God Speaks through Jeremiah about Egypt

46 This is the Word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the man of God about the nations. ² This is what He said about Egypt, and about the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had won the battle against Pharaoh’s army in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. ³ “Get your coverings ready and go out to the battle! ⁴ Get the horses ready and get on them! Take your places with your head-coverings on! Make your spears shine, and put on your heavy battle-clothes! ⁵ What do I see? They are filled with fear and are turning back. Their strong men are beaten and are running away without looking back. Much fear is on every side,” says the Lord. ⁶ Do not let the fast man run away. Do not let the strong man get away. In the north by the River Euphrates they have lost their step and fallen. ⁷ Who is this that rises like the Nile, like rivers of rising waters? ⁸ Egypt rises like the Nile, like the rivers of rising waters. He has said, “I will rise and cover that land. I will destroy the city and its people.” ⁹ Go up, you horses! Drive hard, you war-wagons! Let the men of war go up, Ethiopia and Put who use the battle-covering, and the Lydians who are able men with the bow. ¹⁰ That day is the day of the Lord God of All, a day of punishment, when He will punish those who hate Him. The sword will destroy until it is filled. It will drink its fill of their blood. For there will be many killed for the Lord, the God of All, in the land of the north by the River Euphrates. ¹¹ Go up to Gilead and get healing oil, O young daughter of Egypt! You have used many medicines for nothing. There is no healing for you. ¹² The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry. For one soldier has fallen over another. They have both fallen together.

Nebuchadnezzar and Egypt

¹³ This is the word which the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the man of God about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to punish the land of Egypt: ¹⁴ “Make it known in Egypt. Make it known in Migdol, in Memphis, and in Tahpanhes. Say, ‘Take your places and get ready, for the sword has destroyed those around you.’ ¹⁵ Why have your strong ones gone away? They did not stand because the Lord has thrown them down. ¹⁶ The Lord made many fall. They have fallen on each other. And they said, ‘Get up! Let us return to our own people and our own land, away from the sword of the one who makes it hard for us.’ ¹⁷ There they cried, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise. He has passed by the time he was to have!’ ¹⁸ “As I live,” says the King, Whose name is the Lord of All, “one will come who is like Tabor among the mountains, or like Carmel by the sea. ¹⁹ Get your things ready for when you are taken away, you who are living in Egypt. For Memphis will become a waste. It will be burned down and will have no people. ²⁰ Egypt is like a beautiful young cow. But a horsefly has come upon her from the north. ²¹ Her hired soldiers among her are like calves, ready to eat. For they also have turned back and have run away together. They did not stay in their places. For the day of their trouble has come upon them, the time of their punishment. ²² Egypt will sound like a snake moving away. For an army will come against her with axes, like those who cut down trees. ²³ They will cut down all her trees,” says the Lord, “even though there are so many. There are more trees than locusts, too many to number. ²⁴ The people of Egypt will be put to shame. She will be given over to the people of the north.” ²⁵ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt and her gods and her kings. I will punish Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶ I will give them over to those who want to kill them, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his captains. After that, Egypt will be filled with people as it was long ago,” says the Lord.

God Will Save Israel

²⁷ “But do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant. Do not be troubled, O Israel. For I am going to save you from far away. I will bring your children back from the land where they are held. Jacob will return and have quiet and rest. And no one will make him afraid. ²⁸ O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid,” says the Lord, “for I am with you. I will make a complete end of all the nations where I have driven you. But I will not make a complete end of you. I will punish you so you will go the right way. I will not leave you without punishment.”

God Speaks through Jeremiah about the Philistines

47 This is the Word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the man of God about the Philistines, before Pharaoh won the war against Gaza. ² The Lord says, “Waters are going to rise from the north and become a flood. They will flow over the land and everything in it, the cities and all who live in them. The men will cry out. Every person living in the land will cry in a loud voice. ³ Because of the noise of the feet of horses running, the noise of war-wagons and the sound of wheels, fathers have not turned back for their children. Their hands have become too weak, ⁴ because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines. And all those who helped Tyre and Sidon will be destroyed. For the Lord is going to destroy the Philistines, those who are left of the land of Caphtor by the sea. ⁵ All the hair is gone from the head of Gaza. Ashkelon has been destroyed. O you who are left of their valley, how long will you cut yourselves? ⁶ O, sword of the Lord, how long will it be before you are quiet? Return to your holder. Be at rest and do not move. ⁷ How can it be quiet, when the Lord has given it work to do? He has sent it against Ashkelon and against the land by the sea.”

Moab Is Destroyed

48 About Moab, the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “It is bad for Nebo, for it has been destroyed. Kiriathaim has been put to shame and taken. The high, strong-place has been put to shame and crushed. ² The praise for Moab has come to an end. In Heshbon they have planned trouble against her, saying, ‘Come, let us destroy her from being a nation!’ You, O Madmen, will be made quiet also. The sword will follow you. ³ Listen, the sound of a cry from Horonaim, saying, ‘Laid waste and all destroyed!’ ⁴ Moab is destroyed. The cry of her little ones is heard. ⁵ They go up the hill of Luhith crying all the time. For at the hill of Horonaim they have heard the troubled cry of those who are being destroyed. ⁶ Run fast! Run for your lives! You will be like a bush in the desert. ⁷ Because you have trusted in your own works and riches, you also will be taken. And Chemosh will go away to a strange land together with his religious leaders and important men. ⁸ The destroyer will come to every city. No city will be free from him. The valley and the plain will be destroyed also, as the Lord has said. ⁹ Give wings to Moab, for she will fly away. Her cities will become a waste, with no people living in them. ¹⁰ The one who does the Lord’s work without care is cursed. Cursed is the one who keeps his sword from blood.

¹¹ “Moab has been at rest since he was young. He has been like wine which sits a long time, not being poured from jar to jar. He has not gone away to a strange land. So he keeps his taste, and his smell is not changed. ¹² The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will send to him those who turn over jars, and they will turn him over. They will empty his jars and break them in pieces. ¹³ Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel that they trusted. ¹⁴ How can you say, ‘We are strong soldiers and powerful men of war’? ¹⁵ Moab has been destroyed, and men have gone up to his cities. His best young men have gone down to be killed,” says the King, Whose name is the Lord of All. ¹⁶ The trouble of Moab will soon come. His suffering comes in a hurry. ¹⁷ Have sorrow for him, all you who live around him, and all who know his name. Say, ‘How his power has been broken, the greatness of his power!’ ¹⁸ Come down from your greatness and sit on the hot ground, O you who live in Dibon. For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you. He has destroyed your strong-places built for battle. ¹⁹ Stand by the road and keep watch, O you who live in Aroer. Ask the man or woman who runs away, ‘What has happened?’ ²⁰ Moab has been put to shame, for it is broken down. Cry out. Let it be known by the Arnon that Moab has been destroyed. ²¹ Punishment has come upon the plain, against Holon, Jahzah, Mephaath, ²² Dibon, Nebo, Beth-diblathaim, ²³ Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, Beth-meon, ²⁴ Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. ²⁵ Moab’s strength has been cut off, and his arm broken,” says the Lord. ²⁶ “Make him drunk, for he has become proud before the Lord. So Moab will roll in the food he has thrown up, and be laughed at. ²⁷ Did you not laugh at Israel? Or was he found among robbers? For each time you speak about him you laugh and shake your head. ²⁸ Leave the cities and live among the rocks, O people of Moab. Be like a dove that has its nest in a hole in the side of the rock. ²⁹ We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud. We have heard of all his pride and how he honors himself. ³⁰ I know his anger,” says the Lord, “but it is of no use. His proud words have done nothing. ³¹ So I will cry in a loud voice for Moab. I will cry out for all Moab. I will have sorrow for the men of Kir-heres. ³² I will cry for you more than for Jazer, O vine of Sibmah! Your branches have gone over the sea, even to the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen upon your summer fruits and your grapes. ³³ Happiness and joy have been taken away from the land of Moab with all its fruit. I have stopped the crushing of the grapes to make wine. No one crushes them under foot. The noise they make is not the sound of joy. ³⁴ They cry out from Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz, and from Zoar even to Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah. Even the waters of Nimrim have become a waste. ³⁵ And I will make an end of Moab,” says the Lord. “I will destroy the one who gives gifts of worship on the high place and burns special perfume to his gods.

³⁶ “So My heart cries out for Moab like a horn. My heart cries like a horn also for the men of Kir-heres. The riches they had for themselves have been lost. ³⁷ The hair has been cut from every head, and the hair has been cut short on every face. There are cuts on all the hands, and they wear clothes made from hair. ³⁸ On all the roofs of Moab and in its streets there are cries of sorrow everywhere. For I have broken Moab like a pot that is not wanted,” says the Lord. ³⁹ “How broken it is! How they cry! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become something to laugh at and hate to all those around him.” ⁴⁰ For the Lord says, “One will fly fast like an eagle, and spread out his wings against Moab. ⁴¹ Kerieth has been taken, and the strong-places built for battle have been taken. In that day the hearts of the strong men of Moab will be like the heart of a woman giving birth. ⁴² Moab will be destroyed and will no longer be a nation, because he was proud before the Lord. ⁴³ Fear, traps and nets are coming upon you, O you who live in Moab,” says the Lord. ⁴⁴ “The one who runs from trouble will fall into the trap. And the one who comes up out of the trap will be caught in the net. For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

⁴⁵ “In the shadow of Heshbon, those who have run for their lives stand without strength. For a fire has gone out from Heshbon and from Sihon. It has destroyed the forehead of Moab and the top of the heads of the trouble-makers. ⁴⁶ It is bad for you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have been destroyed. Your sons and daughters have been taken away in chains. ⁴⁷ Yet I will return the people of Moab to their land in the last days,” says the Lord. This is the punishment of Moab.