Jeremiah 46–51

Chapter 46

¹The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

²About Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³“Prepare buckler and shield,

and advance for battle!

⁴Harness the horses;

mount, O horsemen!

Take your stations with your helmets,

polish your spears,

put on your coats of mail!

⁵Why have I seen it?

They are dismayed

and have turned backward.

Their warriors are beaten down,

and have fled in haste;

they look not back—

terror on every side!

says the Lord.

⁶The swift cannot flee away,

nor the warrior escape;

in the north by the river Euphrates

they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷“Who is this, rising like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge.

He said, I will rise, I will cover the earth,

I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.

⁹Advance, O horses,

and rage, O chariots!

Let the warriors go forth:

men of Ethiopia and Put who handle the shield,

men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.

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

a day of vengeance,

to avenge himself on 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 north country by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm,

O virgin daughter of 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;

they have both fallen together.”

¹³The word which the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon to smite the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;

proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;

Say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared,

for the sword shall devour round about you.’

¹⁵Why has Apis fled?^z

Why did not your bull stand?

Because the Lord thrust him down.

¹⁶Your multitude stumbled^a and fell,

and they said one to another,

‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people

and to the land of our birth,

because of the sword of the oppressor.’

¹⁷Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

¹⁸“As I live, says the King,

whose name is the Lord of hosts,

like Tabor among the mountains,

and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.

¹⁹Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,

O inhabitants of Egypt!

For Memphis shall become a waste,

a ruin, without inhabitant.

²⁰“A beautiful heifer is Egypt,

but a gadfly from the north has come upon her.

²¹Even her hired soldiers in her midst

are like fatted calves;

yea, they have turned and fled together,

they did not stand;

for the day of their calamity has come upon them,

the time of their punishment.

²²“She makes a sound like a serpent 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.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame,

she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”

²⁵The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, 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. ²⁶I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.

²⁷“But fear not, O Jacob my servant,

nor be dismayed, O Israel;

for lo, I will save you from afar,

and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,

and none shall make him afraid.

²⁸Fear not, O Jacob my servant,

says the Lord,

for I am with you.

I will make a full end of all the nations

to which I have driven you,

but of you I will not make a full end.

I will chasten you in just measure,

and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

Chapter 47

¹The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza.

²“Thus says the Lord:

Behold, 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 dwell in it.

Men shall cry out,

and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.

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

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

the fathers look not back to their 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 has perished.

O remnant of the Anakim,^b

how long will you gash yourselves?

⁶Ah, sword of the Lord!

How long till you are quiet?

Put yourself into your scabbard,

rest and be still!

⁷How can it^c be quiet,

when the Lord has given it a charge?

Against Ashkelon and against the seashore

he has appointed it.”

Chapter 48

¹Concerning Moab. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Woe to Nebo, for 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;

the sword shall pursue you.

³“Hark! a cry from Horonaim,

‘Desolation and great destruction!’

⁴Moab is destroyed;

a cry is heard as far as Zoar.^d

⁵For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;^e

for at the descent of Horonaim

they have heard the cry of destruction.

⁶Flee! Save yourselves!

Be like a wild ass^g in the desert!

⁷For, because you trusted in your strongholds^h and your treasures,

you also shall be taken;

and Chemosh shall go forth into exile,

with his priests and his princes.

⁸The destroyer shall come upon every city,

and no city shall escape;

the valley shall perish,

and the plain shall be destroyed,

as the Lord has spoken.

⁹“Give wings to Moab,

for she would fly away;

her cities shall become a desolation,

with no inhabitant in them.

¹⁰“Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with slackness; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.

¹¹“Moab has been at ease from his youth

and has settled on his lees;

he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,

nor has he gone into exile;

so his taste remains in him,

and his scent is not changed.

¹²“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to him tilters who will tilt 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.

¹⁴“How do you say, ‘We are heroes

and mighty men of war’?

¹⁵The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come 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 affliction hastens apace.

¹⁷Bemoan him, all you who are round about him,

and all who know his name;

say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken,

the glorious staff.’

¹⁸“Come down from your glory,

and sit on the parched ground,

O inhabitant of Dibon!

For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;

he has destroyed your strongholds.

¹⁹Stand by the way and watch,

O inhabitant of Aroer!

Ask him who flees and her who escapes;

say, ‘What has happened?’

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

wail and cry!

Tell it by the Arnon,

that Moab is laid waste.

²¹“Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mepha-ath, ²²and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, ²³and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, ²⁴and Keri-oth, and Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. ²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.

²⁶“Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the Lord; so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. ²⁷Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head?

²⁸“Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,

O inhabitants of Moab!

Be like the dove that nests

in 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 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 men of Kir-heres I mourn.

³²More than for Jazer I weep for you,

O vine of Sibmah!

Your branches passed over the sea,

reached as far as Jazer;^j

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 made the wine cease from the wine presses;

no one treads them with shouts of joy;

the shouting is not the shout of joy.

³⁴“Heshbon and Ele-aleh cry out;^k as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For the waters of Nimrim also have become desolate. ³⁵And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the Lord, him who offers sacrifice in the high place and burns incense to his god. ³⁶Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-heres; therefore the riches they gained have perished.

³⁷“For every head is shaved and every beard cut off; upon all the hands are gashes, and on the loins is sackcloth. ³⁸On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation; for I have…