JEREMIAH 45-48

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Message to Baruch  45:1 This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah’s dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying: 2 “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel to you, O Baruch: 3 ‘You said, “Ah, woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.”’ 4 Thus you are to say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.” 5 But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I am going to bring disaster on all flesh,’ declares the LORD, ‘but I will give your life to you as booty in all the places where you may go.’”
Defeat of Pharaoh Foretold  46:1 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.
    2 To Egypt, concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

3 “Line up the shield and buckler,

And draw near for the battle!

4 “Harness the horses,

And mount the steeds,

And take your stand with helmets on!

Polish the spears,

Put on the scale-armor!

5 “Why have I seen it?

They are terrified,

They are drawing back,

And their mighty men are defeated

And have taken refuge in flight,

Without facing back;

Terror is on every side!”

Declares the LORD.

6 Let not the swift man flee,

Nor the mighty man escape;

In the north beside the river Euphrates

They have stumbled and fallen.

7 Who is this that rises like the Nile,

Like the rivers whose waters surge about?

8 Egypt rises like the Nile,

Even like the rivers whose waters surge about;

And He has said, “I will rise and cover that land;

I will surely destroy the city and its inhabitants.”

9 Go up, you horses, and drive madly, you chariots,

That the mighty men may march forward:

Ethiopia and Put, that handle the shield,

And the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.

10 For that day belongs to the Lord GOD of hosts,

A day of vengeance, so as to avenge Himself on His foes;

And the sword will devour and be satiated

And drink its fill of their blood;

For there will be a slaughter for the Lord GOD of hosts,

In the land of the north by the river Euphrates.

11 Go up to Gilead and obtain balm,

O virgin daughter of Egypt!

In vain have you multiplied remedies;

There is no healing for you.

12 The nations have heard of your shame,

And the earth is full of your cry of distress;

For one warrior has stumbled over another,

And both of them have fallen down together.

    13 This is the message which the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to smite the land of Egypt:

14 “Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol,

Proclaim also in Memphis and Tahpanhes;

Say, ‘Take your stand and get yourself ready,

For the sword has devoured those around you.’

15 “Why have your mighty ones become prostrate?

They do not stand because the LORD has thrust them down.

16 “They have repeatedly stumbled;

Indeed, they have fallen one against another.

Then they said, ‘Get up! And let us go back

To our own people and our native land

Away from the sword of the oppressor.’

17 “They cried there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a big noise;

He has let the appointed time pass by!’

18 “As I live,” declares the King

Whose name is the LORD of hosts,

“Surely one shall come who looms up like Tabor among the mountains,

Or like Carmel by the sea.

19 “Make your baggage ready for exile,

O daughter dwelling in Egypt,

For Memphis will become a desolation;

It will even be burned down and bereft of inhabitants.

20 “Egypt is a pretty heifer,

But a horsefly is coming from the north--it is coming!

21 “Also her mercenaries in her midst

Are like fattened calves,

For even they too have turned back and have fled away together;

They did not stand their ground.

For the day of their calamity has come upon them,

The time of their punishment.

22 “Its sound moves along like a serpent;

For they move on like an army

And come to her as woodcutters with axes.

23 “They have cut down her forest,” declares the LORD;

“Surely it will no more be found,

Even though they are now more numerous than locusts

And are without number.

24 “The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame,

Given over to the power of the people of the north.”

    25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt along with her gods and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him. 26 I shall give them over to the power of those who are seeking their lives, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his officers. Afterwards, however, it will be inhabited as in the days of old,” declares the LORD.
27 “But as for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear,

Nor be dismayed, O Israel!

For, see, I am going to save you from afar,

And your descendants from the land of their captivity;

And Jacob will return and be undisturbed

And secure, with no one making him tremble.

28 “O Jacob My servant, do not fear,” declares the LORD,

“For I am with you.

For I will make a full end of all the nations

Where I have driven you,

Yet I will not make a full end of you;

But I will correct you properly

And by no means leave you unpunished.”

Prophecy against Philistia  47:1 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh conquered Gaza. 2 Thus says the LORD:

“Behold, waters are going to rise from the north

And become an overflowing torrent,

And overflow the land and all its fullness,

The city and those who live in it;

And the men will cry out,

And every inhabitant of the land will wail.

3 “Because of the noise of the galloping hoofs of his stallions,

The tumult of his chariots, and the rumbling of his wheels,

The fathers have not turned back for their children,

Because of the limpness of their hands,

4 On account of the day that is coming

To destroy all the Philistines,

To cut off from Tyre and Sidon

Every ally that is left;

For the LORD is going to destroy the Philistines,

The remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

5 “Baldness has come upon Gaza;

Ashkelon has been ruined.

O remnant of their valley,

How long will you gash yourself?

6 “Ah, sword of the LORD,

How long will you not be quiet?

Withdraw into your sheath;

Be at rest and stay still.

7 “How can it be quiet,

When the LORD has given it an order?

Against Ashkelon and against the seacoast--

There He has assigned it.”

Prophecy against Moab  48:1 Concerning Moab. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,

“Woe to Nebo, for it has been destroyed;

Kiriathaim has been put to shame, it has been captured;

The lofty stronghold has been put to shame and shattered.

2 “There is praise for Moab no longer;

In Heshbon they have devised calamity against her:

‘Come and let us cut her off from being a nation!’

You too, Madmen, will be silenced;

The sword will follow after you.

3 “The sound of an outcry from Horonaim,

‘Devastation and great destruction!’

4 “Moab is broken,

Her little ones have sounded out a cry of distress.

5 “For by the ascent of Luhith

They will ascend with continual weeping;

For at the descent of Horonaim

They have heard the anguished cry of destruction.

6 “Flee, save your lives,

That you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

7 “For because of your trust in your own achievements and treasures,

Even you yourself will be captured;

And Chemosh will go off into exile

Together with his priests and his princes.

8 “A destroyer will come to every city,

So that no city will escape;

The valley also will be ruined

And the plateau will be destroyed,

As the LORD has said.

9 “Give wings to Moab,

For she will flee away;

And her cities will become a desolation,

Without inhabitants in them.

10 “Cursed be the one who does the LORD’S work negligently,

And cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood.

11 “Moab has been at ease since his youth;

He has also been undisturbed, like wine on its dregs,

And he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,

Nor has he gone into exile.

Therefore he retains his flavor,

And his aroma has not changed.

12 Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will send to him those who tip vessels, and they will tip him over, and they will empty his vessels and shatter his jars. 13 And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

14 “How can you say, ‘We are mighty warriors,

And men valiant for battle’?

15 “Moab has been destroyed and men have gone up to his cities;

His choicest young men have also gone down to the slaughter,”

Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

16 “The disaster of Moab will soon come,

And his calamity has swiftly hastened.

17 “Mourn for him, all you who live around him,

Even all of you who know his name;

Say, ‘How has the mighty scepter been broken,

A staff of splendor!’

18 “Come down from your glory

And sit on the parched ground,

O daughter dwelling in Dibon,

For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,

He has ruined your strongholds.

19 “Stand by the road and keep watch,

O inhabitant of Aroer;

Ask him who flees and her who escapes

And say, ‘What has happened?’

20 “Moab has been put to shame, for it has been shattered.

Wail and cry out;

Declare by the Arnon

That Moab has been destroyed.

    21 “Judgment has also come upon the plain, upon Holon, Jahzah and against Mephaath, 22 against Dibon, Nebo and Beth-diblathaim, 23 against Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul and Beth-meon, 24 against Kerioth, Bozrah and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. 25 The horn of Moab has been cut off and his arm broken,” declares the LORD. 26 “Make him drunk, for he has become arrogant toward the LORD; so Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will become a laughingstock. 27 Now was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For each time you speak about him you shake your head in scorn.

28 “Leave the cities and dwell among the crags,

O inhabitants of Moab,

And be like a dove that nests

Beyond the mouth of the chasm.

29 “We have heard of the pride of Moab--he is very proud--

Of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance and his self-exaltation.

30 “I know his fury,” declares the LORD,

“But it is futile;

His idle boasts have accomplished nothing.

31 “Therefore I will wail for Moab,

Even for all Moab will I cry out;

I will moan for the men of Kir-heres.

32 “More than the weeping for Jazer

I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah!

Your tendrils stretched across the sea,

They reached to the sea of Jazer;

Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvest

The destroyer has fallen.

33 “So gladness and joy are taken away

From the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab.

And I have made the wine to cease from the wine presses;

No one will tread them with shouting,

The shouting will not be shouts of joy.

34 From the outcry at Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have raised their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become desolate. 35 I will make an end of Moab,” declares the LORD, “the one who offers sacrifice on the high place and the one who burns incense to his gods.
    36 “Therefore My heart wails for Moab like flutes; My heart also wails like flutes for the men of Kir-heres. Therefore they have lost the abundance it produced. 37 For every head is bald and every beard cut short; there are gashes on all the hands and sackcloth on the loins. 38 On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like an undesirable vessel,” declares the LORD. 39 “How shattered it is! How they have wailed! How Moab has turned his back--he is ashamed! So Moab will become a laughingstock and an object of terror to all around him.”
    40 For thus says the LORD:

“Behold, one will fly swiftly like an eagle

And spread out his wings against Moab.

41 “Kerioth has been captured

And the strongholds have been seized,

So the hearts of the mighty men of Moab in that day

Will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

42 “Moab will be destroyed from being a people

Because he has become arrogant toward the LORD.

43 “Terror, pit and snare are coming upon you,

O inhabitant of Moab,” declares the LORD.

44 “The one who flees from the terror

Will fall into the pit,

And the one who climbs up out of the pit

Will be caught in the snare;

For I shall bring upon her, even upon Moab,

The year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

45 “In the shadow of Heshbon

The fugitives stand without strength;

For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon

And a flame from the midst of Sihon,

And it has devoured the forehead of Moab

And the scalps of the riotous revelers.

46 “Woe to you, Moab!

The people of Chemosh have perished;

For your sons have been taken away captive

And your daughters into captivity.

47 “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab

In the latter days,” declares the LORD.

    Thus far the judgment on Moab.

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