19 The mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Egypt: Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.

² And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, every one against his brother and every one against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

³ And the spirit of the Egyptians within them will become exhausted and emptied out and will fail, and I will destroy their counsel and confound their plans; and they will seek counsel from the idols and the sorcerers, and from those having familiar spirits (the mediums) and the wizards.

⁴ And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard and cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

⁵ And the waters shall fail from the Nile, and the river shall be wasted and become dry.

⁶ And the rivers shall become foul, the streams and canals of Egypt shall be diminished and dried up, the reeds and the rushes shall wither and rot away.

⁷ The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile shall become dry, be blown away, and be no more.

⁸ The fishermen will lament, and all who cast a hook into the Nile will mourn; and they who spread nets upon the waters will languish.

⁹ Moreover, they who work with combed flax and they who weave white [cotton] cloth will be confounded and in despair.

¹⁰ [Those who are] the pillars and foundations of Egypt will be crushed, and all those who work for hire or who build dams will be grieved.

¹¹ The princes of Zoan [ancient capital of the Pharaohs] are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become witless (stupid). How can you say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?

¹² Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now [if they are so wise], and let them make known what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt [if they can].

¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are confused and deceived; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴ The Lord has mingled a spirit of perverseness, error, and confusion within her; [her leaders] have caused Egypt to stagger in all her doings, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵ Neither can any work [done singly or by concerted action] accomplish anything for Egypt, whether by head or tail, palm branch or rush [high or low].

¹⁶ In that day will the Egyptians be like women [timid and helpless]; and they will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts which He shakes over them.

¹⁷ And the land of Judah [allied to Assyria] shall become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom mention of it is made will be afraid and everyone who mentions it—to him will they turn in fear, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts which He purposes against Egypt.

¹⁸ In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of [the Hebrews of] Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of them will be called the City of the Sun or Destruction.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.

²⁰ And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a savior, even a mighty one, and he will deliver them.^(A)

²¹ And the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know (have knowledge of, be acquainted with, give heed to, and cherish) the Lord in that day and will worship with sacrifices of animal and vegetable offerings; they will vow a vow to the Lord and perform it.

²² And the Lord shall smite Egypt, smiting and healing it; and they will return to the Lord, and He will listen to their entreaties and heal them.

²³ In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship [the Lord] with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel shall be the third, with Egypt and with Assyria [in a Messianic league], a blessing in the midst of the earth,

²⁵ Whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel My heritage.

46 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning and against the [Gentile] nations.

² Concerning and against Egypt: against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which ^[a]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote and defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:^(A)

³ Put in order the buckler and shield, and advance for battle!

⁴ Harness the horses, and mount, you horsemen! Stand forth with your helmets! Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail!

⁵ Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward, and their mighty warriors are beaten down. They flee in haste and look not back; terror is on every side! says the Lord.^(B)

⁶ Let not the swift flee nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates they stumble and fall.

⁷ Who is this that rises up like the Nile [River], like the branches [of the Nile in the delta of Egypt] whose waters surge and toss?

⁸ Egypt rises like the Nile, like the rivers whose waters surge and toss. She says, I will rise, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.

⁹ Go up, you horses, and drive furiously, you chariots! Let the warriors go forth—men of Ethiopia and Put who handle the shield, men of Lud who are skilled in handling and stringing the bow.

¹⁰ But that day is a day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts—a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiated and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, the Lord of hosts has a sacrifice [like that of a great sin offering] in the north country by the river Euphrates.

¹¹ Go up into Gilead and take [healing] balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain do you use many medicines; for you there is no healing or remedy.

¹² The nations have heard of your disgrace and shame, and your cry has filled the earth. For warrior has stumbled against and thrown down warrior, and they have fallen both of them together.

¹³ The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the coming of ^[b]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and his smiting of the land of Egypt:

¹⁴ Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol; and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes; say, Stand forth and get yourself ready, for the sword devours round about you.

¹⁵ Why is your strong one [the sacred bull-god Apis] swept and dragged away? He stood not, because the Lord drove him and thrust him down.

¹⁶ [The Lord] made many to stumble and fall; yes, they fell one upon another. And they said, Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, away from the sword of the oppressor.

¹⁷ They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is destroyed and is only a noise; he has let the appointed time [in which God had him on probation] pass by!

¹⁸ As I live, says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he [the king of Babylon, standing out above other rulers] come.

¹⁹ O you daughter who dwells in Egypt and you who dwell with her, furnish yourselves [with all you will need] to go into exile, for Memphis will be waste, desolate, and burned up, without inhabitant.

²⁰ Egypt is a very fair heifer [like Apis the bull-god, to which the country is, so to speak, espoused], but destruction [a gadfly] is coming—out of the north it is coming [against her]!

²¹ Also her hired troops in the midst of her are like fatted calves [in the stall], for they also are turned back and are fleeing together; they do not stand, because the day of their calamity is coming upon them, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).

²² The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like the rustling of an escaping serpent, for her foes advance with a mighty army and come against her with axes, like those who fell trees and cut wood.

²³ They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it is impenetrable, because they [the invading army] are more numerous than locusts and cannot be counted.

²⁴ The Daughter of Egypt shall be disgraced; she shall be delivered into the hands of the people of the north [the Chaldeans].

²⁵ The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will visit punishment upon Amon [the chief god of the sacred city, the capital of Upper Egypt] of No or Thebes, and upon Pharaoh and Egypt, with her gods and her kings—even Pharaoh and all those [Jews and others] who put their trust in [Pharaoh as a support against Babylon].

²⁶ And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants. Afterward [Egypt] will be ^[c]inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.

²⁷ But fear not, O My servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their exile; and Jacob will return and be quiet and at ease, and none will make him afraid.

²⁸ Fear not, O Jacob My servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. For I will make a full and complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you; yet I will not make a full end of you. But I will chasten and correct you in just measure, and I will not hold you guiltless by any means or leave you unpunished.

¹⁸ And if the family of Egypt does not go up to Jerusalem and present themselves, upon them there shall be no rain, but there shall be the plague with which the Lord will smite the nations that go not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

¹⁹ This shall be the consequent punishment of the sin of Egypt and the consequent punishment of the sin of all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.