19. Get what you need for deportation,you inhabitants of Egypt.Memphis will be reduced to a wasteland,a ruin with no one left.
20. Egypt is a beautiful, yes, beautiful heifer,but a horsefly from the northis coming to bite her.
21. Even her mercenariesare like well-fed calves;they too will retreat and run for cover;they won’t survive.The day of disaster has come to haunt them,the time of their punishment.
22. Like the sound of a snake hissingas it slithers awayis Egypt as armies approach in force;they come against her with axes,like woodcutters.
23. They destroy her dense forest,though it is vast,because they outnumber locustsand can’t be counted,declares the Lord.
24. Daughter Egypt will be humiliated,handed over to people from the north.
25. This is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: I’m going to punish Amon of Thebes, Egypt and its gods and kings, as well as Pharaoh and all who rely on him.
26. I will hand them over to those who seek to kill them, namely Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar and his servants. But afterward Egypt will dwell like it did a long time ago, declares the Lord.
27. But don’t be afraid, my servant Judah;don’t lose heart, Israel.I will deliver you from a faraway placeand your children from the land of their exile.My people Jacob will again be safe and sound,with no one harassing them.