Jeremiah 45-48

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³ Prepare buckler and shield,
    and advance for battle!^(F)
4 Harness the horses;
    mount the steeds!
Take your stations with helmets on,
    whet the lances,
    put on coats of mail!
⁵ Why do I see them terrified?
    They have fallen back;
their warriors are beaten down
    and have fled in haste.
They do not look back—
    terror is all around!
            says the Lord.^(G)
6 The swift cannot flee away,
    nor can the warrior escape;
in the north by the River Euphrates
    they have stumbled and fallen.^(H)

⁷ Who is this, rising like the Nile,
    like rivers whose waters surge?^(I)
8 Egypt rises like the Nile,
    like rivers whose waters surge.
It said, “Let me rise; let me cover the earth;
    let me destroy cities and their inhabitants.”^(J)
9 Advance, O horses,
    and dash madly, O chariots!
Let the warriors go forth:
    Cush and Put, who carry the shield,
    the Ludim, who draw^[a] the bow.^(K)
10 That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts,
    a day of retribution,
    to gain vindication from his foes.
The sword shall devour and be sated
    and drink its fill of their blood.
For the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice
    in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.^(L)
11 Go up to Gilead, and take balm,
    O virgin daughter Egypt!
In vain you have used many medicines;
    there is no healing for you.^(M)
12 The nations have heard of your shame,
    and the earth is full of your cry,
for warrior has stumbled against warrior;
    both have fallen together.^(N)

¹⁴ Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol;
    proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;
Say, “Take your stations and be ready,
    for the sword shall devour those around you.”^(P)
15 Why has Apis^[b] fled?
    Why did your bull not stand?
    Because the Lord thrust him down.
¹⁶ Your multitude stumbled^[c] and fell,
    and one said to another,
“Come, let us go back to our own people
    and to the land of our birth,
    because of the destroying sword.”^(Q)
17 Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name
    “Braggart who missed his chance.”^(R)

¹⁸ As I live, says the King,
    whose name is the Lord of hosts,
one is coming
    like Tabor among the mountains
    and like Carmel by the sea.^(S)
19 Pack your bags for exile,
    sheltered daughter Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste,
    a ruin, without inhabitant.^(T)

²⁰ A beautiful heifer is Egypt—
    a gadfly from the north lights upon her.^(U)
21 Even her mercenaries in her midst
    are like fatted calves;
they, too, have turned and fled together;
    they did not stand,
for the day of their calamity has come upon them,
    the time of their punishment.^(V)

²² She makes a sound like a snake gliding away,
    for her enemies march in force
and come against her with axes,
    like those who fell trees.^(W)
23 They shall cut down her forest,
            says the Lord,
    though it is impenetrable,
because they are more numerous
    than locusts;
    they are without number.^(X)
24 Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame;
    she shall be handed over to a people from the north.^(Y)

² Thus says the Lord:
See, waters are rising out of the north
    and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who live in it.
People shall cry out,
    and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.^(AE)
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
    at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,
parents do not turn back for children,
    so feeble are their hands,^(AF)
4 because of the day that is coming
    to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
    every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
    the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.^(AG)
5 Baldness has come upon Gaza;
    Ashkelon is silenced.
O remnant of Anakim!^[d]
    How long will you gash yourselves?^(AH)
6 Ah, sword of the Lord!
    How long until you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
    rest and be still!^(AI)
7 How can it^[e] be quiet,
    when the Lord has given it an order?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore—
    there he has appointed it.^(AJ)

Alas for Nebo, it is laid waste!
    Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is taken;
the fortress is put to shame and broken down;^(AK)
2     the renown of Moab is no more.
In Heshbon they planned evil against her:
    “Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!”
You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;^[f]
    the sword shall pursue you.^(AL)

³ Listen! A cry goes up from Horonaim:
    “Desolation and great destruction!”^(AM)
4 “Moab is destroyed!”
    her little ones cry out.
⁵ For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go^[g] up weeping bitterly;
for at the descent of Horonaim
    they have heard the distressing cry of anguish.^(AN)
6 Flee! Save yourselves!
    Be like a wild ass^[h] in the desert!^(AO)

⁷ Surely, because you trusted in your strongholds^[i] and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
Chemosh shall go out into exile,
    with his priests and his attendants.^(AP)
8 The destroyer shall come upon every town,
    and no town shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
    and the plain shall be destroyed,
    as the Lord has spoken.^(AQ)

⁹ Set aside salt for Moab,
    for she will surely fall;
her towns shall become a desolation,
    with no inhabitant in them.^(AR)

¹¹ Moab has been at ease from his youth,
    settled like wine^[j] on its dregs;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    nor has he gone into exile;
therefore his flavor has remained,
    and his aroma is unspoiled.^(AT)

¹⁴ How can you say, “We are heroes
    and mighty warriors”?^(AV)
15 Moab is destroyed, and his towns have gone up,
    and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,
    says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.^(AW)
16 The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
    and his doom approaches swiftly.^(AX)
17 Mourn over him, all you his neighbors,
    and all who know his name;
say, “How the mighty scepter is broken,
    the glorious staff!”^(AY)

¹⁸ Come down from glory
    and sit on the parched ground,
    enthroned daughter Dibon!
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
    he has destroyed your strongholds.^(AZ)
19 Stand by the road and watch,
    you inhabitant of Aroer!
Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping;
    say, “What has happened?”^(BA)
20 Moab is put to shame, for it is broken down;
    wail and cry!
Tell it by the Arnon
    that Moab is laid waste.^(BB)

²⁸ Leave the towns, and live on the rock,
    O inhabitants of Moab!
Be like the dove that nests
    on the sides of the mouth of a gorge.^(BG)
29 We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    he is very proud—
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
    and the haughtiness of his heart.^(BH)
30 I myself know his insolence, says the Lord;
    his boasts are false;
    his deeds are false.^(BI)
31 Therefore I wail for Moab;
    I cry out for all Moab;
    for the people of Kir-heres I mourn.^(BJ)
32 More than for Jazer I weep for you,
    O vine of Sibmah!
Your branches crossed over the sea,
    reached as far as Jazer;^[k]
upon your summer fruits and your vintage
    the destroyer has fallen.^(BK)
33 Gladness and joy have been taken away
    from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have stopped the wine from the winepresses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.^(BL)

⁴⁰ For thus says the Lord:
Look, he shall swoop down like an eagle
    and spread his wings against Moab;^(BS)
41 the towns^[l] shall be taken
    and the strongholds seized.
The hearts of the warriors of Moab, on that day,
    shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.^(BT)
42 Moab shall be destroyed as a people,
    because he magnified himself against the Lord.^(BU)
43 Terror, pit, and trap
    are before you, O inhabitants of Moab!
            says the Lord.^(BV)
44 Everyone who flees from the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and everyone who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the trap.
For I will bring these things^[m] upon Moab
    in the year of their punishment,
            says the Lord.^(BW)

⁴⁵ In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop exhausted,
for a fire has gone out from Heshbon,
    a flame from the house of Sihon;
it has destroyed the forehead^[n] of Moab,
    the scalp of the people of tumult.^[o](BX)
46 Woe to you, O Moab!
    The people of Chemosh have perished,
for your sons have been taken captive
    and your daughters into captivity.^(BY)
47 Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
    in the latter days, says the Lord.
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.^(BZ)