13. The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt.
14. “Declare in Egypt, publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, ‘Stand up, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you.’
15. Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn’t stand, because Yahweh pushed them.
16. He made many to stumble, yes, they fell on one another: and they said, ‘Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.’
17. They cried there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.’
18. “As I live,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies, “surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
19. You daughter who dwells in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burned up, without inhabitant.
20. “Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; but destruction out of the north has come. It has come.
21. Also her hired men in the middle of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back. They have fled away together. They didn’t stand, for the day of their calamity has come on them, the time of their visitation.
22. It’s sound will go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.
23. They shall cut down her forest,” says Yahweh, “though it can’t be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.
24. The daughter of Egypt shall be disappointed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.”
25. Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.
26. I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants. Afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old,” says Yahweh.
27. “But don’t you be afraid, Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, Israel; for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return, and will be quiet and at ease. No one will make him afraid.
28. Don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant,” says Yahweh; “for I am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.”