11. Go up to Gilead, and take balm,O virgin daughter of Egypt!In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you.
12. The nations have heard of your shame,and the earth is full of your cry; for warrior has stumbled against warrior;they have both fallen together.”
13. The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:
14. “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared,for the sword shall devour around you.’
15. Why are your mighty ones face down?They do not standbecause the Lord thrust them down.
16. He made many stumble, and they fell,and they said one to another,‘Arise, and let us go back to our own peopleand to the land of our birth, because of the sword of the oppressor.’
17. Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’
18. “As I live, declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts,like Tabor among the mountainsand like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.
19. Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,O inhabitants of Egypt!For Memphis shall become a waste,a ruin, without inhabitant.
20. “A beautiful heifer is Egypt,but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.
21. Even her hired soldiers in her midstare like fattened calves;yes, they have turned and fled together;they did not stand,for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.
22. “She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away;for her enemies march in forceand come against her with axes like those who fell trees.
23. They shall cut down her forest,declares the Lord,though it is impenetrable,because they are more numerous than locusts;they are without number.
24. The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”
25. The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.