Jeremiah 46 - Revised Standard Version Old Tradition 1952(RSV-C)

1

Why did not your bull stand?

Because the Lord thrust him down.

16Your multitude stumbled and fell,

and they said one to another,

‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people

and to the land of our birth,

because of the sword of the oppressor.’

17Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

18“As I live, says the King,

whose name is the Lord of hosts,

like Tabor among the mountains,

and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.

19Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,

O inhabitants of Egypt!

For Memphis shall become a waste,

a ruin, without inhabitant.

20“A beautiful heifer is Egypt,

but a gadfly from the north has come upon her.

21Even her hired soldiers in her midst

are like fatted calves;

yea, they have turned and fled together,

they did not stand;

for the day of their calamity has come upon them,

the time of their punishment.

22“She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away;

for her enemies march in force,

and come against her with axes,

like those who fell trees.

23They shall cut down her forest,

says the Lord,

though it is impenetrable,

because they are more numerous than locusts;

they are without number.

24The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame,

she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”

25The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

26I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.

27“But fear not, O Jacob my servant,

nor be dismayed, O Israel;

for lo, I will save you from afar,

and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,

and none shall make him afraid.

28Fear not, O Jacob my servant,

says the Lord,

for I am with you.

I will make a full end of all the nations

to which I have driven you,

but of you I will not make a full end.

I will chasten you in just measure,

and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”