Babylonia Will Strike Egypt

13 The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and rstrike the land of Egypt.

14 “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in sMigdol;

Proclaim in 6Noph and in tTahpanhes;

Say, ‘Stand fast and prepare yourselves,

For the sword devours all around you.’

15 Why are your valiant men swept away?

They did not stand

Because the Lord drove them away.

16 He made many fall;

Yes, uone fell upon another.

And they said, ‘Arise!

vLet us go back to our own people

And to the land of our nativity

From the oppressing sword.’

17 They cried there,

‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise.

He has passed by the appointed time!’

18 “As I live,” says the King,

wWhose name is the Lord of hosts,

“Surely as Tabor is among the mountains

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

19 O xyou daughter dwelling in Egypt,

Prepare yourself yto go into captivity!

For 7Noph shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant.

20 “Egypt is a very pretty zheifer,

But destruction comes, it comes afrom the north.

21 Also her mercenaries are in her midst like 8fat bulls,

For they also are turned back,

They have fled away together.

They did not stand,

For bthe day of their calamity had come upon them,

The time of their punishment.

22 cHer noise shall go like a serpent,

For they shall march with an army

And come against her with axes,

Like those who chop wood.

23 “They shall dcut down her forest,” says the Lord,

“Though it cannot be searched,

Because they are innumerable,

And more numerous than egrasshoppers.

24 The daughter of Egypt shall be ashamed;

She shall be delivered into the hand

Of fthe people of the north.”

25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will bring punishment on 9Amon of gNo, 1and Pharaoh and Egypt, hwith their gods and their kings—Pharaoh and those who itrust in him. 26 jAnd I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of his servants. kAfterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old,” says the Lord.