Jeremiah 46:13-26

13The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

14“Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol, And proclaim in Memphis and in Tahpanhes; Say, ‘Take your stand and get yourself ready, For the sword has devoured those around you.’

15Why have your strong ones been cut down? They do not stand because the Lord drove them away.

16He will make many stumble and fall; Yes, they have fallen one on another. Then they said, ‘Arise, and let us go back To our own people and to the land of our birth, Away from the sword of the oppressor.’

17They cried there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is destroyed and is merely a loud noise; He has let the appointed time [of opportunity] pass by!’

18As I live,” says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, “Surely like Tabor among the mountains Or like Carmel by the sea, So shall he [the great king of Babylon] come.

19O you daughter who dwells in Egypt and you who dwell with her, Prepare yourselves [with all you will need] to go into exile, For Memphis will become desolate; It will even be burned down and without inhabitant.

20Egypt is a very pretty heifer, But a horsefly (Babylonia) is coming [against her] out of the north!

21Also her mercenaries in her army Are like fattened calves, For they too have turned back and have fled together; They did not stand [their ground], Because the day of their disaster has come upon them, The time of their punishment.

22The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like [the rustling of] an escaping serpent, For her foes advance with a mighty army And come against her like woodcutters with axes.

23They have cut down her forest,” says the Lord; “Certainly it will no longer be found, Because they (the invaders) are more numerous than locusts And cannot be counted.

24The Daughter of Egypt has been shamed, Given over to the power of the people of the north [the Chaldeans of Babylonia].”

25The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I am going to punish Amon [chief god of the sacred city] of Thebes [the capital of Upper Egypt], and Pharaoh, and Egypt along with her gods and her kings—even Pharaoh and those who put their trust in him [as a shield against Babylon].

26I will put them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants. Afterward Egypt will be inhabited as in the days of old,” says the Lord.