9. Come up, O horses,and rage, O chariots!And let the mighty men come forth:the Ethiopians and the Libyans who handle the shield,and the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.
10. For this is the day of the Lord God of Hosts,a day of vengeance, so that He may avenge Himself of His adversaries.And the sword will devour;and it will be satiated and made drunk with their blood;for the Lord God of Hosts has a slaughterin the north country by the River Euphrates.
11. Go up into Gilead and take balm,O virgin daughter of Egypt;in vain you shall use many medicines,for you will not be cured.
12. The nations have heard of your shame,and your cry has filled the land;for the mighty man has stumbled over the mighty,and they both have fallen together.
13. The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, about Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon coming to strike the land of Egypt.
14. Declare in Egypt and publish in Migdol,and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes;say, “Stand fast and prepare yourself,for the sword will devour those about you.”
15. Why have your valiant men become prostrate?They do not stand because the Lord has thrust them down.
16. He made many to fall.Indeed, each one has fallen upon another.Then they said, “Arise and let us go backto our own people and to the land of our nativity,away from the oppressing sword.”
17. They cried there,“Pharaoh king of Egypt is a tumult.He has let the time appointed pass by!”
18. As I live, says the Kingwhose name is the Lord of Hosts,surely as Tabor is among the mountains,and as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come.
19. O daughter dwelling in Egypt,prepare your baggage for captivity,for Memphis will become desolate,it will even be burned down without an inhabitant.
20. Egypt is like a very fair heifer,but destruction comes,it comes out of the north.
21. Also her mercenaries are in her midstlike fat bulls,for they also have turned back and have fled away together.They did not stand their groundbecause the day of their calamity has come upon them,even the time of their punishment.
22. Its sound goes along like a serpent,for they march on as an army,and come against her with axes,as choppers of wood.
23. They have cut down her forest,says the Lord.Surely it will not be found any more,even though they are now more numerous than the grasshoppers,and are innumerable.
24. The daughter of Egypt has been humiliated;she has been delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25. The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: See, I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all those who trust in him.
26. And I shall deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants. But afterwards it will be inhabited, as in the days of old, says the Lord.