A prophecy against Egypt. The Jews shall return from captivity.
46:1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against
the Gentiles,
46:2. 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.
46:3. Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to battle.
46:4. Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen: stand forth with
helmets, furbish the spears, put on coats of mail.
46:5. 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.
46:6. 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.
46:7. Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his streams swell like
those of rivers?
46:8. 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.
46:9. 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.
46:10. 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.
46:11. 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.
46:12. 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.
46:13. The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias the prophet, how
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon should come and strike the land of
Egypt:
46:14. 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.
46:15. Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood not: because
the Lord hath overthrown them.
46:16. 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 of our nativity, from the sword of the dove.
The dove.... See the annotation on chap. 25., ver. 38.
46:17. Call ye the name of Pharao king of Egypt, a tumult time hath
brought.
46:18. 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.
46:19. Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant
of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate, and shall be forsaken and
uninhabited.
46:20. Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from
the north one that shall goad her.
46:21. 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.
46:22. 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.
46:23. They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which cannot be
counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and are without number.
46:24. The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered into the hand
of the people of the north.
46:25. 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, and upon them
that trust in him.
Visit upon.... That is, punish.—Ibid. Alexandria.... In the Hebrew, No,
which was the ancient name of the city, to which Alexander gave
afterwards the name of Alexandria.
46:26. And I will deliver them into the hand of them that seek their
lives, and 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.
46:27. 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.
46:28. 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.