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11 He shall come and ravage the land of Egypt, giving

those who are destined for pestilence, to pestilence,
    and those who are destined for captivity, to captivity,
    and those who are destined for the sword, to the sword.(A)

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13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence,

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And when they say to you, “Where shall we go?” you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord:

Those destined for pestilence, to pestilence,
    and those destined for the sword, to the sword;
those destined for famine, to famine,
    and those destined for captivity, to captivity.(A)

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19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it, and it shall be the wages for his army.(A) 20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord God.(B)

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So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!”

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19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people;

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An Oracle concerning Egypt

19 An oracle concerning Egypt.

See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
    and comes to Egypt;
the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.(A)
I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    and they will fight, one against the other,
    neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;(B)
the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
    and I will confound their plans;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead
    and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;(C)
I will deliver the Egyptians
    into the hand of a hard master;
a fierce king will rule over them,
    says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.(D)

The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
    and the river will be parched and dry;(E)
its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will rot away,(F)
    the reeds beside the Nile;[a]
all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
    be driven away, and be no more.
Those who fish will mourn;
    all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
    and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
The workers in flax will be in despair,
    and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
10 Its weavers will be dismayed,
    and all who work for wages will be grieved.(G)

11 Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;
    the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am one of the sages,
    a descendant of ancient kings”?(H)
12 Where now are your sages?
    Let them tell you and make known
    what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.(I)
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
    have led Egypt astray.(J)
14 The Lord has poured into them[b]
    a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
    as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.(K)
15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,
    will be able to do anything for Egypt.

16 On that day the Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them.(L) 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror[c] to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.(M)

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.[d](N)

19 On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its border.(O) 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and will defend and deliver them.(P) 21 The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day and will serve with sacrifice and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.(Q) 22 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so that they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.(R)

23 On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.(S)

24 On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my heritage.”(T)

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Footnotes

  1. 19.7 Gk: Heb beside the Nile, beside the mouth of the Nile
  2. 19.14 Gk Compare Tg: Heb it
  3. 19.17 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 19.18 Q mss Heb mss Tg Vg: MT city of destruction

Lamentation for Egypt

30 The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord God:

Wail, “Alas for the day!”(A)
    For a day is near,
    the day of the Lord is near;
it will be a day of clouds,
    a time of doom[a] for the nations.(B)
A sword shall come upon Egypt,
    and anguish shall be in Cush,
when the slain fall in Egypt,
    and its wealth is carried away,
    and its foundations are torn down.(C)

Cush and Put and Lud and all the mixed populations and Libya[b] and the people of the allied land[c] shall fall with them by the sword.(D)

Thus says the Lord:
Those who support Egypt shall fall,
    and its proud might shall come down;
from Migdol to Syene
    they shall fall within it by the sword,
says the Lord God.(E)
They shall be desolated among other desolated countries,
    and their cities shall lie among cities laid waste.(F)
Then they shall know that I am the Lord,
    when I have set fire to Egypt,
    and all who help it are broken.(G)

On that day, messengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the secure Cushites, and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom,[d] for it is coming!(H)

10 Thus says the Lord God:

I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,
    by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.(I)
11 He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations,
    shall be brought in to destroy the land,
and they shall draw their swords against Egypt
    and fill the land with the slain.(J)
12 I will dry up the channels of the Nile
    and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers;
I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it
    by the hand of foreigners;
I the Lord have spoken.(K)

13 Thus says the Lord God:

I will destroy the idols
    and put an end to the images in Memphis;
there shall no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt,
    so I will put fear in the land of Egypt.(L)
14 I will make Pathros a desolation
    and will set fire to Zoan
    and will execute acts of judgment on Thebes.(M)
15 I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium,
    the stronghold of Egypt,
    and will cut off the hordes of Thebes.(N)
16 I will set fire to Egypt;
    Pelusium shall be in great agony;
Thebes shall be breached
    and Memphis face adversaries by day.
17 The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword,
    and the cities themselves[e] shall go into captivity.
18 At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark,
    when I break there the dominion of Egypt,
and its proud might shall come to an end;
    the city[f] shall be covered by a cloud,
    and its daughter towns shall go into captivity.(O)
19 Thus I will execute acts of judgment on Egypt.
    Then they shall know that I am the Lord.(P)

Proclamation against Pharaoh

20 In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 21 Mortal, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; it has not been bound up for healing or wrapped with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword.(Q) 22 Therefore thus says the Lord God: I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand.(R) 23 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.(S) 24 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him with the groans of one mortally wounded.(T) 25 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall stretch it out against the land of Egypt,(U) 26 and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.(V)

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Footnotes

  1. 30.3 Heb lacks of doom
  2. 30.5 Compare Gk Syr Vg: Heb Cub
  3. 30.5 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 30.9 Heb the day of Egypt
  5. 30.17 Heb and they
  6. 30.18 Heb she

12 One third of you shall die of pestilence or be consumed by famine among you; one third shall fall by the sword around you; and one third I will scatter to every wind and will unsheathe the sword after them.(A)

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Judgment on Egypt

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

Concerning 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:(A)

Prepare buckler and shield,
    and advance for battle!(B)
Harness the horses;
    mount the steeds!
Take your stations with helmets on,
    whet the lances,
    put on coats of mail!
Why 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.(C)
The swift cannot flee away,
    nor can the warrior escape;
in the north by the River Euphrates
    they have stumbled and fallen.(D)

Who is this, rising like the Nile,
    like rivers whose waters surge?(E)
Egypt 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.”(F)
Advance, O horses,
    and dash madly, O chariots!
Let the warriors go forth:
    Cush and Put, who carry the shield,
    the Ludim, who draw[a] the bow.(G)
10 That 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.(H)
11 Go up to Gilead, and take balm,
    O virgin daughter Egypt!
In vain you have used many medicines;
    there is no healing for you.(I)
12 The nations have heard of your shame,
    and the earth is full of your cry,
for warrior has stumbled against warrior;
    both have fallen together.(J)

Babylonia Will Strike Egypt

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

14 Declare 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.”(L)
15 Why has Apis[b] fled?
    Why did your bull not stand?
    Because the Lord thrust him down.
16 Your multitude stumbled[c] 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.”(M)
17 Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name
    “Braggart who missed his chance.”(N)

18 As 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.(O)
19 Pack your bags for exile,
    sheltered daughter Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste,
    a ruin, without inhabitant.(P)

20 A beautiful heifer is Egypt—
    a gadfly from the north lights upon her.(Q)
21 Even 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.(R)

22 She 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.(S)
23 They shall cut down her forest,
            says the Lord,
    though it is impenetrable,
because they are more numerous
    than locusts;
    they are without number.(T)
24 Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame;
    she shall be handed over to a people from the north.(U)

25 The 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.(V) 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.(W)

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Footnotes

  1. 46.9 Cn: Heb who grasp, who draw
  2. 46.15 Gk: Heb mighty ones
  3. 46.16 Gk: Heb the stumblers multiplied

29 This is the portion of the wicked from God,
    the heritage decreed for them by God.”(A)

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