Two Kingdoms · c. 605–597 BC
Chapter 26
Against the Nations
“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.
For parents
These are the Lord’s words through Jeremiah against Egypt and other nations, and they speak of war: armies beaten and killed, with the sword having its fill of their blood (Jeremiah 46:5–6, 10; 49:26, 37), cities laid waste and burned (46:19; 49:2, 27), and peoples carried away as captives or driven from their lands (48:46; 49:5, 36). In the word about the Philistines, fathers are too weak to look back for their children, and those who are left cut themselves (47:3, 5); in the word about Edom, Esau’s descendants are destroyed (49:10). It is told plainly, without gory detail.
This is the Lord’s word that came to the about the nations.
First came : a word about the army of king of Egypt, which was by the river in , the army that king of struck in the fourth year of the son of , king of Judah.
It opens with a call to battle:
“Ready your small shields and your big ones,and move in close to fight!Harness the horses! Mount up, you riders,and stand ready in your helmets.Polish the spears!Put on the armor!Why have I seen it?They lose heart and turn back.Their mighty men are beaten down.They run in a hurry and don’t look back.Terror is on every side,” says the Lord.“Don’t let the quick ones get away,or the mighty man escape.In the north, by the river Euphrates,they have stumbled and fallen.”
Then the word asks:
“Who is this who rises up like the ,like rivers whose waters surge?Egypt rises up like the Nile,like rivers whose waters surge.He says, ‘I will rise up. I will cover the earth.I will destroy cities and everyone in them.’For that day is the Lord’s,the day of the Lord God of Armies,a day for vengeance,when he pays his enemies back.The sword will devour and be full;it will have its fill of their blood.The Lord God of Armies has a sacrificein the north country, by the river Euphrates.”
And to Egypt it says:
“Go up to for ,virgin daughter of Egypt.You use one medicine after another, all for nothing.There is no healing for you.The nations have heard of your shame,and the earth is full of your crying,for one mighty man has stumbled against another,and both of them fall together.”
The Lord also spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt:
“Tell it in Egypt,spread the news in Migdol,spread it in Memphis and in .Say, ‘Stand up and get ready,for the sword has devoured all around you.’Why are your strong ones swept away?They didn’t stand, because the Lord pushed them.He made many stumble.They fell over one another.They said, ‘Get up! Let’s go back to our own people,to the land where we were born,away from the cruel sword.’There they cried, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a noise.He has let the appointed time go by.’
“As I live,” says the King, whose name is the Lord of Armies, “surely, like among the mountains and like by the sea, so he will come. You daughter who lives in Egypt, pack your things to go away as a captive, for Memphis will become a waste. It will be burned, and no one will live there.
“Egypt is a very beautiful young cow, but destruction out of the north has come. It has come.” A few lines later the word says, “The daughter of Egypt will be shamed. She will be handed to the people of the north.”
The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Look, I will punish , and Pharaoh, and Egypt with her gods and her kings, even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him. I will deliver them into the hands of the people who are out to take their lives, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his servants. Afterward it will be lived in, as it was in the old days,” says the Lord.
Then come these words:
“But don’t you be afraid, Jacob my servant.Don’t lose heart, Israel.For look, I will rescue you from far off,and your offspring from the land of their captivity.Jacob will come backand live at rest and at ease,and no one will make him afraid.Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant,” says the Lord,“for I am with you.For I will put a complete end to all the nationswhere I have driven you,but I will not put an end to you.I will correct you as much as is right,and in no way will I leave you unpunished.”
The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah the prophet about the , before Pharaoh struck .
The Lord says:
“Look, waters rise up out of the north.They will become a stream in flood,and will flood the land and everything in it,the city and those who live there.The men will cry out,and everyone who lives in the land will wail.At the noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses,at the rushing of his chariots and the rumbling of his wheels,fathers won’t look back for their children,for their hands have gone weak,because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines,to cut off every helper still left to and .For the Lord will destroy the Philistines,all who are left from the island of Caphtor.”
And then:
“Gaza has gone bald, the way mourners do. is brought to nothing.You who are left in their valley,how long will you go on cutting yourselves?”
The word ends with a cry:
“‘Sword of the Lord, how long before you are quiet?Put yourself back in your sheath.Rest, and be still.’How can you be quiet,since the Lord has given you a command?Against Ashkelon and against the seashore,that is where he has sent it.”
About , the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
“Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste!Kiriathaim is shamed. It is taken.Misgab is put to shameand broken down.”
A little further on:
“Run! Save your lives!Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness.Because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures,you will be taken too. will go away into captivity,his priests and his princes together.The destroyer will come on every city,and no city will escape.The valley will perish too,and the plain will be destroyed, as the Lord has said.”
Dregs are the thick sludge that settles at the bottom of a jar of wine. The Lord says:
“Moab has been at ease from his youth.He has settled on his dregs,and has not been emptied from jar into jar,nor has he gone into captivity.So his taste stays in him,and his scent has not changed.So look, the days are coming,” says the Lord,“when I will send him men who pour wine off,and they will pour him off.They will empty his jarsand break their jugs to pieces.Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,the way Israel was ashamed of , which it trusted.”
“All you who live around him, mourn for him,” the word says. “All you who know his name, say, ‘How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!’”
Later in the word about Moab:
“We have heard of the pride of Moab.He is very proud:lofty, proud and arrogant, arrogant in his heart.I know his rage,” says the Lord, “and it is nothing.His boasting has done nothing.So I will wail for Moab.Yes, I will cry out for all Moab.They will mourn for the men of Kir Heres.More than Jazer weeps,I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah.Your branches reached across the sea,even to the sea of Jazer.The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruitsand on the grapes you gather in.Gladness and joy are taken awayfrom the fruitful field, from the land of Moab.I have dried up the wine in the .No one will tread the grapes with shouting.The shouting will be no shouting.”
“On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is mourning everywhere, for I have broken Moab like a pot that pleases no one,” says the Lord.
“Moab will be destroyed and be a people no more,” the word says, “because he made himself great against the Lord.
Terror, the pit and the trap are upon you,you who live in Moab,” says the Lord.“Whoever runs from the terror will fall into the pit,and whoever gets up out of the pit will be taken in the trap,for I will bring on him, on Moab,the year of their reckoning,” says the Lord.
And at the last:
“Woe to you, O Moab!The people of Chemosh are ruined,for your sons are taken away as captives,and your daughters into captivity.Yet I will reverse the captivity of Moab in the latter days,”says the Lord.So ends the judgment of Moab.
About the , the Lord says:
“Has Israel no sons?Has he no ?Then why has taken Gad’s land for his own,with his people living in its cities?”
And so:
“Look, the days are coming,” says the Lord,“when I will make of the Ammoniteshear the alarm of war,and it will become a ruined heap,and its daughter towns will be burned with fire.Then Israel will take possession of those who took possession of him,”says the Lord.
And then:
“Why do you boast in the valleys,your flowing valley, you daughter who turned away?You trusted in your treasures and said,‘Who will come at me?’Look, I will bring terror on you,” says the Lord God of Armies,“from all who are around you.All of you will be driven clean out,and there will be no one to bring the runaways together.”
“But afterward I will reverse the captivity of the Ammonites,” says the Lord.
About , the Lord of Armies says:
“Is wisdom gone from ?Has good counsel died out among the wise?Has their wisdom vanished?”
A little further on:
“If people picking grapes came to you,wouldn’t they leave some grapes behind?If thieves came by night,wouldn’t they steal only until they had enough?But I have made bare.I have uncovered his secret places,and he won’t be able to hide.His descendants are destroyed,with his brothers and his neighbors,and he is no more.Leave your fatherless children behind.I will save their lives.Let your widows trust in me.”
“I have sworn by myself,” says the Lord, “that will become a sight that shocks people, a disgrace, a waste and a curse. All its cities will lie waste forever.”
And to Edom:
“As for your terror,the pride of your heart has fooled you,you who live among the cracks in the rock,who hold the top of the hill.Even if you make your nest as high as the eagle,I will bring you down from there,” says the Lord.“Edom will become a shocking sight.Everyone who passes by will stare in shockand will hiss at all the blows it has taken.As when and and the cities beside them were overturned,”says the Lord,“nobody will live there,and no human being will make a home in it.”
And last:
“Look, he will rise and fly like the eagle,and spread out his wings against Bozrah.On that day the hearts of Edom’s mighty menwill be like a woman’s heart in the pains of childbirth.”
About :
“ and Arpad are thrown into confusion,for they have heard bad news.They have melted away.There is sorrow on the sea.It can’t be still.Damascus has grown weak.She turns to run away,and trembling has taken hold of her.Pain and sorrow have gripped her,like a woman giving birth.”
And then:
“How is the city of praise not deserted,the city of my joy?So her young men will fall in her streets,and all the fighting men will be brought to silence that day,”says the Lord of Armies.“I will light a fire in the wall of Damascus,and it will devour the palaces of .”
About , and about the , which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck, the Lord says:
“Get up, go up to Kedar!Destroy the people of the east!They will seize their tents and their flocks.They will carry off their tent curtains,all their belongings and their camels,and they will call out to them, ‘Terror on every side!’”
And:
“Run! Wander far off!Live down in the depths, you who live in Hazor,” says the Lord,“for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has worked out a plan against you,and has made up his mind against you.Up! Go up to a nation that is at ease,that lives without a care,” says the Lord,“that has neither gates nor bars,that lives alone.”
And last:
“Hazor will become a place where jackals live,a waste forever.Nobody will live there,and no human being will make a home in it.”
The Lord’s word came to Jeremiah the prophet about , at the start of the reign of king of Judah. The Lord of Armies says:
“Look, I will break the bow of Elam,the chief of their strength.I will bring on Elam the four windsfrom the four quarters of the sky,and scatter them toward all those winds.There will be no nationwhere Elam’s outcasts will not come.”
And:
“I will fill Elam with dread before their enemies,before those who are out to take their lives.I will bring harm on them, my fierce anger,” says the Lord,“and I will send the sword after themuntil I have consumed them.I will set my throne in Elam,and will destroy king and princes from there,” says the Lord.
“But it will happen in the latter days that I will reverse the captivity of Elam,” says the Lord.