¹⁴ Tell Egypt, warn Migdol,
    alert Memphis and Tahpanhes!
Say: “Brace yourselves for what’s coming.
    War is breaking out from every side!”
¹⁵ Why have your mighty fallen?
    Why haven’t they stood their ground?
        Because the Lord has struck them down.
¹⁶ He’s tripped them up;
    they fall over each other and say,
    “Let’s get out of here
        and go home to our people,
        where we were born,
        far away from the oppressor’s sword.”^[a]
17 There they call Pharaoh, Egypt’s king,
    Loudmouth—Nothing But Hot Air!
¹⁸ As I live, declares the king,
    whose name is the Lord of heavenly forces,
one is coming
    just as surely as Tabor is in the mountains
    and Carmel is by the sea.^[b]
19 Get what you need for deportation,
    you inhabitants of Egypt.^[c]
Memphis will be reduced to a wasteland,
    a ruin with no one left.
²⁰ Egypt is a beautiful, yes, beautiful heifer,
    but a horsefly from the north
        is coming to bite her.^[d]
21 Even her mercenaries
    are like well-fed calves;
        they too will retreat and run for cover;
        they won’t survive.
The day of disaster has come to haunt them,
    the time of their punishment.
²² Like the sound of a snake hissing
    as it slithers away
        is Egypt^[e] as armies approach in force;
        they come against her with axes,
            like woodcutters.
²³ They destroy her dense forest,
    though it is vast,
        because they outnumber locusts
        and can’t be counted,
            declares the Lord.
²⁴ Daughter Egypt will be humiliated,
    handed over to people from the north.