Jeremiah 46:13–26

¹³This is the word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol;

proclaim it in Memphis^b and Tahpanhes:

‘Take your positions and prepare yourself,

for the sword devours those around you.’

¹⁵Why have your warriors been laid low?

They cannot stand, for the LORD has thrust them down.

¹⁶They continue to stumble;

indeed, they have fallen over one another.

They say, ‘Get up! Let us return to our people

and to the land of our birth,

away from the sword of the oppressor.’

¹⁷There they will cry out:

‘Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise;

he has let the appointed time pass him by.’

¹⁸As surely as I live, declares the King,

whose name is the LORD of Hosts,

there will come one who is like Tabor among the mountains

and like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Pack your bags for exile,

O daughter dwelling in Egypt!

For Memphis will be laid waste,

destroyed and uninhabited.

²⁰Egypt is a beautiful heifer,

but a gadfly from the north is coming against her.

²¹Even the mercenaries among her

are like fattened calves.

They too will turn back;

together they will flee, they will not stand their ground,

for the day of calamity is coming upon them —

the time of their punishment.

²²Egypt will hiss like a fleeing serpent,^c

for the enemy will advance in force;

with axes they will come against her

like woodsmen cutting down trees.

²³They will chop down her forest, declares the LORD,

dense though it may be,

for they are more numerous than locusts;

they cannot be counted.

²⁴The Daughter of Egypt will be put to shame;

she will be delivered into the hands of the people of the north.”

²⁵The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I am about to punish Amon god of Thebes,^d along with Pharaoh, Egypt with her gods and kings, and those who trust in Pharaoh. ²⁶I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives— of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old, declares the LORD.