a tumult.

He has let the time appointed pass by!”

¹⁸As I live, says the King

whose name is the Lord of Hosts,

surely as Tabor is among the mountains,

and as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come.

¹⁹O daughter dwelling in Egypt,

prepare your baggage for captivity,

for Memphis will become desolate,

it will even be burned down without an inhabitant.

²⁰Egypt is like a very fair heifer,[#Hos 10:11]

but destruction comes,

it comes out of the north.

²¹Also her mercenaries are in her midst[#2Ki 7:6]

like fat bulls,

for they also have turned back and have fled away together.

They did not stand their ground

because the day of their calamity has come upon them,

even the time of their punishment.

²²Its sound goes along like a serpent,[#Isa 29:4]

for they march on as an army,

and come against her with axes,

as choppers of wood.

²³They have cut down her forest,

says the Lord .

Surely it will not be found any more,

even though they are now more numerous than the grasshoppers,

and are innumerable.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt has been humiliated;

she has been delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

²⁵The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all those who trust in him.[#Ex 12:12; #Isa 20:5–6]

²⁶And I shall deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants. But afterwards it will be inhabited, as in the days of old, says the Lord .[#Jer 44:30; Eze 32:11]

God Will Save Israel

²⁷But do not fear, O My servant Jacob,

and do not be dismayed, O Israel.

For behold, I will save you from afar off,

and your seed from the land of their captivity;

and Jacob shall return and be in rest and at ease,

and no one shall make him afraid.

²⁸Do not fear, O Jacob My servant,

says the Lord , for I am with you;

for I will make a full end of all the nations

where I have driven you.

However, I will not make a full end of you,

but correct you in measure,

and I will not leave you wholly unpunished.