15. Why are your bulls defeated? He did not stand because Yahweh thrust him down.
16. He multiplied the ones stumbling. Furthermore, each one fell to his neighbor, and said, ‘Stand up, and let us return to our people and to the land of our birth, because of the presence of the sword of the oppressor.’
17. They will call there, ‘Pharaoh, the king of Egypt is but a roar, he missed the opportunity.’
18. As I live,” declares the king, Yahweh of hosts is his name, “one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.
19. Pack your baggage for exile, O inhabitants of the daughter of Egypt, for Memphis will become as a horror, and it will be destroyed, without inhabitant.
20. Egypt is a beautiful heifer, but a gadfly from the north will come against her.
21. Even her mercenaries in her midst are like calves of fattening, for they also have turned away, they have fled together. They stand not, for the day of their calamity has come, the time of their punishment.
22. Her sound is like a snake that glides away, for they march in force. And with axes they come to her like those who chop trees.
23. They will cut down her forest,” declares Yahweh, “for it is impenetrable. Yes, they are more numerous than locusts, and they are without number.
24. The daughter of Egypt will be ashamed, she will be given into the hand of the people of the north.”
25. Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said, “Look, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, and her gods, and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him.
26. And I will give them into the hand of the seekers of their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his troops. But afterward it will be inhabited, as in days of old,” declares Yahweh.
27. “But as for you, my servant Jacob, you must not be afraid, and Israel, you must not be dismayed, for look, I am going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be quiet, and he will be at ease, and without one who makes him afraid.
28. You must not be afraid, my servant Jacob,” declares Yahweh, “for I am with you. For I will make a complete destruction in all the nations where I scattered you, but you I will not make a complete destruction, though I will chastise you to the measure, and I will certainly not leave you unpunished.”