18. “As I live,” says the King,whose name is the Lord of Hosts,“surely like Tabor among the mountains,and like Carmel by the sea,so he will come.
19. You daughter who dwells in Egypt,furnish yourself to go into captivity;for Memphis will become a desolation,and will be burned up,without inhabitant.
20. “Egypt is a very beautiful heifer;but destruction out of the north has come.It has come.
21. Also her hired men in the middle of her are like calves of the stall;for they also are turned back.They have fled away together.They didn’t stand,for the day of their calamity has come on them,the time of their visitation.
22. It’s sound will go like the serpent;for they will march with an army,and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.
23. They will cut down her forest,” says the Lord,“though it can’t be searched;because they are more than the locusts,and are innumerable.
24. The daughter of Egypt will be disappointed;she will be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.”
25. The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.
26. I will 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. Afterwards it will be inhabited, as in the days of old,” says the Lord.
27. “But don’t you be afraid, Jacob my servant.Don’t be dismayed, Israel;for, behold, I will save you from afar,and your offspring from the land of their captivity.Jacob will return,and will be quiet and at ease.No one will make him afraid.
28. Don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant,” says the Lord;“for I am with you;for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you;but I will not make a full end of you,but I will correct you in measure,and will in no way leave you unpunished.”