Jeremiah 46
1 These are messages that Yahweh gave to the prophet Jeremiah about [other] nations.
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against the Gentiles,
2 After Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah, had been ruling Judah for almost four years, this message about Egypt was given [by Yahweh]. It was when the army of King Neco of Egypt was defeated by the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon along the Euphrates River. [This is what Yahweh said: “The officers of the army of Egypt are saying to their troops],
Against Egypt, against the army of Pharao Nechao king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Charcamis, whom Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon defeated, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda.
3 ‘Prepare your shields and march out to fight the battle!
Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to battle.
4 Put harnesses on your horses, and get on their backs. (Get into your positions/Line up) [for the battle]; put on your helmets. Sharpen your spears, and put on your armor!’
Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen: stand forth with helmets, furbish the spears, put on coats of mail.
5 But what [RHQ] do I see? I see that the soldiers of Egypt will be terrified and will be fleeing. [Even] the bravest of their soldiers will be running away, without [even] looking backward! [I, ] Yahweh, say that [their soldiers] will be terrified on all sides!
What then? I have seen them dismayed, and turning their backs, their valiant ones slain: they fled apace, and they looked not back: terror was round about, saith the Lord.
6 [Even] the fastest [runners] will try to run away, but [even the greatest of] their warriors will not escape. In the north, by the Euphrates [River], they will stumble and fall.
Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong think to escape: they are overthrown, and fallen down, towards the north by the river Euphrates.
7 What group is this that will be covering the land like the water of the Nile [River] covers the land when it floods?
Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his streams swell like those of rivers?
8 [It is the army of] Egypt that will be covering the land like a surging/huge flood, and they will boast that they will cover the earth and will destroy cities and the people [who live in them].
Egypt riseth up like a flood, and the waves thereof shall be moved as rivers, and he shall say: I will go up and will cover the earth: I will destroy the city, and its inhabitants.
9 You [riders of] horses, charge/rush [into the battle]! You [drivers of] chariots, drive furiously! [All] you warriors from Ethiopia and Libya who carry your shields, you warriors from Lydia who shoot arrows, you come!
Get ye up on horses, and glory in chariots, and let the valiant men come forth, the Ethiopians, and the Libyans that hold the shield, and the Lydians that take, and shoot arrows.
10 But, [you need to know that] this is the day when [I], Yahweh, the Commander of the armies of angels, will get revenge on my enemies. With my sword [PRS] I will kill [my enemies] until I am satisfied; my sword will [be like a monster that] [MET, PRS] drinks the blood [of the animals it kills] until it is no longer thirsty. [The enemy soldiers who will be killed] in the north beside the Euphrates River [will be like] [MET] a sacrifice to [me], the Commander of the armies of angels.
For this is the day of the Lord the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may revenge himself of his enemies: the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and shall be drunk with their blood: for there is a sacrifice of the Lord God of hosts in the north country, by the river Euphrates.
11 You people [IDM] of Egypt, go up to the Gilead [region] to obtain medicine; but it will be useless to take all those medicines; you will not be healed.
Go up into Galaad, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou multiply medicines, there shall be no cure for thee.
12 [People in] the [other] nations will hear how you were humiliated. [People] all over the earth will hear you wailing. [Your mighty] warriors will stumble over each other and they will all fall down together.”
The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy howling hath filled the land: for the strong hath stumbled against the strong, and both are fallen together.
13 [Then] Yahweh gave me this message about King Nebuchadnezzar when he planned to attack Egypt [with his army]:
The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias the prophet, how Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt:
14 “Shout [this message] throughout Egypt! Proclaim it in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpenes [cities]! ‘(Get into your positions/Line up) [for the battle]; Prepare to defend yourselves, because [everyone] around you will be killed.’ [PRS, MTY]
Declare ye to Egypt, and publish it in Magdal, and let it be known in Memphis, and in Taphnis: say ye: Stand up, and prepare thyself: for the sword shall devour all round about thee.
15 Your god is a bull; Why does he fall down? He will not be able to stand up, because Yahweh will knock him down.
Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood not: because the Lord hath overthrown them.
16 The soldiers from other countries will stumble and fall over each other, and [then] they will say to each other, ‘Let’s get up and go back to our own people, to our own land. Let’s get away from the swords of our enemies!’
He hath multiplied them that fall, and one hath fallen upon another, and they shall say: Arise, and let us return to our own people, and to the land our nativity, from the sword of the dove.
17 There [in Egypt] they will say, ‘The king of Egypt talks loudly, but when our [army] had an opportunity [to defeat our enemies], they failed.’
Call ye the name of Pharao king Egypt, a tumult time hath brought.
18 [I, ] the King, who am called the Commander of the armies of angels, say this: ‘As [surely as] I live, someone’s army will be coming [to fight against the army of Egypt]. They will be [extremely powerful], [as though they were as tall] as Tabor Hill, or [as high] as Carmel [Mountain] close to the [Mediterranean] Sea.
As I live, (saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, ) as Thabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
19 [All] you people who live in Egypt, pack your possessions/clothes and prepare to be exiled. Memphis [city] will be destroyed; it will become a ruin, and no one will be living there.
Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate, and shall be forsaken and uninhabited.
20 Egypt is [like] [SIM] a beautiful young cow, but [the army of a powerful king] from the northeast will come to attack it [like] a horsefly [MET] [bites a cow].
Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from the north one that shall goad her.
21 The (mercenaries/soldiers [from other countries] who have been hired) will become like [SIM] fat calves; but they also will turn around and run away; they will not stand [there and fight], because it will be a day when there will be a [great] disaster in Egypt, a day when their people will be [greatly] punished.
Her hirelings also that lived in the midst of her, like fatted calves are turned back, and are fled away together, and they could not stand, for the day of their slaughter is come upon them, the time of their visitation.
22 [The soldiers of] Egypt will run away, as silently as a snake scurries/crawls away. [The army of] the enemy will advance; they will march along carrying their axes like [SIM] men who cut down trees.
Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against her, as hewers of wood.
23 [I, ] Yahweh, say that they will kill the soldiers [of Egypt] as though [SIM] they were a forest of trees, because the enemy soldiers will be as numerous as [a swarm of] locusts.
They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which cannot be counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and are without number.
24 The people of Egypt will be humiliated; they will be conquered by people from the northeast.’
The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25 [I, ] the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom the Israelis [worship], say, ‘I will punish Amon, [the god whom the people] of Thebes [city] worship, and [all] the [other] gods in Egypt. [I will punish] the King of Egypt and [all] those who trust in him.
The Lord of hosts the God of Israel hath said: Behold I will visit upon the tumult of Alexandria, and upon Pharao, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharao, upon them that trust in him.
26 I will cause them to be captured by those who want to kill them—Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, and his army officers. But many years later, people will live in Egypt again. [That will surely happen because] I, Yahweh, have said it.’
And I will deliver them into the hand of them that seek their lives, into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.
27 But you people of Israel who serve me, do not be at all dismayed [DOU] now, because some day I will bring you back from distant places; I will bring your descendants from the land to which they were exiled. [Then you] Israeli people will again live peacefully and safely, and there will not be any [nation] to cause you to be terrified.
And thou my servant Jacob, fear not and be not thou dismayed, O Israel: for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed out of the land of thy captivity: and Jacob shall return and be at rest, and prosper: and there shall be none to terrify him.
28 [I, ] Yahweh, say to you people of Israel who serve me, ‘Do not be afraid, because I will be with you. I will completely destroy the nations among whom I have scattered you, but I will not completely get rid of you. I will punish you, but I will punish you only as severely as you deserve: It would be wrong if I did not punish you at all.’”
And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith the Lord: because I am with thee, for I will consume all the nations to which I have cast thee out: but thee I will not consume, but I will correct thee in judgment, neither will I spare thee as if thou wert innocent.
