Jeremiah 46–51

Chapter 46

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against the Gentiles,

²Against Egypt, against the army of Pharao Nechao king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Charcamis, whom Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon defeated, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda.

³Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to battle.

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

⁵What then? I have seen them dismayed, and turning their backs, their valiant ones slain: they fled apace, and they looked not back: terror was round about, saith the Lord.

⁶Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong think to escape: they are overthrown, and fallen down, towards the north by the river Euphrates.

⁷Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his streams swell like those of rivers?

⁸Egypt riseth up like a flood, and the waves thereof shall be moved as rivers, and he shall say: I will go up and will cover the earth: I will destroy the city, and its inhabitants.

⁹Get ye up on horses, and glory in chariots, and let the valiant men come forth, the Ethiopians, and the Libyans that hold the shield, and the Lydians that take, and shoot arrows.

¹⁰For this is the day of the Lord the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may revenge himself of his enemies: the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and shall be drunk with their blood: for there is a sacrifice of the Lord God of hosts in the north country, by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up into Galaad, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou multiply medicines, there shall be no cure for thee.

¹²The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy howling hath filled the land: for the strong hath stumbled against the strong, and both are fallen together.

¹³The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias the prophet, how Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt:

¹⁴Declare ye to Egypt, and publish it in Magdal, and let it be known in Memphis, and in Taphnis: say ye: Stand up, and prepare thyself: for the sword shall devour all round about thee.

¹⁵Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood not: because the Lord hath overthrown them.

¹⁶He hath multiplied them that fall, and one hath fallen upon another, and they shall say: Arise, and let us return to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the sword of the dove.

¹⁷Call ye the name of Pharao king of Egypt, a tumult time hath brought.

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

¹⁹Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate, and shall be forsaken and uninhabited.

²⁰Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from the north one that shall goad her.

²¹Her hirelings also that lived in the midst of her, like fatted calves are turned back, and are fled away together, and they could not stand, for the day of their slaughter is come upon them, the time of their visitation.

²²Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against her, as hewers of wood.

²³They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which cannot be counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and are without number.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

²⁵The Lord of hosts the God of Israel hath said: Behold I will visit upon the tumult of Alexandria, and upon Pharao, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharao, and upon them that trust in him.

²⁶And I will deliver them into the hand of them that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.

²⁷And thou my servant Jacob, fear not and be not thou dismayed, O Israel: for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed out of the land of thy captivity: and Jacob shall return and be at rest, and prosper: and there shall be none to terrify him.

²⁸And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith the Lord: because I am with thee, for I will consume all the nations to which I have cast thee out: but thee I will not consume, but I will correct thee in judgment, neither will I spare thee as if thou wert innocent.

Chapter 47

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against the people of Palestine, before Pharao took Gaza.

²Thus saith the Lord: Behold there come up waters out of the north, and they shall be as an overflowing torrent, and they shall cover the land, and all that is therein, the city and the inhabitants thereof: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl,

³At the noise of the marching of arms, and of his soldiers, at the rushing of his chariots, and the multitude of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back to the children, for feebleness of hands,

⁴Because of the coming of the day, in which all the Philistines shall be laid waste, and Tyre and Sidon shall be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the Lord hath wasted the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Cappadocia.

⁵Baldness is come upon Gaza: Ascalon hath held her peace with the remnant of their valley: how long shalt thou cut thyself?

⁶O thou sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not be quiet? Go into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.

⁷How shall it be quiet, when the Lord hath given it a charge against Ascalon, and against the countries thereof by the sea side, and there hath made an appointment for it?

Chapter 48

Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Woe to Nabo, for it is laid waste, and confounded: Cariathaim is taken: the strong city is confounded and hath trembled.

²There is no more rejoicing in Moab over Hesebon: they have devised evil. Come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Therefore shalt thou in silence hold thy peace, and the sword shall follow thee.

³A voice of crying from Oronaim: waste, and great destruction.

⁴Moab is destroyed: proclaim a cry for her little ones.

⁵For by the ascent of Luith shall the mourner go up with weeping: for in the descent of Oronaim the enemies have heard a howling of destruction.

⁶Flee, save your lives: and be as heath in the wilderness.

⁷For because thou hast trusted in thy bulwarks, and in thy treasures, thou also shalt be taken: and Chamos shall go into captivity, his priests, and his princes together.

⁸And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: and the valleys shall perish, and the plains shall be destroyed, for the Lord hath spoken:

⁹Give a flower to Moab, for in its flower it shall go out: and the cities thereof shall be desolate, and uninhabited.

¹⁰Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully: and cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood.

¹¹Moab hath been fruitful from his youth, and hath rested upon his lees: and hath not been poured out from vessel to vessel, nor hath gone into captivity: therefore his taste hath remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

¹²Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send him men that shall order and overturn his bottles, and they shall cast him down, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles one against another.

¹³And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.

¹⁴How do you say: We are valiant and stout men in battle?

¹⁵Moab is laid waste, and they have cast down her cities: and her choice young men are gone down to the slaughter: saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶The destruction of Moab is near to come: the calamity thereof shall come on exceeding swiftly.

¹⁷Comfort him, all you that are round about him, and all you that know his name, say: How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod?

¹⁸Come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst, O dwelling of the daughter of Dibon: because the spoiler of Moab is come up to thee, he hath destroyed thy bulwarks.

¹⁹Stand in the way, and look out, O habitation of Aroer: inquire of him that fleeth: and say to him that hath escaped: What is done?

²⁰Moab is confounded, because he is overthrown: howl ye, and cry, tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is wasted.

²¹And judgment is come upon the plain country: upon Helon, and upon Jasa, and upon Mephaath.

²²And upon Dibon, and upon Nabo, and upon the house of Deblathaim,

²³And upon Cariathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmaon,

²⁴And upon Carioth, and upon Bosra: and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.

²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the Lord.

²⁶Make him drunk, because he lifted up himself against the Lord: and Moab shall dash his hand in his own vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

²⁷For Israel hath been a derision unto them: as though thou hadst found him amongst thieves: for thy words therefore, which thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt be led away captive.

²⁸Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, you that dwell in Moab: and be ye like the dove that maketh her nest in the mouth of the hole in the highest place.

²⁹We have heard the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his haughtiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the loftiness of his heart.

³⁰I know, saith the Lord, his boasting, and that the strength thereof is not according to it, neither hath it endeavoured to do according as it was able.

³¹Therefore will I lament for Moab, and I will cry out to all Moab, for the men of the brick wall that mourn.

³²O vineyard of Sabama, I will weep for thee, with the mourning of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they are come even to the sea of Jazer: the robber hath rushed in upon thy harvest and thy vintage.

³³Joy and gladness is…