Jeremiah 46:13–26

¹³Then the Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah this message about King Nebuchadnezzar’s plans to attack Egypt.

¹⁴“Shout it out in Egypt!

Publish it in the cities of Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes!

Mobilize for battle,

for the sword will devour everyone around you.

¹⁵Why have your warriors fallen?

They cannot stand, for the Lord has knocked them down.

¹⁶They stumble and fall over each other

and say among themselves,

‘Come, let’s go back to our people,

to the land of our birth.

Let’s get away from the sword of the enemy!’

¹⁷There they will say,

‘Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is a loudmouth

who missed his opportunity!’

¹⁸“As surely as I live,” says the King,

whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

“one is coming against Egypt

who is as tall as Mount Tabor,

or as Mount Carmel by the sea!

¹⁹Pack up! Get ready to leave for exile,

you citizens of Egypt!

The city of Memphis will be destroyed,

without a single inhabitant.

²⁰Egypt is as sleek as a beautiful heifer,

but a horsefly from the north is on its way!

²¹Egypt’s mercenaries have become like fattened calves.

They, too, will turn and run,

for it is a day of great disaster for Egypt,

a time of great punishment.

²²Egypt flees, silent as a serpent gliding away.

The invading army marches in;

they come against her with axes like woodsmen.

²³They will cut down her people like trees,” says the Lord,

“for they are more numerous than locusts.

²⁴Egypt will be humiliated;

she will be handed over to people from the north.”

²⁵The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes, and all the other gods of Egypt. I will punish its rulers and Pharaoh, too, and all who trust in him. ²⁶I will hand them over to those who want them killed—to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army. But afterward the land will recover from the ravages of war. I, the Lord, have spoken!