Jeremiah 46:1-12

Common English Bible

ORACLES CONCERNING THE NATIONS

46 This is what the Lord told the prophet Jeremiah concerning the nations.

Prophecy against Egypt

²About Egypt! A message for the army of Pharaoh Neco, Egypt’s king, which was defeated by Babylon’s Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish near the Euphrates River in the fourth year of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son:

³Grab your shields
    and prepare for war!
⁴Saddle the horses;
    mount the stallions!
Take your positions
    with helmets on!
Polish your spears;
    put on your armor!
⁵Why do I see them terrified,
    retreating in haste?
Their soldiers are crushed,
    running for cover,
    and they don’t turn back.
Panic lurks at every turn,
        declares the Lord.
⁶The swift can’t flee;
    the mighty can’t escape.
Up north by the Euphrates River,
    they stagger and fall.

⁷Who is this that rises like the Nile,
    whose banks overflow?^[a]
⁸It’s Egypt that rises like the Nile,
    whose banks overflow,^[b]
        who declares, “I will arise
        and cover the earth
        and destroy cities and inhabitants.”
⁹Charge, you horses;
    advance, you chariots!
Attack, you soldiers
    with your shield in hand,
        you people of Cush and Put^[c]
            with your bow drawn,
        you archers from Lud.

¹⁰But that day belongs to the
    Lord God of heavenly forces;
        it’s a day of reckoning,
        settling scores with enemies.
The sword will devour
    until it has had its fill of blood.
The Lord God of heavenly forces
    is preparing a sacrifice in the north
        by the Euphrates River.
¹¹Go up to Gilead and seek balm,
    virgin Daughter Egypt.
You search out remedies in vain,
    for your disease is incurable.
¹²Nations hear of your shame;
    the earth is filled with your sobs.
Soldier stumbles over soldier;
    together they go down.