Old/New Testament

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.”

Going Ahead

6 So let us leave the first things you need to know about Christ. Let us go on to the teaching that full-grown Christians should understand. We do not need to teach these first truths again. You already know that you must be sorry for your sins and turn from them. You know that you must have faith in God. ² You know about being baptized and about putting hands on people. You know about being raised from the dead and about being punished forever. ³ We will go on, if God lets us.

⁴ There are those who have known the truth. They have received the gift from heaven. They have shared the Holy Spirit. ⁵ They know how good the Word of God is. They know of the powers of the world to come. ⁶ But if they turn away, they cannot be sorry for their sins and turn from them again. It is because they are nailing the Son of God on a cross again. They are holding Him up in shame in front of all people. ⁷ It is the same with a piece of ground that has had many rains fall on it. God makes it possible for that ground to give good fruits and vegetables. ⁸ But if it gives nothing but weeds, it is worth nothing. It will be hated and destroyed by fire.

⁹ Dear friends, even as we tell you this, we are sure of better things for you. These things go along with being saved from the punishment of sin. ¹⁰ God always does what is right. He will not forget the work you did to help the Christians and the work you are still doing to help them. This shows your love for Christ. ¹¹ We want each one of you to keep on working to the end. Then what you hope for, will happen. ¹² Do not be lazy. Be like those who have faith and have not given up. They will receive what God has promised them.

God’s Promise

¹³ When God made a promise to Abraham, He made that promise in His own name because no one was greater. ¹⁴ He said, “I will make you happy in so many ways. For sure, I will give you many children.” ^{(A) 15} Abraham was willing to wait and God gave to him what He had promised.

¹⁶ When men make a promise, they use a name greater than themselves. They do this to make sure they will do what they promise. In this way, no one argues about it. ¹⁷ And so God made a promise. He wanted to show Abraham that He would never change His mind. So He made the promise in His own name. ¹⁸ God gave these two things that cannot be changed and God cannot lie. We who have turned to Him can have great comfort knowing that He will do what He has promised. ¹⁹ This hope is a safe anchor for our souls. It will never move. This hope goes into the Holiest Place of All behind the curtain of heaven. ²⁰ Jesus has already gone there. He has become our Religious Leader forever and has made the way for man to go to God. He is like Melchizedek.