Jeremiah, Chapter 46

1. The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;    2. Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.    3. Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.    4. Harness the horses; and mount, you horsemen, and take your places with your helmets; polish the spears, and put on the coats of mail.    5. Why have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled quickly, and look not back: for fear was round about, says the LORD.    6. Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.    7. Who is this that comes up like a flood, whose waters are moved like the rivers?    8. Egypt rises up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he says, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.    9. Come 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.    10. For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself on his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be filled and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.    11. Go 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.    12. The 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.    13. The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt.    14. Declare in Egypt, and announce in Migdol, and announce in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say, Stand fast, and prepare; for the sword shall devour round about you.    15. Why are your valiant men swept away? they did not stand, because the LORD drove them.    16. He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go back to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.    17. They cried out there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has passed the time appointed.    18. As I live, says 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.    19. O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, prepare your baggage to go into captivity: for Noph shall be a ruin and desolate without an inhabitant.    20. Egypt is like a very beautiful heifer, but destruction comes; it comes out of the north.    21. Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and have fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their visitation.    22. Her voice shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as cutters of wood.    23. They shall cut down her forest, says the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.    24. The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.    25. The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all those who trust in him:    26. And I will deliver 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: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says the LORD.    27. But do not fear, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar off, and your descendents from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be at rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.    28. Fear not, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD: for I am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations to which 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.