Jeremiah 46:13-26

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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.”^(B)
15 Why has Apis^[a] fled?
    Why did your bull not stand?
    Because the Lord thrust him down.
¹⁶ Your multitude stumbled^[b] 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.”^(C)
17 Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name
    “Braggart who missed his chance.”^(D)

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.^(E)
19 Pack your bags for exile,
    sheltered daughter Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste,
    a ruin, without inhabitant.^(F)

²⁰ A beautiful heifer is Egypt—
    a gadfly from the north lights upon her.^(G)
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.^(H)

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.^(I)
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.^(J)
24 Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame;
    she shall be handed over to a people from the north.^(K)