Jeremiah 46:13–26

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.