Jeremiah 46–51

Judgment on Egypt

⁴⁶The word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the nations.

²Concerning Egypt, about the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates at Carchemish and which King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:^*

³Prepare buckler and shield,

and advance for battle!^*

⁴Harness the horses;

mount the steeds!

Take your stations with helmets on,

whet the lances,

put on coats of mail!

⁵Why do I see them terrified?

They have fallen back;

their warriors are beaten down

and have fled in haste.

They do not look back—

terror is all around!

says the Lord.^*

⁶The swift cannot flee away,

nor can the warrior escape;

in the north by the River Euphrates

they have stumbled and fallen.^*

⁷Who is this, rising like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge?^*

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge.

It said, “Let me rise; let me cover the earth;

let me destroy cities and their inhabitants.”^*

⁹Advance, O horses,

and dash madly, O chariots!

Let the warriors go forth:

Cush and Put, who carry the shield,

the Ludim, who draw^k the bow.^*

¹⁰That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts,

a day of retribution,

to gain vindication from his foes.

The sword shall devour and be sated

and drink its fill of their blood.

For the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice

in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.^*

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm,

O virgin daughter Egypt!

In vain you have used many medicines;

there is no healing for you.^*

¹²The nations have heard of your shame,

and the earth is full of your cry,

for warrior has stumbled against warrior;

both have fallen together.^*

Babylonia Will Strike Egypt

¹³The word that the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt:^*

¹⁴Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol;

proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;

Say, “Take your stations and be ready,

for the sword shall devour those around you.”^*

¹⁵Why has Apis^l fled?

Why did your bull not stand?

Because the Lord thrust him down.

¹⁶Your multitude stumbled^m and fell,

and one said to another,

“Come, let us go back to our own people

and to the land of our birth,

because of the destroying sword.”^*

¹⁷Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name

“Braggart who missed his chance.”^*

¹⁸As I live, says the King,

whose name is the Lord of hosts,

one is coming

like Tabor among the mountains

and like Carmel by the sea.^*

¹⁹Pack your bags for exile,

sheltered daughter Egypt!

For Memphis shall become a waste,

a ruin, without inhabitant.^*

²⁰A beautiful heifer is Egypt—

a gadfly from the north lights upon her.^*

²¹Even her mercenaries in her midst

are like fatted calves;

they, too, have turned and fled together;

they did not stand,

for the day of their calamity has come upon them,

the time of their punishment.^*

²²She makes a sound like a snake gliding away,

for her enemies march in force

and come against her with axes,

like those who fell trees.^*

²³They shall cut down her forest,

says the Lord,

though it is impenetrable,

because they are more numerous

than locusts;

they are without number.^*

²⁴Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame;

she shall be handed over to a people from the north.^*

²⁵The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: See, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.^{* 26}I will hand them over to those who seek their life, to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and his servants. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.^*

God Will Save Israel

²⁷But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob,

and do not be dismayed, O Israel,

for I am going to save you from far away

and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,

and no one shall make him afraid.^*

²⁸As for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob,

says the Lord,

for I am with you.

I will make an end of all the nations

among which I have banished you,

but I will not make an end of you!

I will chastise you in just measure,

and I will by no means leave you unpunished.^*

Judgment on the Philistines

⁴⁷The word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:^*

²Thus says the Lord:

See, waters are rising out of the north

and shall become an overflowing torrent;

they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,

the city and those who live in it.

People shall cry out,

and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.^*

³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,

at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,

parents do not turn back for children,

so feeble are their hands,^*

⁴because of the day that is coming

to destroy all the Philistines,

to cut off from Tyre and Sidon

every helper that remains.

For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,

the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.^*

⁵Baldness has come upon Gaza;

Ashkelon is silenced.

O remnant of Anakim!ⁿ

How long will you gash yourselves?^*

⁶Ah, sword of the Lord!

How long until you are quiet?

Put yourself into your scabbard;

rest and be still!^*

⁷How can it^o be quiet,

when the Lord has given it an order?

Against Ashkelon and against the seashore—

there he has appointed it.^*

Judgment on Moab

⁴⁸Concerning Moab.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

Alas for Nebo, it is laid waste!

Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is taken;

the fortress is put to shame and broken down;^*

²the renown of Moab is no more.

In Heshbon they planned evil against her:

“Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!”

You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;^p

the sword shall pursue you.^*

³Listen! A cry goes up from Horonaim:

“Desolation and great destruction!”^*

⁴“Moab is destroyed!”

her little ones cry out.

⁵For at the ascent of Luhith

they go^q up weeping bitterly;

for at the descent of Horonaim

they have heard the distressing cry of anguish.^*

⁶Flee! Save yourselves!

Be like a wild ass^r in the desert!^*

⁷Surely, because you trusted in your strongholds^s and your treasures,

you also shall be taken;

Chemosh shall go out into exile,

with his priests and his attendants.^*

⁸The destroyer shall come upon every town,

and no town shall escape;

the valley shall perish,

and the plain shall be destroyed,

as the Lord has spoken.^*

⁹Set aside salt for Moab,

for she will surely fall;

her towns shall become a desolation,

with no inhabitant in them.^*

¹⁰Accursed is the one who is slack in doing the work of the Lord, and accursed is the one who keeps back the sword from bloodshed.^*

¹¹Moab has been at ease from his youth,

settled like wine^t on its dregs;

he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,

nor has he gone into exile;

therefore his flavor has remained,

and his aroma is unspoiled.^*

¹²Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to him decanters to decant him and empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces. ¹³Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.^*

¹⁴How can you say, “We are heroes

and mighty warriors”?^*

¹⁵Moab is destroyed, and his towns have gone up,

and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,

says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.^*

¹⁶The calamity of Moab is near at hand,

and his doom approaches swiftly.^*

¹⁷Mourn over him, all you his neighbors,

and all who know his name;

say, “How the mighty scepter is broken,

the glorious staff!”^*

¹⁸Come down from glory

and sit on the parched ground,

enthroned daughter Dibon!

For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;

he has destroyed your strongholds.^*

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,

you inhabitant of Aroer!

Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping;

say, “What has happened?”^*

²⁰Moab is put to shame, for it is broken down;

wail and cry!

Tell it by the Arnon

that Moab is laid waste.^*

²¹Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, ²²and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, ²³and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, ²⁴and Kerioth, and Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.^{* 25}The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.^*

²⁶Make him drunk because he magnified himself against the Lord; let Moab wallow in his vomit; he, too, shall become a laughingstock.^{* 27}Israel was a laughingstock for you, though he was not caught among thieves, but whenever you spoke of him you shook your head!^*

²⁸Leave the towns, and live on the rock,

O inhabitants of Moab!

Be like the dove that nests

on the sides of the mouth of a gorge.^*

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab—

he is very proud—

of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,

and the haughtiness of his heart.^*

³⁰I myself know his insolence, says the Lord;

his boasts are false;

his deeds are false.^*

³¹Therefore I wail for Moab;

I cry out for all Moab;

for the people of Kir-heres I mourn.^*

³²More than for Jazer I weep for you,

O vine of Sibmah!

Your branches crossed over the sea,

reached as far as Jazer;^u

upon your summer fruits and your vintage

the destroyer has fallen.^*

³³Gladness and joy have been taken away

from the fruitful land of Moab;

I have stopped the wine from the winepresses;

no one treads them with shouts of joy;

the shouting is not the shout of joy.^*

³⁴From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim have become desolate.^{* 35}And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the Lord, those who offer sacrifice at a high place and make offerings to their gods.^{* 36}Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the people of Kir-heres, for the riches they gained have perished.^*

³⁷For every head is shaved and every beard cut off; on all the hands there are gashes and on the loins sackcloth.^{* 38}On all the…