Jeremiah 46:2-10

Good News Translation

²^(A)beginning with Egypt. This is what he said about the army of King Neco of Egypt, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia defeated at Carchemish near the Euphrates River in the fourth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah:

³“The Egyptian officers shout,
‘Get your shields ready
    and march into battle!
⁴Harness your horses and mount them!
Fall in line and put on your helmets!
    Sharpen your spears!
    Put on your armor!’

⁵“But what do I see?” asks the Lord.
“They are turning back in terror.
Their soldiers are beaten back;
    overcome with fear, they run as fast as they can
    and do not look back.
⁶Those who run fast cannot get away;
    the soldiers cannot escape.
In the north, by the Euphrates,
    they stumble and fall.
⁷Who is this that rises like the Nile,
    like a river flooding its banks?
⁸It is Egypt, rising like the Nile,
    like a river flooding its banks.
Egypt said, ‘I will rise and cover the world;
    I will destroy cities and the people who live there.
⁹Command the horses to go
    and the chariots to roll!
Send out the soldiers:
    men from Ethiopia^[a] and Libya, carrying shields,
    and skilled archers from Lydia.’”

¹⁰This is the day of the Sovereign Lord Almighty:
    today he will take revenge;
    today he will punish his enemies.
His sword will eat them until it is full,
    and drink their blood until it is satisfied.
Today the Almighty sacrifices his victims
    in the north, by the Euphrates.

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Footnotes

Jeremiah 46:9 Hebrew Cush: Cush is the ancient name of the extensive territory south of the First Cataract of the Nile River. This region was called Ethiopia in Graeco-Roman times, and included within its borders most of modern Sudan and some of present-day Ethiopia (Abyssinia).