1 The word that
came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the
land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and
at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen
all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all
the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation,
and no man dwelleth therein,
3 Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke
me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve
other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising
early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing
that I hate.
5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from
their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
6 Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was
kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem;
and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
7 Therefore now this saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God
of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your
souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling,
out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;
8 In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands,
burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither
ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that
ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of
the earth?
9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the
wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their
wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives,
which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets
of Jerusalem?
10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they
feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set
before you and before your fathers.
11 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel;
Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut
off all Judah.
12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their
faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they
shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall
even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall
die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and
by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment,
and a curse, and a reproach.
13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as
I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and
by the pestilence:
14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into
the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain,
that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which
they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall
return but such as shall escape.
15 Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense
unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude,
even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros,
answered Jeremiah, saying,
16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name
of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.
17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out
of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we,
and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty
of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
18 But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all
things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured
out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship
her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
20 Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to
the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer,
saying,
21 The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in
the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings,
and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD
remember them, and came it not into his mind?
22 So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil
of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have
committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment,
and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned
against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD,
nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies;
therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.
24 Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the
women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the
land of Egypt:
25 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying;
Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled
with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that
we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to
pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish
your vows, and surely perform your vows.
26 Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell
in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name,
saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth
of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord
GOD liveth.
27 Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good:
and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall
be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an
end of them.
28 Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out
of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant
of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there,
shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.
29 And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the LORD, that I
will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words
shall surely stand against you for evil:
30 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king
of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of
them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into
the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that
sought his life.
Chapter 45
1 The word that
Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when
he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah,
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah,
saying,
2 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch;
3 Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief
to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.
4 Thus shalt thou say unto him, The LORD saith thus; Behold,
that which I have built will I break down, and that which I
have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.
5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not:
for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD:
but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places
whither thou goest.
Chapter 46
1 The word of the
LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;
2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt,
which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king of Judah.
3 Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
4 Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth
with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
5 Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back?
and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and
look not back: for fear was round about, saith the LORD.
6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they
shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.
7 Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved
as the rivers?
8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like
the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth;
I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
9 Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty
men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle
the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.
10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance,
that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall
devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood:
for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country
by the river Euphrates.
11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter
of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt
not be cured.
12 The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled
the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty,
and they are fallen both together.
13 The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how
Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land
of Egypt.
14 Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in
Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee;
for the sword shall devour round about thee.
15 Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because
the LORD did drive them.
16 He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they
said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the
land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise;
he hath passed the time appointed.
18 As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts,
Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the
sea, so shall he come.
19 O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go
into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without
an inhabitant.
20 Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh;
it cometh out of the north.
21 Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks;
for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they
did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon
them, and the time of their visitation.
22 The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall
march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers
of wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it
cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers,
and are innumerable.
24 The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered
into the hand of the people of the north.
25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will
punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their
gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust
in him:
26 And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek
their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,
and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be
inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
27 But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed,
O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy
seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return,
and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I
am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations
whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of
thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee
wholly unpunished.
Chapter 47
1 The word of the
LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines,
before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
2 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north,
and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land,
and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein:
then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land
shall howl.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses,
at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels,
the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness
of hands;
4 Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines,
and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth:
for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the
country of Caphtor.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant
of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
6 O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be
quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge
against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed
it. |