5. Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back. Terror is on every side,” says Yahweh.
6. “Don’t let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape. In the north by the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen.
7. “Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
8. Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, ‘I will rise up, I will cover the earth. I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.’
9. Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots! Let the mighty men go out: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.
10. For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself of his adversaries. The sword will devour and be satiated, and will drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
11. Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt. In vain do you use many medicines. There is no healing for you.
12. The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they both fall together.”
13. The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt.
14. “Declare in Egypt, publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, ‘Stand up, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you.’
15. Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn’t stand, because Yahweh pushed them.
16. He made many to stumble, yes, they fell on one another: and they said, ‘Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.’
17. They cried there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.’
18. “As I live,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies, “surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.