12. The nations will hear you crying. Your cries will be heard all over the earth. One ‘brave soldier’ will run into another ‘brave soldier.’ And both ‘brave soldiers’ will fall down together.”
13. This is the message the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about Nebuchadnezzar coming to attack Egypt.
14. “Announce this message in Egypt. Tell it in the city of Migdol. Tell it in Memphis and Tahpanhes. ‘Get ready for war, because people all around you are being killed with swords.’
15. Egypt, your strong soldiers will be killed. They will not be able to stand because the Lord will push them down.
16. They will stumble again and again. They will fall over each other. They will say, ‘Get up; let’s go back to our own people. Let us go back to our homeland. Our enemy is defeating us. We must get away.’
17. In their homelands, those soldiers will say, ‘Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is only a lot of noise. His time of glory is over.’”
18. This message is from the King. The King is the Lord All-Powerful. “I promise, as surely as I live, a powerful leader will come. He will be like Mount Tabor or Mount Carmel among smaller mountains.
19. People of Egypt, pack your things. Get ready for captivity, because Memphis will be a ruined, empty land. Those cities will be destroyed, and no one will live there.