Jeremías 46

Egypt’s army at Carchemish

¹This message from the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah about the nations:^{a 2}About Egypt. About the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, camped by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: ³Make ready the small shield and the large, \q and advance into battle! ⁴Harness the horses! Mount the warhorses! \q Take your positions with helmets on! \q Sharpen the spears, \q put on your coats of mail!^{b 5}Why do I see them panic-stricken, falling back? \q Their warriors are battered down; \q they run headlong and do not look back. \q Terror on every side! declares the LORD. ⁶The swift cannot run away, \q the warrior cannot escape. \q In the north, beside the Euphrates River, \q they have stumbled and fallen. ⁷Who is this rising like the Nile, \q like rivers with surging waters? ⁸Egypt rises like the Nile, \q like rivers with surging waters. \q Egypt said, “I will rise and cover the earth; \q I will destroy cities and the people who live in them.” ⁹Charge, you horses! Race wildly, you chariots! \q Let the warriors march out, \q Cush and Put, who carry the shield, \q and the Ludites, skilled archers. ¹⁰But that day belongs to the Lord GOD of Armies, a day of vengeance, when he takes vengeance on his enemies. \q The sword will devour until it is full, \q until it has drunk its fill of their blood. \q For the Lord GOD of Armies holds a sacrifice in the north country by the Euphrates River. ¹¹Go up to Gilead and get balm, \q Virgin Daughter Egypt! \q You have tried remedy after remedy, but in vain; \q there is no healing for you. ¹²The nations have heard of your disgrace; \q the earth is full of your cries. \q One warrior has stumbled over another, \q and both have fallen together.

Egypt will be struck

¹³The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon coming to attack the land of Egypt: ¹⁴Announce it in Egypt, proclaim it in Migdol, \q proclaim it in Memphis and in Tahpanhes. \q Say, “Take your position and make ready, \q for the sword is devouring all around you.” ¹⁵Why is your mighty one swept away? \q He could not stand, \q for the LORD drove him down.^{c 16}He made many stumble; \q they fell over one another. And they said, “Up! Let us go back to our own people and to the land where we were born, \q away from the oppressor’s sword!” ¹⁷There they cried out, \q “Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a loud noise; \q he has let his moment pass.”^{d 18}As I live, declares the King, \q the LORD of Armies is his name, \q one is coming who is like Tabor among the mountains, \q like Carmel by the sea. ¹⁹Pack your bags for exile, \q you people of Daughter Egypt! \q For Memphis will become a wasteland, \q a ruin where no one lives.

²⁰Egypt is a lovely young heifer, \q but a gadfly from the north is coming, coming on!^{e 21}Even the hired soldiers in her ranks are like fattened calves; \q they too have turned and fled together, they did not stand their ground; \q for the day of their disaster has come upon them, the time of their punishment. ²²She makes a sound like a snake slithering away, \q as her enemies march in force \q and come at her with axes, \q like woodcutters felling trees. ²³They will cut down her forest, declares the LORD, \q dense as it is, \q for they are more than locusts; \q they cannot be counted. ²⁴Daughter Egypt is put to shame, \q handed over to the people of the north. ²⁵The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt with her gods and her kings, Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ²⁶I will hand them over to those who want to kill them, to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and his officials. But afterward Egypt will be lived in again as in former days, declares the LORD.^f

Comfort for Jacob

²⁷But you, Jacob my servant, do not be afraid; do not be dismayed, Israel. \q For I will save you from a far country, and your descendants from the land where they are captives. \q Jacob will come home and have quiet and rest, and no one will make him afraid.

²⁸You, Jacob my servant, do not be afraid, declares the LORD, because I am with you. \q I will bring to an end all the nations among whom I drove you, but you I will not bring to an end. \q I will discipline you, but justly, \q and I will not let you go unpunished.