The Judgment on Egypt

1The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against the Gentiles,

2Against Egypt, against the army of Pharao Nechao king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Charcamis, whom Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon defeated, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda.

3Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to battle.

4Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen: stand forth with helmets, furbish the spears, put on coats of mail.

5What then? I have seen them dismayed, and turning their backs, their valiant ones slain: they fled apace, and they looked not back: terror was round about, saith the Lord.

6Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong think to escape: they are overthrown, and fallen down, towards the north by the river Euphrates.

7Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his streams swell like those of rivers ?

8Egypt riseth up like a hood, and the waves thereof shall be moved as rivers, and he shall say: I will go up and will cover the earth: I will destroy the city, and its inhabitants.

9Get ye up on horses, and glory in chariots, and let the valiant men come forth, the Ethiopians, and the Libyans that hold the shield, and the Lydians that take, and shoot arrows.

10For this is the day of the Lord the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may revenge himself of his enemies: the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and shall be drunk with their blood: for there is a sacrifice of the Lord God of hosts in the north country, by the river Euphrates.

11Go up into Galaad, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou multiply medicines, there shall be no cure for thee.

12The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy howling hath filled the land: for the strong hath stumbled against the strong, and both are fallen together.

13The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias the prophet, how Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt:

14Declare ye to Egypt, and publish it in Magdal, and let it be known in Memphis, and in Taphnis: say ye: Stand up, and prepare thyself: for the sword shall devour all round about thee.

15Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood not: because the Lord hath overthrown them.

16He hath multiplied them that fall, and one hath fallen upon another, and they shall say: Arise, and let us return to our own people, and to the land our nativity, from the sword of the dove.

17Call ye the name of Pharao king Egypt, a tumult time hath brought.

18As I live, (saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts,) as Thabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate, and shall be forsaken and uninhabited.

20Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from the north one that shall goad her.

21Her hirelings also that lived in the midst of her, like fatted calves are turned back, and are fled away together, and they could not stand, for the day of their slaughter is come upon them, the time of their visitation.

22Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against her, as hewers of wood.

23They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which cannot be counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and are without number.

24The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25The Lord of hosts the God of Israel hath said: Behold I will visit upon the tumult of Alexandria, and upon Pharao, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharao, upon them that trust in him. 26And I will deliver them into the hand of them that seek their lives, into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.

27And thou my servant Jacob, fear not and be not thou dismayed, O Israel: for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed out of the land of thy captivity: and Jacob shall return and be at rest, and prosper: and there shall be none to terrify him.

28And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith the Lord: because I am with thee, for I will consume all the nations to which I have cast thee out: but thee I will not consume, but I will correct thee in judgment, neither will I spare thee as if thou wert innocent.