Jeremiah 46:13-26

The Voice

¹⁴ Eternal One: Make this announcement in Egypt, and tell everyone in Migdol;
        proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes as well:
    Take your positions, and get ready for battle,
        for the sword will devour everyone around you.
¹⁵     Why are your mighty warriors lying face down?
        They do not stand, indeed cannot stand,
    Because I, the Eternal One, have pushed them to the ground.
¹⁶     These soldiers will stumble again and again—falling over each other.
        They will say to each other, “Pick yourself up! Let us go home
    To our own land and people;
        let us escape the edge of our enemy’s sword.”
¹⁷     It is there, in that moment, that they will cry out,
        “Pharaoh, king of Egypt, makes a lot of noise, but he missed his chance.”
¹⁸     As I live, says the King
        whose name is the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
    That one is coming who will tower over you
        like Mount Tabor over the mountains,
        like Mount Carmel over the sea.
¹⁹     Pack for the coming exile, you citizens of Egypt,
        for Memphis will be a wasteland, a city destroyed and empty of life.
²⁰     Egypt is like a heifer—beautiful, but helpless—
        because a biting horsefly from the north is coming against her.
²¹     The mercenaries in her army are like fattened calves:
        they will turn and run, all of them together.
    They will not stand their ground, for the day of disaster is coming;
        the time for their punishment is upon them.
²²     Egypt will slither away like a hissing serpent
        as her enemy marches on.
    They will come with axes,
        like woodsmen who cut down trees.
²³     I, the Eternal One, declare, “As thick as the forest of Egypt might be,
        they will chop her down,
    For they are more numerous than locusts,
        their numbers too great to count.
²⁴     The daughter of Egypt will be disgraced;
        she will be handed over to this nation from the north.”