Jeremiah 45

1 This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote in a book the prophecies that Jeremiah dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
2 Thus says the LORD, God of Israel, to you, Baruch,
3 because you said, Alas! the LORD adds grief to my pain; I am weary from groaning, and can find no rest:
4 say this to him, says the LORD: What I have built, I am tearing down; what I have planted, I am uprooting: even the whole land.
5 And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not! I am bringing evil on all mankind, says the LORD, but your life I will leave you as booty, wherever you may go.

Jeremiah 46

1 This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah against the nations.
2 Concerning Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
3 Prepare shield and buckler! march to battle!
4 Harness the horses, mount, charioteers! Fall in with your helmets; polish your spears, put on your breastplates.
5 What do I see? With broken ranks They fall back; their heroes are routed, They flee headlong without making a stand. Terror on every side, says the LORD!
6 The swift cannot flee, nor the hero escape: There in the north, on the Euphrates' bank, they stumble and fall.
7 Who is this that surges forward like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters?
8 Egypt surges like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters. I will surge forward, he says, and cover the earth, destroying the city and its people.
9 Forward, horses! drive madly, chariots! Set out, warriors, Cush and Put, bearing your shields, Men of Lud, stretching your bows!
10 But this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, vengeance on his foes! The sword devours, is sated, drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts holds a slaughter feast in the northland, on the Euphrates.
11 Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter Egypt! No use to multiply remedies; for you there is no cure.
12 The nations hear of your shame, your cries fill the earth. Warrior trips over warrior, both fall together.
13 The message which the LORD gave to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack the land of Egypt:
14 Announce it in Egypt, publish it in Migdol, proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes! Say: Take your stand, prepare yourselves, the sword has already devoured your neighbors.
15 Why has Apis fled, your mighty one failed to stand? The LORD thrust him down;
16 he stumbled repeatedly, and fell. They said one to another, Up! let us return to our own people, To the land of our birth, away from the destroying sword.
17 Call Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by the name The noise that let its time go by.
18 As I live, says the King whose name is LORD of hosts, Like Tabor among the mountains he shall come, like Carmel above the sea.
19 Pack your baggage for exile, capital city of daughter Egypt; Memphis shall become a desert, an empty ruin.
20 Egypt is a pretty heifer, from the north a horsefly lights upon her.
21 The mercenaries in her ranks are like fatted calves; They too turn and flee together, stand not their ground, When the day of their ruin comes upon them, the time of their punishment.
22 She sounds like a retreating reptile! Yes, they come in force; like woodchoppers, they attack her with axes.
23 They cut down her forest, says the LORD, impenetrable though it be; More numerous than locusts, they cannot be counted.
24 Disgraced is daughter Egypt, handed over to the people of the north.
25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has said: See! I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Egypt, her gods and her kings, Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.
26 I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his ministers. But later on Egypt shall be inhabited again, as in times past, says the LORD.
27 But you, my servant Jacob, fear not; be not dismayed, O Israel. Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile. Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed.
28 You, my servant Jacob, never fear, says the LORD, for I am with you; I will make an end of all the nations to which I have driven you, But of you I will not make an end: I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.

Jeremiah 47

1 This is the word that came from the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:
2 Thus says the LORD: Behold: waters are rising from the north, a torrent in flood; It shall flood the land and all that is in it, the cities and their people. All the people of the land set up a wailing cry.
3 They hear the stamping hooves of his steeds, the rattling chariots, the rumbling wheels. Fathers turn not to save their children; their hands fall helpless
4 Because of the day which has come to ruin all the Philistines, And cut off from Tyre and Sidon the last of their allies. Yes, the LORD is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.
5 Gaza is shaved bald, Ashkelon is reduced to silence; Ashdod, the remnant of their strength, how long will you gash yourself?
6 Alas, sword of the LORD! how long till you find rest? Return into your scabbard; stop, be still!
7 How can it find rest when the LORD has commanded it? Against Ashkelon and the seashore he has appointed it.

Jeremiah 48

1 Concerning Moab, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disgraced and captured, Disgraced and overthrown is the stronghold:
2 Moab's glory is no more. Evil they plan against Heshbon: Come, let us put an end to her as a people. You, too, Madmen, shall be reduced to silence; behind you stalks the sword.
3 Listen! a cry from Horonaim of ruin and great destruction!
4 Moab is crushed, their outcry is heard in Zoar.
5 The ascent of Luhith they climb weeping; On the descent to Horonaim the cry of destruction is heard.
6 Flee, save your lives, to survive like the wild ass in the desert!
7 Because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be captured. Chemosh shall go into exile, his priests and princes with him.
8 The destroyer comes upon every city, not a city escapes; Ruined is the valley, wasted the plain, as the LORD has said.
9 Set up a memorial for Moab, for it is an utter wasteland; Its cities are turned into ruins where no one dwells.
10 (Cursed be he who does the LORD'S work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood.)
11 Moab has been tranquil from his youth, has rested upon his lees; He was not poured from one flask to another, he went not into exile. Thus he kept his taste, and his scent was not lost.
12 Hence, the days shall come, says the LORD, when I will send him coopers to turn him over; they shall empty his flasks and break his jars.
13 Chemosh shall disappoint Moab, as Israel was disappointed by Bethel in which they trusted.
14 How can you say, We are heroes, men valiant in war?
15 The ravager of Moab and his cities advances, the flower of his youth goes down to be slaughtered, says the King, the LORD of hosts by name.
16 Near at hand is Moab's ruin, his disaster hastens apace.
17 Mourn for him, all you his neighbors, all you who knew him well! Say: How the strong staff is broken, the glorious rod!
18 Come down from glory, sit on the ground, you that dwell in Dibon; Moab's ravager has come up against you, he has ruined your strongholds.
19 Stand by the wayside, watch closely, you that dwell in Aroer; Ask the man who flees, the woman who tries to escape: say to them, What has happened?
20 Moab is disgraced, yes, destroyed, howl and cry out; Publish it at the Arnon, Moab is ruined!
21 For judgment has come on the land of the plateau: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,
22 on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,
23 on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,
24 on Kerioth and on Bozrah: on all the cities of Moab, far and near.
25 Moab's strength is broken, his might is shattered, says the LORD.
26 Because he boasted against the LORD, make Moab drunk so that he retches and vomits, and he too becomes a laughingstock.
27 Is Israel a laughingstock to you? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head whenever you speak of her?
28 Leave the cities, dwell in the crags, you that dwell in Moab. Be like a dove that nests out of reach on the edge of a chasm.
29 We have heard of the pride of Moab, pride beyond bounds: His loftiness, his pride, his scorn, his insolence of heart.
30 I know, says the LORD, his arrogance; liar in boast, liar in deed.
31 And so I wail over Moab, over all Moab I cry, over the men of Kir-heres I moan.
32 More than for Jazer I weep over you, vineyard of Sibmah. Your tendrils trailed down to the sea, as far as Jazer they stretched. Upon your harvest, upon your vintage, the ravager has fallen.
33 Joy and jubilation are at an end in the fruit gardens of the land of Moab. I drain the wine from the wine vats, the treader treads no more, the vintage shout is stilled.
34 The cry of Heshbon and Elealeh is heard as far as Jahaz; they call from Zoar to Horonaim, and to Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim turn into a desert.
35 I will leave no one in Moab, says the LORD, to offer a holocaust on the high place, or to burn incense to his gods.
36 Hence the wail of flutes for Moab is in my heart; for the men of Kir-heres the wail of flutes is in my heart: the wealth they acquired has perished.
37 Every head has been made bald, every beard shaved; every hand is gashed, and the loins of all are clothed in sackcloth.
38 On every roof of Moab and in all his squares there is mourning; I have shattered Moab like a pot that no one wants, says the LORD.
39 How terror seizes Moab, and wailing! How he turns his back in shame! Moab has become a laughingstock and a horror to all his neighbors!
40 For thus says the LORD: Behold, like an eagle he soars, spreads his wings over Moab.
41 Cities are taken, strongholds seized: On that day the hearts of Moab's heroes are like the heart of a woman in travail.
42 Moab shall be destroyed, no more a people, because he boasted against the LORD.
43 Terror, pit, and trap be upon you, people of Moab, says the LORD.
44 He who flees from the terror falls into the pit; He who climbs from the pit is caught in the trap; For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, says the LORD.
45 In Heshbon's shadow stop short the exhausted refugees; For fire breaks forth from Heshbon, and a blaze from the house of Sihon: It consumes the brow of Moab, the skull of the noisemakers.
46 Woe to you, O Moab, you are ruined, O people of Chemosh! Your sons are taken into exile, your daughters into captivity.
47 But I will change the lot of Moab in the days to come, says the LORD. Thus far the judgment on Moab.