1. The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;
2. Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.
3. Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
4. Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with {cf15I your} helmets; furbish the spears, {cf15I and} put on the brigandines.
5. Wherefore have I seen them dismayed {cf15I and} turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: {cf15I for} fear {cf15I was} round about, saith 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 {cf15I is} this {cf15I that} cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
8. Egypt riseth up like a flood, and {cf15I his} waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, {cf15I and} will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
9. Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle {cf15I and} bend the bow.
10. For this {cf15I is} the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath 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 shalt thou use many medicines; {cf15I for} thou shalt not be cured.
12. The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, {cf15I and} they are fallen both together.
13. The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come {cf15I and} smite the land of Egypt.
14. Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.
15. Why are thy valiant {cf15I men} swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
16. He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
17. They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt {cf15I is but} a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
18. {cf15I As} I live, saith the King, whose name {cf15I is} the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor {cf15I is} among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, {cf15I so} shall he come.
19. O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
20. Egypt {cf15I is like} a very fair heifer, {cf15I but} destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.
21. Also her hired men {cf15I are} in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, {cf15I and} are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, {cf15I and} the time of their visitation.
22. The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
23. They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and {cf15I are} innumerable.
24. The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25. The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and {cf15I all} them that trust in him:
26. And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
27. But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make {cf15I him} afraid.
28. Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I {cf15I am} with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.