1Which was the word of the LORD to Jeremiah concerning the nations. 2For Egypt, concerning the force of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt that was by the River Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia struck down in the fourth year of Jehoiakim king of Judah.
3Ready the buckler and shield
and move forward to battle.
4Harness the horses
and mount, O riders.
Take your station in helmets,
burnish the lances,
gird on the chain armor.
5Why did I see them panicked,
falling back, their warriors crushed and fled,
they do not turn back, terror all around?
said the LORD.
6The swift does not flee
nor the warrior escape.
To the north by the River Euphrates
they stumbled and fell.
7Who is this rising like the Nile,
like the streams his waters swell?
8Egypt like the Nile rises,
and like streams the waters swell.
And he said, “I will rise, will cover the earth,
will destroy town and its dwellers.”
9Rise up, O horses,
and chariots, go wild!
Let the warriors come out,
Cush and Put handling the buckler
and the Ludim who bend the bow.
10And that day is the Master’s, the LORD of Armies,
day of vengeance to take revenge of His foes.
And the sword shall consume and be sated
and drink its fill of their blood.
For a sacrifice has the Master, LORD of Armies,
in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.
11Go up to Gilead and get balm,
O Virgin Daughter of Egypt.
In vain you devised many cures—
there is no healing for you.
12The nations heard of your infamy,
and the earth is filled with your screaming,
for warrior stumbled against warrior,
together the two of them fell.
13The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia to strike the land of Egypt.
14Tell it in Egypt and make it heard in Migdol,
and make it heard in Noph and Tahpanes.
Say, take your station and ready yourself,
for the sword consumes all round you.
15Why are your heroes swept away?
They do not stand, for the LORD thrust them down.
16He made many stumble, even fall.
Each man said to his fellow,
“Rise up, let us go back to our people
and to our birth land before the oppressive sword.”
17There they called Pharaoh king of Egypt
“an uproar that missed the set time.”
18As I live, said the King,
LORD of Armies is His name,
like Tabor among the mountains
and like Carmel by the sea he shall come.
19Prepare yourself gear of exile,
O dweller, Daughter of Egypt.
For Noph shall become a desolation,
shall be razed with none there to dwell.
20O beautiful heifer in Egypt—
a gadfly from the north comes, it comes.
21Her hired troops, too, in her midst
They, too, turned away,
fled together, they did not stand.
For the day of disaster came upon them,
the time of their reckoning.
22Her voice like a snake as it goes.
For in a force they shall go
and with axes come against her
like hewers of wood.
23They have cut down her forest, said the LORD,
for they are more numerous than locusts,
and they are beyond number.
24The Daughter of Egypt was shamed,
given into the hand of the people of the north.
25The LORD of Armies has said: “I am about to make a reckoning with Amon of No and with Pharaoh and with Egypt and with its gods and with its kings and with Pharaoh and with all who trust in him. 26And I will give them into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia and into the hand of all his servants. But afterward she shall dwell as in days of old.”
27And now, do not fear, My servant Jacob,
nor be panicked, Israel.
For I am about to rescue you from afar
and your seed from the land of captivity,
and Jacob once more shall be quiet
and tranquil with none making him tremble.
28As for you, do not fear, My servant Jacob—
said the LORD—
for I am with you.
I will make an end of all the nations
where I have dispersed you,
but of you I will not make an end,
yet I will chastise you in justice,
will surely not leave you unblamed.
CHAPTER 46 NOTES
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2. by the River Euphrates at Carchemish. The battle at Carchemish would determine much of Near Eastern history for decades to come. Pharaoh Neco headed north in 609 B.C.E. in an effort to aid the Assyrians, who were waging a losing war against the Babylonians. The Judahite King Josiah tried to stand in his way and was killed in battle by Neco. In 605, the Egyptian and Babylonian armies clashed at Carchemish, and the Egyptians were routed, as this prophecy reports.
3. Ready the buckler and shield. All these words of military exhortation are best understood as addressed by God—“the word of the LORD”—to the Egyptian army, which is being urged to head into the battle where it will meet its destruction. “Buckler,” magen, is generally thought to be a small round shield and “shield,” tsinah, a larger rectangular one.
7. Who is this rising like the Nile, / like the streams his waters swell? The Nile does periodically overflow its banks. As the principal source of water for Egypt, it serves here as an apt image of the overweening Egyptian expeditionary force that aspires to “cover the earth.”
9. Rise up, O horses. The verb in this instance, playing back against the rising of the Nile, probably refers to the rearing up of the horses.
Cush and Put . . . / Ludim. Cush is Nubia, at one point a conqueror of Egypt. Put is probably Lybia and the Ludim are probably the Lydians, a people of Asia Minor. All these foreigners would be mercenaries fighting in the Egyptian ranks, and mercenaries (“hired troops”) are explicitly mentioned in verse 21.
the Ludim who bend the bow. The implication is that the Lydian contingent were skilled archers. “Bend the bow” is literally “trod the bow” because one foot was needed to pull back these large bows.
10. sacrifice. Much to the point of the present line, the Hebrew noun can also mean “slaughter.”
11. Go up to Gilead and get balm. The northern region of Gilead was famous for its medicinal herbs. The injunction for Egypt to go up there is obviously sarcastic, for as the next line spells out, she will not heal from the grievous wounds she has suffered at the hands of the Babylonians.
12. for warrior stumbled against warrior. This is an image of their panicked flight as they are routed on the battlefield.
13. the coming of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia to strike the land of Egypt. While Josephus and some other ancient sources report a Babylonian invasion of Egypt in the late 580s B.C.E., the historicity of this event is now widely doubted. It seems more likely that Jeremiah, after the Egyptian defeat at Carchemish, is projecting the prospect of a devastating Babylonian assault on the Egyptian homeland.
15. your heroes. The Hebrew ʾabirim can mean “bulls,” “steeds” (its sense in the Song of Deborah, Judges 5, and here in 47:3), or, because of the association of both animals with physical strength, something like “powerful warriors.” This last sense seems the most likely here especially because of the reference to not standing and being pushed down in the next line. Lundbom thinks the term refers to Apis, the Egyptian bull god, which is ingenious but not persuasive.
16. Rise up. The imperative verb, qumah, is particularly appropriate here because they—not their horses or their bull god—have been knocked down on the battlefield.
17. an uproar that missed the set time. Although the meaning of this phrase is in dispute, it is best understood as a mocking designation of the Pharaoh who has failed to defend his land: he makes a big noise, but he does not arrive at the right time and place to rescue his people.
18. the King / LORD of Armies. The monarchic epithet for God is purposefully chosen as a contrast to “Pharaoh king of Egypt” in the preceding line.
like Tabor . . . / like Carmel. Since neither of these mountains can move, the reference must not be to “he [the invader] shall come,” but to “the King, / LORD of Armies,” who stands lofty over all the nations like these two mountains over the surrounding landscape.
19. gear of exile. This would presumably be minimal changes of clothing, cooking utensils, and other wherewithal for everyday life on the move.
20. gadfly. The Hebrew qerets occurs only here, but it probably relates to a verbal stem that means to break off or pinch and is thus linked with the bite of the gadfly. That, in turn, is a metaphor for Nebuchadrezzar.
21. Her hired troops. See the second comment on verse 9.
like stall-fed calves. The fatted calves are led directly from the confining stall to be slaughtered, with no chance to escape.
22. Her voice like a snake as it goes. Crushed by defeat, the Egyptians can emit no more than the rustling sound of a snake crawling over the ground. This is an obvious antithesis to the “uproar” made by Pharaoh.
23. They have cut down her forest. Since Egypt has no forests, this is either an extension of the metaphor of woodcutting for destruction or possibly a reference to the wood-paneled interiors of Egypt’s palaces.
it cannot be fathomed. The “it” is in effect explained in the next line: the invading force is so vast that it cannot be fathomed.
25. with its kings. The slightly puzzling plural might refer to a succession of Egyptian monarchs destined to suffer under the yoke of foreign domination.
with Pharaoh. This replicates the phrase at the beginning of the series, so one of them may be a scribal duplication.
26. But afterward she shall dwell as in days of old. This final positive note may be based on the prophet’s realistic assessment of the geopolitical situation: Babylonia will not be able to sustain its conquest of Egypt indefinitely.
28. but of you I will not make an end, / yet I will chastise you in justice. This is a balancing act of prediction that the prophet performs elsewhere. Unlike other nations, which are destined to be utterly destroyed, Israel will survive; nevertheless, because of its repeated offenses against God, it must first be brought to judgment and pay the bitter price of defeat and captivity (“chastisement”) for what it has done.