Jeremiah 46–51

Messages Concerning Egypt

46The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. ²Concerning Egypt: Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah.

³“Prepare small shield and shield,

and approach for the battle!

⁴Harness the horses and mount the steeds!

And take your stand with helmets!

Polish the spears!

Put on the body armor!

⁵Why do I see them terrified?

They are turning back

and their warriors are beaten down.

And they have fled to a place of refuge

and they do not turn back.

Terror is from all around,” declares^a Yahweh.

⁶The swift cannot flee,

and the warrior cannot escape.

In the north by the bank of the Euphrates River,

they have stumbled and they have fallen.

⁷Who is this that rises like the Nile,

like the rivers whose waters surge?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile,

even like the rivers whose waters surge.

And he says, “Let me rise,

let me cover the earth,

let me destroy cities,

and the inhabitants in them.”

⁹Go up, O horses,

and drive madly, O chariots,^b

and let the warriors go forth;

Cush and Put, who wield the small shield,

and Lud, who wield and bend the bow.

¹⁰For that day is to the Lord Yahweh of hosts

a day of retribution,

to take revenge on his foes.

And the sword will devour and be satisfied,

and it will drink its fill of their blood,

for a sacrifice is for the Lord Yahweh of hosts

in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.

¹¹Go up to Gilead and take balm,

O virgin of the daughter of Egypt.

In vain^c you make use of many medicines;

there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard your shame,

and your cry of lament fills the earth.

For warrior has stumbled against warrior,

together they have fallen, the two of them.

¹³The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol,

and proclaim in Memphis and in Tahpanhes,

say, ‘Take your stand and be prepared,

for the sword will devour those all around you.’

¹⁵Why are your bulls defeated?

He did not stand because Yahweh thrust him down.

¹⁶He multiplied the ones^d stumbling.

Furthermore, each one fell to his neighbor,

and said, ‘Stand up, and let us return to our people

and to the land of our birth,

because of^e the presence^f of the sword of the oppressor.’

¹⁷They will call there,

‘Pharaoh, the king of Egypt is but a roar,

he missed the opportunity.’^g

¹⁸As I live,”^h declaresⁱ the king,

Yahweh of hosts is his name,

“one will come like Tabor among the mountains

and like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Pack your baggage for exile,

O inhabitants^j of the daughter of Egypt,

for Memphis will become as a horror,

and it will be destroyed, without^k inhabitant.

²⁰Egypt is a beautiful heifer,

but a gadfly from the north will come against her.

²¹Even her mercenaries in her midst are like calves of fattening,

for they also have turned away,

they have fled together.

They stand not,

for the day of their calamity has come upon them,

the time of their punishment.

²²Her sound is like a snake that glides away,

for they march in force.

And with axes they come to her

like those who chop trees.

²³They will cut down her forest,” declares^l Yahweh,

“for it is impenetrable.^m

Yes, they are more numerous than locusts,ⁿ

and they are without number.^o

²⁴The daughter of Egypt will be ashamed,

she will be given into the hand of the people of the north.”

²⁵Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said, “Look, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, and her gods, and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶And I will give them into the hand of the seekers of their lives,^p and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his troops. But afterward^q it will be inhabited, as in days of old,” declares^r Yahweh.

²⁷“But as for you, my servant Jacob, you must not be afraid,

and Israel, you must not be dismayed,

for look, I am going to save you from far,

and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

And Jacob will return,

and he will be quiet,

and he will be at ease,

and without one who makes him afraid.

²⁸You must not be afraid, my servant Jacob,” declares^s Yahweh,

“for I am with you.

For I will make a complete destruction in all the nations where I scattered you,

but you I will not make a complete destruction,

though I will chastise you to the measure,

and I will certainly not leave you unpunished.”

A Message Concerning the Philistines

47The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines before^a Pharaoh attacked Gaza. ²Thus says Yahweh:

“Look, waters are rising from the north,

and they will become as a raging torrent,

and they will overflow the land,

and that which fills it,

the city and those who live in it.

And the people will cry out,

and every inhabitant of the land will wail,

³from the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,

from the clattering of his chariots,^b

the noise of their wheels.

Fathers do not turn to their children

because of the slackness of their hands.

⁴Because of the day that is coming

to destroy all the Philistines,

to cut off from Tyre and from Sidon

every survivor who could help,

for Yahweh is destroying the Philistines,

the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness has come upon Gaza,

Ashkelon is destroyed.

O remnant of their valley,

how long^c will you cut yourself with a blade?

⁶Ah, sword of Yahweh,

how long^d will you not be quiet?

Gather to your sheath,

keep quiet and stand still.

⁷How can you be quiet

when Yahweh has given an order to it?

Against Ashkelon and against the shore of the sea,

there he has appointed it.”

A Message Concerning Moab

48Concerning Moab, thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Woe to Nebo,

for it is devastated.

It is ashamed,

Kiriathaim is captured.

Misgab is ashamed,

and it is filled with terror.

²The glory of Moab is no longer.

In Heshbon they planned evil against her.

Come and let us cut her off from being a nation.

Also, Madmen, you will be silent.

After you will go the sword.

³The sound of a cry of distress arises from Horonaim,

devastation and great destruction.

⁴Moab is broken,

her little ones make heard^a a cry for help.

⁵For the ascent of Luhith,

in weeping they go weeping,

For on the slope of Horonaim they have heard

the distresses of the cry of distress of the destruction.

⁶Flee! Save your life!

For^b you must be like the juniper tree in the desert.

⁷For because of your trusting in your works and in your treasures,

even you yourselves will be taken,

and Chemosh will go out into the exile,

his priests and his officials together.

⁸And the destroyer will come to every town,

and a town will not escape.

And the valley will be destroyed,

and the plain will be destroyed, as Yahweh has spoken.

⁹Give salt for Moab,

for certainly she will go to ruin,

and her towns will become as a desolation,

without^c an inhabitant in them.

¹⁰The one who does the work of Yahweh with slackness is cursed,

and the one who keeps away blood from his sword is cursed.

¹¹Moab has been at ease from his youth,

and he has been quiet on his dregs,

and he has not been poured out from vessel to vessel,

and he has not gone into exile.

Therefore^d his taste has remained unchanged,

and his fragrance has not changed.

¹²Therefore^e look, days are coming,” declares^f Yahweh,

“and I will send to him decanters,^g

and they will decant him,

and his vessels they will empty out,

and their jars they will smash.

¹³Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,

just as the house of Israel were ashamed of Bethel, their trust.

¹⁴How can you say, ‘we are warriors,

and men of might for the battle.’

¹⁵Moab is destroyed,

and his towns have gone up,

and the choice of his young men have gone down to the slaughtering,”

declares^h the King, Yahweh of hosts is his name.

¹⁶“The disaster of Moab is near to come,

and his disaster approaches very quickly.ⁱ

¹⁷Mourn for him, all his surroundings,

and all those who knew his name.

Say, ‘How the staff of might is broken,

the staff of glory.’

¹⁸Come down from glory and sit on the parched ground,

O inhabitant, daughter of Dibon,

for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,

he has destroyed your fortifications.

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,

O inhabitant of Aroer.

Ask the man who is fleeing and the woman who is escaping,

say, ‘What has happened?’

²⁰Moab is ashamed,

for it is filled with terror.

Wail and cry out,

tell it by Arnon that Moab is devastated.

²¹Judgment has also come to the land of the plain, to Holon, and to Jahaz, and on Mephaath, ²²and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth-diblathaim, ²³and on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-gamul, and on Beth-meon, ²⁴and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, the far and the near. ²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off and his arm is broken,” declares^j Yahweh.

²⁶“Make him drunk,

because he magnified himself against Yahweh,

and let Moab wallow in his vomit.

And he also will become a laughingstock.

²⁷Now was not Israel the laughingstock to you?

Or was he found among thieves?

For as often as^k you spoke over him

you shook your head.

²⁸Leave the towns and dwell on the rock,

O inhabitants of Moab,

and be like the dove,

it nests on the sides of the mouth of a ravine.

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab

—he is very proud—

his height, and his pride, and his arrogance,

and the haughtiness of his heart.

³⁰I know his insolence,” declares^l Yahweh,

“and his boastings are false;^m

they act falsely.ⁿ

³¹Therefore^o over Moab I wail,

and for all of Moab I cry out,

for the people^p of Kir-heres I moan.

³²More than the weeping of Jazer

I weep for you, O vine Sibmah.

Your branches cross over the sea,

up to the sea of Jazer they reach.

Upon your summer fruit and upon your vintage

the destroyer has fallen.

³³And joy and rejoicing have been taken…