Beginning
Prophecies against the Nations[a]
Chapter 46
1 This is the word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah in regard to the nations.
Against Egypt.[b] 2 Concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was stationed at Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, defeated in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim of Judah, the son of Josiah:
3 Prepare your bucklers and
shields and march forth for battle.
4 Harness the horses;
let the riders mount.
Don your helmets
and take your stations.
Sharpen your spears
and put on your breastplates.
5 What is this shameful spectacle I behold?
They fall back in terror.
Their warriors are routed
and are in headlong flight
without glancing back.
There is terror on every side,
says the Lord.
6 The swift cannot flee,
nor can the brave warriors escape.
In the north, by the River Euphrates,
they have stumbled and fallen.
7 Who is this that rises like the Nile,
like rivers of torrential waters?
8 Egypt rises up like the Nile,
like rivers of torrential waters.
I will rise up, Egypt says, and cover the earth;
I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.
9 Advance, O horses,
and drive madly, O chariots.
Let the warriors advance:
men from Ethiopia and Put bearing shields,
and men from Lud who draw their bows.
10 This day belongs to the Lord God of hosts,
a day of retribution
and vengeance on his enemies.
The sword will devour and be sated
until drunk with their blood.
For the Lord God of hosts
is holding a sacrificial feast
in the land of the north
by the River Euphrates.
11 Go up to Gilead and obtain balm,
O virgin daughter Egypt.
The many medicines you have used
have afforded you no healing.
12 The nations have heard of your shame;
the earth is filled with your cries.
Warrior stumbles against warrior,
and both fall down together.
13 The word that the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah in regard to the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to attack the land of Egypt:
14 Announce it in Egypt and proclaim it in Migdol;
proclaim it also in Noph and Tahpanhes.
Say, “Take your stations and be prepared,
for the sword will devour those around you.”
15 Why have your warriors been laid low?
They were unable to stand
because the Lord has thrust them down.
16 They stumbled and fell,
and then they said to one another,
“Come, let us return to our own people
and to the land of our birth,
far from the swords of our oppressors.”
17 They gave this nickname to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt:
“One who boasts but never succeeds.”
18 As I live, says the King,
whose name is the Lord of hosts,
one is coming like Tabor[c] among the mountains,
like Carmel by the sea.
19 Prepare your baggage to go into exile,
you inhabitants of Egypt.
Memphis will become a desert waste,
a desolate, uninhabited ruin.
20 Egypt is a beautiful heifer,[d]
but a gadfly from the north
is preparing to move against her.
21 Even the mercenaries in her midst
are like fatted calves,
but they have turned and fled together
rather than stand their ground.
For the day of disaster has overtaken them,
the time of their punishment.
22 Egypt is hissing like a retreating snake,
for her enemies are advancing in force.
They move against her with axes,
like men who fell her trees.
23 They will cut down her forest,[e] says the Lord,
even though it appears impenetrable,
because they are more numerous than locusts;
they are beyond counting.
24 Daughter Egypt will be disgraced,
handed over to a people from the north.
25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, has said: Behold, I will punish Amon[f] of Thebes, and Egypt, her gods and her kings, Pharaoh and those who trust in him. 26 I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and his officials. At a later time, Egypt will be inhabited again as in times past, says the Lord.
27 But as for you, my servant Jacob, fear not;
Israel, do not be dismayed.
Behold, I will rescue you from afar
and your descendants from the land of their exile.
Jacob will return and be at peace again,
tranquil, with no one to trouble him.
28 Have no fear, my servant Jacob,
for I am with you, says the Lord.
I will make an end of all the nations
where I have dispersed you,
but I will not make an end of you.
I will discipline you only as you deserve;
I will not allow you to escape totally unpunished.
Chapter 47[g]
Against the Philistines. 1 This is the word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. 2 Thus says the Lord:
Behold how the waters are rising from the north;
they will become an everlasting torrent.
They shall flood the land and all that is in it,
the towns and those who live in them.
People will cry out for help,
and all the inhabitants of the land will wail.
3 On hearing the thundering hooves of the stallions,
the noise of the chariots and their rumbling wheels,
fathers do not turn to help their children;
their hands fall limp,
4 [h]because the day has come
to destroy all the Philistines,
and to cut off Tyre and Sidon
from any allies who could support them.
The Lord is destroying the Philistines,
the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.
5 Baldness has afflicted Gaza;
Ashkelon has been silenced.
O remnant of the Philistine strength,
how long will you continue to gash yourselves?
6 Ah, sword of the Lord,
how long will it be before you rest?
Return back to your scabbard.
Cease and be still.
7 But how can you be at rest
when the Lord has given you an order,
when he has commanded you to subdue
Ashkelon and the seacoast?
Chapter 48[i]
Against Moab. 1 In regard to Moab, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
How sad it is that Nebo has been laid waste;
Kiriathaim has been captured and put to shame.
The fortress has been disgraced and overthrown;
2 the glory of Moab no longer exists.
In Heshbon, they plot her downfall:
“Come, let us put an end to her as a nation.”
And you too, inhabitants of Madmen,
will be reduced to silence,
slain by the sword.
3 Cries of anguish rise up from Horonaim,
speaking of devastation and complete destruction.
4 Moab has been crushed;
the agonized cries of her little ones
can be heard as far away as Zoar.
5 On the ascent to Luhith
they climb weeping bitterly.
On the descent to Horonaim
the anguished cry of destruction is heard:
6 “Flee! Save your lives!
Survive like a wild ass in the desert!”
7 Because you placed your trust
in your strongholds and your treasures,
you also will be captured.
Chemosh will go into exile,
along with all his priests and attendants.
8 The destroyer will move against every town;
not a single town will escape.
The valley will be laid waste,
and the plain will be destroyed,
as the Lord has said.
9 Set aside salt for Moab,
for she will be laid waste;
her towns will be left in ruins,
without a single inhabitant.
10 Accursed are those who are negligent
in doing the work of the Lord,
and accursed also is the one
who withholds his sword from bloodshed.
11 From its earliest days
Moab has been undisturbed
and never has gone into exile.
It has been like wine settled on its lees
that has never been transferred
from one decanter to another.
Thus its flavor has remained unaltered,
and its aroma has stayed unchanged.
12 Therefore, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will send men to him
to tilt the jars.
They will empty the vessels
and smash the jars.
13 Moab will then be ashamed of Chemosh,
as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel[j]
in which they placed their trust.
14 How can you say, “We are heroes,
men who are valiant in battle”?
15 The destroyer of Moab and its towns
has launched an attack,
and the flower of its youth has been slaughtered,
says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16 The destruction of Moab is near at hand,
and its doom will come shortly.
17 Grieve, all you neighbors of Moab
and all who were familiar with its name.
Say, “How the mighty staff is broken,
the glorious scepter!”
18 Descend from your seat of glory
and sit on the parched ground,
you who dwell in Dibon.
For the ravager of Moab has advanced against you
and destroyed your strongholds.
19 Stand by the roadside and watch,
you who dwell in Aroer.
Question the man fleeing and the woman escaping;
ask them, “What has happened?”
20 Moab has been destroyed and reduced to shame.
Wail and cry out, proclaim by the Arnon,
that Moab has been laid waste.
21 Judgment has come upon the plateau: upon Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath, 22 upon Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, 23 upon Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, 24 upon Kiriath, and Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.
25 The horn of Moab has been cut off,
and her arm has been broken, says the Lord.
26 Make Moab drunk, because she has placed herself on an equal level with the Lord. Let Moab wallow in her vomit and become a laughingstock. 27 Israel was once a laughingstock for you, although she was never caught in the company of thieves. Yet each time you spoke about her, you would shake your head.
28 Leave your towns, O inhabitants of Moab,
and make your home among the rocks.
Be like a dove that makes its nest
along the edge of a gorge.
29 [k]We have heard about the pride of Moab,
pride that exceeds all bounds:
her pride and her arrogance
and the haughtiness of her heart.
30 I am fully aware of her arrogance, says the Lord;
her boasts are false, her deeds are false.
31 Therefore, I wail over Moab;
I cry out in anguish for all of Moab;
I mourn for the men of Kir-heres.
32 More than for Jazer I weep for you,
O vineyard of Sibmah.
Your branches stretched beyond the sea,
reaching all the way to Jazer.
Upon your harvest and your vintage,
the despoiler has descended.
33 Gladness and joy have been removed
from the orchards of Moab.
I have stanched the flow of wine from the vats;
the joyful shouts of the treader of grapes
can no longer be heard.
34 Heshbon and Elealeh utter cries of anguish that can be heard as far away as Jahaz. The shrieks echo from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim have become a desert waste. 35 In Moab, I will bring to an end the practice of those who offer holocausts on the high places or burn incense to their gods, says the Lord.
36 That is the reason why my heart wails like a flute for Moab and laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres. The wealth that they accumulated has been lost. 37 Every head has been shaved, and every beard has been cut off. There are gashes on every hand, and every waist is covered with sackcloth.
38 On all the housetops of Moab and in all its squares nothing is heard but cries of lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a piece of pottery that no one wants, says the Lord. 39 How terrified Moab is, and how loudly does it wail as it retreats in shame. Moab has become a laughingstock and a source of horror to all of its neighbors.
40 For thus says the Lord:
Behold, like an eagle I will swoop down
and spread my wings over Moab.
41 The towns will be captured
and the strongholds will be seized.
On that day, the hearts of Moab’s warriors
will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42 Moab will be destroyed as a nation,
for it established itself in opposition to the Lord.
43 Terror, the pit, and the snare await you,
O inhabitants of Moab, says the Lord.
44 Everyone who flees from the terror
will fall into the pit,
and everyone who climbs out of the pit
will be caught in the snare.
For I will bring all this upon Moab
in the year of her punishment, says the Lord.
45 In the shadow of Heshbon,
the fugitives stop in exhaustion.
For a fire has blazed forth from Heshbon,
and flames from the house of Sihon,
consuming the brow of Moab
and the skulls of the noisy revelers.[l]
46 Woe to you, O Moab!
You have been destroyed, O people of Chemosh.
For your sons have been led forth in exile
and your daughters into captivity.
47 Even so, I will restore the fortunes of Moab
in the days to come, says the Lord.
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.