Jeremiah Chapter 46
1 A Message from Yahveh to Jeremiah About the Nations
2 A Message to Egypt about Pharaoh Necho’s Army
That Was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish,
Which Nebuchadnezzar Defeated
in the Fourth Year of Jehoiakim Ben-Josiah, King of Judah
A Message About Egypt
3 “Line up the shields and bucklers,
and advance for battle!
4 Harness the horses, mount the steeds,
take your positions, put your helmets on!
Polish the spears;
put on the coats of mail!
5 But what do I see?
The Egyptian army is panicking; they’re retreating.
Their soldiers are being defeated;
they fleeing without looking back.
They’re terrorized in every direction,”
Yahveh says.
Jer 46:1-5
3 “Line up the shields and bucklers,
and advance for battle!
4 Harness the horses, mount the steeds,
take your positions, put your helmets on!
Polish the spears;
put on the coats of mail!
5 But what do I see?
Egypt’s army is panicking; they’re retreating.
Their soldiers are being defeated;
they’re fleeing without looking back.
They’re terrorized in every direction,”
Yahveh says.
Jer 46:1-5
6 The fast can’t flee;
the strong can’t escape.
They’ve stumbled and fallen
in the north by the Euphrates.
7 Who is this that’s flooding like the Nile,
like rivers out of their banks?
8 Egypt floods like the Nile,
like rivers whose water surges.
It has said, “I’ll flood the land;
I’ll destroy city and residents.”
9 Advance, horses; drive wildly, chariots,
so the infantry can march forward:
Nubia and Put, that wield the shield,
Lybians, that bend the bow.
Jer 46:6-9
10That day belongs to the Lord Yahveh of hosts,
a time of revenge on his enemies.
The sword will devour till it’s satisfied
and drink its fill of their blood.
There’ll be a slaughter for the Lord Yahveh of hosts
in the north by the Euphrates.
11 Go up to Gilead and buy salve,
virgin daughter in Egypt!
In vain do you use lots of medicines;
they won’t heal you up.
12 The nations have heard about your humiliation;
the whole world has heard your distress cry.
One soldier stumbles over another,
and they both fall together.
Jer 46:10-12
13 The Message Yahveh Spoke to Jeremiah
About Nebuchadnezzar Coming to Strike Egypt
14 “Declare it in Egypt, announce it in Migdol,
tell it in Memphis and Tahpanhes;
‘Be prepared and stand ready
because the sword has taken everybody around you.’
15 Why are your soldiers prostrate?
Because Yahveh has beat them down.
16 He made many stumble;
they have fallen over one another.
Then they said, ‘Get up! Let’s go back
to our own people, to our native land,
away from the oppressor’s sword.’
Jer 46:13-16
17 They cried out there,
‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is just a lot of noise;
he’s let the stated time pass by!’
18 “As I live,” the King says,
whose name is Yahveh of Hosts,
“somebody is coming like Tabor among the mountains
or like Carmel by the sea.
19 Get your baggage ready for exile,
daughter that lives in Egypt,
because Memphis will be desolate,
burned down, and uninhabited.
20 Egypt is a pretty heifer,
but a horsefly is coming from the north!
21 Egypt’s mercenaries are like grain-fed calves;
even they have retreated and fled together.
They didn’t stand their ground;
their catastrophe has descended on them;
it’s their time to be punished.
Jer 46:17-21
22 “Egypt is as silent as a snake slithering away,
because its enemies are moving in on it like an army,
like woodsmen with axes.
23 They’ll cut down its forest;
it certainly won’t exist anymore,
even though it’s too numerous to count.
24 Egypt has been humbled,
delivered to the powerful ones up north.”
Jer 46:22-24
25 Yahveh of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, “I’m going to punish Amon of Thebes, Egypt along with its gods and kings, Pharaoh and those who put their trust in him. 26 I’m going to deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar and his officers, who want to kill them. Afterwards people will live in Egypt like before.
Jer 46:25-26
27 “But you, Jacob my servant,
don’t be afraid or intimidated!
I’ll rescue you from a long way off
and your descendants from where they’re captive.
Israel will come back and be secure,
with nobody to make him shudder.
28 Jacob,, don’t be afraid;
I’m with you.
I’ll make a complete end to the nations
where I’ve driven you,
but I won’t make a complete end of you;
I’ll discipline you appropriately—
(not leave you unpunished).”
Jer 46:27-28