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This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh.
Jeremiah 46:13-28
Chapter 46
14 Declare in Egypt, proclaim in Migdol,
Proclaim in Noph and Tahpanhes!
Say: Take your posts and stand ready,
For the sword has devoured all around you!
15 Why are your stalwarts swept away?
They did not stand firm,
For the Lord thrust them down;
16 He made many stumble,
They fell over one another.
They said: “Up! let us return to our people,
To the land of our birth,
Because of the deadly sword.”
17 There they called Pharaoh king of Egypt:
“Braggart who let the hour go by.”
18 As I live — declares the King,
Whose name is Lord of Hosts —
As surely as Tabor is among the mountains
And Carmel is by the sea,
So shall this come to pass.
19 Equip yourself for exile,
Fair Egypt, you who dwell secure!
For Noph shall become a waste,
Desolate, without inhabitants.
20 Egypt is a handsome heifer —
A gadfly from the north is coming, coming!
21 The mercenaries, too, in her midst
Are like stall-fed calves;
They too shall turn tail,
Flee as one, and make no stand.
Their day of disaster is upon them,
The hour of their doom.
22 She shall rustle away like a snake
As they come marching in force;
They shall come against her with axes,
Like hewers of wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest
Though it cannot be measured;
For they are more numerous than locusts,
And cannot be counted.
24 Fair Egypt shall be shamed,
Handed over to the people of the north.
25 The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, has said: I will inflict punishment on Amon of No and on Pharaoh — on Egypt, her gods, and her kings — on Pharaoh and all who rely on him. 26 I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek to kill them, into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and into the hands of his subjects. But afterward she shall be inhabited again as in former days, declares the Lord.
27 But you,
Have no fear, My servant Jacob,
Be not dismayed, O Israel!
I will deliver you from far away,
Your folk from their land of captivity;
And Jacob again shall have calm
And quiet, with none to trouble him.
28 But you, have no fear,
My servant Jacob
For I am with you.
I will make an end of all the nations
Among which I have banished you,
But I will not make an end of you!
I will not leave you unpunished,
But I will chastise you in measure.
Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
No part of this text can be reproduced or forwarded without written permission.
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