Jeremiah 46

³Prepare buckler and shield,

and advance for battle!

⁴Harness the horses;

mount the steeds!

Take your stations with your helmets,

whet your lances,

put on your coats of mail!

⁵Why do I see them terrified?

They have fallen back;

their warriors are beaten down,

and have fled in haste.

They do not look back—

terror is all around!

says the Lord.

⁶The swift cannot flee away,

nor can the warrior escape;

in the north by the river Euphrates

they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷Who is this, rising like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge.

It said, Let me rise, let me cover the earth,

let me destroy cities and their inhabitants.

⁹Advance, O horses,

and dash madly, O chariots!

Let the warriors go forth:

Ethiopia and Put who carry the shield,

the Ludim, who draw the bow.

¹⁰That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts,

a day of retribution,

to gain vindication from his foes.

The sword shall devour and be sated,

and drink its fill of their blood.

For the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice

in the land of the north by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm,

O virgin daughter Egypt!

In vain you have used many medicines;

there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame,

and the earth is full of your cry;

for warrior has stumbled against warrior;

both have fallen together.

¹⁴Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;

proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;

Say, “Take your stations and be ready,

for the sword shall devour those around you.”

¹⁵Why has Apis fled?

Why did your bull not stand?

—because the Lord thrust him down.

¹⁶Your multitude stumbled and fell,

and one said to another,

“Come, let us go back to our own people

and to the land of our birth,

because of the destroying sword.”

¹⁷Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name

“Braggart who missed his chance.”

¹⁸As I live, says the King,

whose name is the Lord of hosts,

one is coming

like Tabor among the mountains,

and like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Pack your bags for exile,

sheltered daughter Egypt!

For Memphis shall become a waste,

a ruin, without inhabitant.

²⁰A beautiful heifer is Egypt—

a gadfly from the north lights upon her.

²¹Even her mercenaries in her midst

are like fatted calves;

they too have turned and fled together,

they did not stand;

for the day of their calamity has come upon them,

the time of their punishment.

²²She makes a sound like a snake gliding away;

for her enemies march in force,

and come against her with axes,

like those who fell trees.

²³They shall cut down her forest,

says the Lord,

though it is impenetrable,

because they are more numerous

than locusts;

they are without number.

²⁴Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame;

she shall be handed over to a people from the north.

²⁷But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob,

and do not be dismayed, O Israel;

for I am going to save you from far away,

and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,

and no one shall make him afraid.

²⁸As for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob,

says the Lord,

for I am with you.

I will make an end of all the nations

among which I have banished you,

but I will not make an end of you!

I will chastise you in just measure,

and I will by no means leave you unpunished.