The Judgment on Egypt

1The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;

2Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

3Order you the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

4Harness the horses; and get up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.

5Why have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, said the LORD.

6Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.

7Who is this that comes up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?

8Egypt rises up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he said, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.

9Come up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.

10For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shall you use many medicines; for you shall not be cured.

12The nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land: for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.

13The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

14Declare you in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say you, Stand fast, and prepare you; for the sword shall devour round about you.

15Why are your valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.

16He made many to fall, yes, one fell on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.

17They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has passed the time appointed.

18As I live, said the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19O you daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.

20Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction comes; it comes out of the north.

21Also her hired men are in the middle of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come on them, and the time of their visitation.

22The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.

23They shall cut down her forest, said the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.

24The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, said; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him: 26And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, said the LORD.

27But fear not you, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar off, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

28Fear you not, O Jacob my servant, said the LORD: for I am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you: but I will not make a full end of you, but correct you in measure; yet will I not leave you wholly unpunished.