Jeremiah 46 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
605 BC for the first oracle, the year of the battle of Carchemish, with a second oracle looking ahead to Babylon's later invasion of Egypt
Location
Carchemish on the upper Euphrates in what is now southern Turkey, and then Egypt itself, including Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes
Audience
Judeans tempted to trust Egypt as a counterweight to Babylon, and exiles asking whether God ruled beyond Judah's borders
Situation
This begins a block of messages about foreign nations that runs to the end of the book, opening with Egypt. The first poem pictures Pharaoh Neco's army mustering in splendor at Carchemish and then breaking and fleeing, and the second announces that Babylon will come down into Egypt itself.
Key Background
At Carchemish the Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Egyptian army and ended Egypt's control of Syria and Palestine, which is why Judah's politicians who kept betting on Egyptian support were betting on a spent power. The poem names Egypt's foreign mercenaries from Cush, Put, and Lud, since Egyptian armies of the period relied heavily on hired troops from Africa and the Mediterranean. Collections of oracles against surrounding nations were a standard prophetic form, and their point was that the God of a small defeated kingdom still held authority over the empires that had beaten it.
The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet about the
About Egypt — about the army of king of Egypt, which was stationed at on the Euphrates River, the one Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
"Line up the and the ones! Advance for battle!
Harness the horses! Mount the warhorses! Take your positions with helmets on! Sharpen the spears! Put on the armor!"
But what do I see? They are terrified, falling back. Their warriors are crushed, fleeing headlong without looking back. Terror on every side! — this is
"The fast runner cannot flee, the warrior cannot escape. In the beside the Euphrates River, they stumble and fall."
"Who is this, the Nile, like rivers whose waters churn and surge?"
Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters churn and surge. She says, 'I will rise! I will the earth! I will destroy cities and everyone in them!'
"Charge, warhorses! Drive hard, chariots! Let the warriors march out — men of and carrying shields, men of who draw the bow!"
But that day belongs to the Lord Yahweh, of — a day of to take vengeance on his enemies. The sword will devour until it's had its fill, drinking its thirst of their blood. For the Lord Yahweh, of Armies, has a in the land of the north, beside the Euphrates River.
"Go up to and get balm, young Egypt. You multiply remedies for nothing — there is no healing for you."
The nations have heard of your shame. Your screaming fills the earth. Warrior trips over warrior — they both fall together.
The message Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to the of
"Announce it in Egypt! Proclaim it in Migdol! Proclaim it in and Tahpanhes! Say: 'Take your positions! Get ready! The sword is already devouring all around you!'"
Why has been swept away? He could not stand, because Yahweh drove him down.
He made many stumble; they fell over each other and said, 'Get up! Let's go back to our own people, back to our homeland, away from the that us!'
There they cried out, 'Pharaoh king of Egypt is just — he
"As I — this is the declaration of the King, whose name is Yahweh, Commander of Armies — "one is coming who is like among the mountains, like rising above the sea."
for exile, you who live in Egypt! Memphis will become a wasteland, burned and emptied of inhabitants.
Egypt is a cow, but a is coming from the north — it is coming!
Even her hired soldiers among her are like calves. They too have turned and run together. They did not stand their ground, because their day of disaster has come upon them, the time of their
She a snake, because they advance against her with force. They come at her with axes like men chopping down trees.
"They will chop down — this is Yahweh's declaration — "though it is impenetrable, because they outnumber the locusts. They are beyond counting."
Young woman Egypt will be to shame. She will be handed over to the people from the north.
Yahweh, Commander of Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Watch — I am about to bring reckoning on of Thebes, on Pharaoh, on Egypt, on and on kings — on Pharaoh and everyone who trusts in him."
"I will hand them over to those who want them dead — to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to his officers. But after that, Egypt will be again as in the days." This is Yahweh's declaration.
"But you — don't be afraid, my servant. Don't be shattered, Israel. Because watch — I am going to rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return and be at rest, at with no one to make him afraid."
"You — don't be afraid, Jacob my servant" — this is Yahweh's declaration — "because I am with you. I will every nation where I have scattered you, but you — I will not off. I will you with justice, but I will you as if