1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.
2. Concerning Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
3. Prepare buckler and shield!move forward to battle!
4. Harness the horses,charioteers, mount up!Fall in, with helmets on;polish your spears, put on your armor.
5. What do I see?Are they panicking, falling apart?Their warriors are hammered back,They flee headlongnever making a stand.Terror on every side—oracle of the Lord!
6. The swift cannot flee,nor the warrior escape:There up north, on the banks of the Euphratesthey stumble and fall.
7. Who is this? Like the Nile, it rears up;like rivers, its waters surge.
8. Egypt rears up like the Nile,like rivers, its waters surge.“I will rear up,” it says, “and cover the earth,destroying the city and its people.
9. Forward, horses!charge, chariots!March forth, warriors,Cush and Put, bearing shields,Archers of Lud, stretching bows!”
10. Today belongs to the Lord God of hosts,a day of vengeance, vengeance on his foes!The sword devours and is sated, drunk with their blood:for the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrificein the land of the north, on the River Euphrates.