Old/New Testament
46 Here are the messages given to Jeremiah concerning foreign nations:
The Egyptians
2 This message was given against Egypt at the occasion of the battle of Carchemish when Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, and his army were defeated beside the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim (son of Josiah), king of Judah:
3 Buckle on your armor, you Egyptians, and advance to battle! 4 Harness the horses and prepare to mount them—don your helmets, sharpen your spears, put on your armor. 5 But look! The Egyptian army flees in terror; the mightiest of its soldiers run without a backward glance. Yes, terror shall surround them on every side, says the Lord. 6 The swift will not escape, nor the mightiest of warriors. In the north, by the river Euphrates, they have stumbled and fallen.
7 What is this mighty army, rising like the Nile at flood time, overflowing all the land? 8 It is the Egyptian army, boasting that it will cover the earth like a flood, destroying every foe. 9 Then come, O horses and chariots and mighty soldiers of Egypt! Come, all of you from Cush and Put and Lud who handle the shield and bend the bow! 10 For this is the day of the Lord, the Lord Almighty, a day of vengeance upon his enemies. The sword shall devour until it is sated, yes, drunk with your blood, for the Lord, the Lord Almighty will receive a sacrifice today in the north country beside the river Euphrates! 11 Go up to Gilead for medicine, O virgin daughter of Egypt! Yet there is no cure for your wounds. Though you have used many medicines, there is no healing for you. 12 The nations have heard of your shame. The earth is filled with your cry of despair and defeat; your mightiest soldiers will stumble across each other and fall together.
13 Then God gave Jeremiah this message concerning the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack Egypt:
14 Shout it out in Egypt; publish it in the cities of Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes! Mobilize for battle, for the sword of destruction shall devour all around you. 15 Why has Apis, your bull god, fled in terror? Because the Lord knocked him down before your enemies. 16 Vast multitudes fall in heaps. (Then the remnant of the Jews will say, “Come, let us return again to Judah where we were born and get away from all this slaughter here!”)
17 Rename Pharaoh Hophra and call him “The Man with No Power but with Plenty of Noise!”
18 As I live, says the King, the Lord of Hosts, one is coming against Egypt who is as tall as Mount Tabor or Mount Carmel by the sea! 19 Pack up; get ready to leave for exile, you citizens of Egypt, for the city of Memphis shall be utterly destroyed and left without a soul alive. 20-21 Egypt is sleek as a heifer, but a gadfly sends her running—a gadfly from the north! Even her famed mercenaries have become like frightened calves. They turn and run, for it is the day of great calamity for Egypt, a time of great punishment. 22-23 Silent as a serpent gliding away, Egypt flees; the invading army marches in. The numberless soldiers cut down your people like woodsmen who clear a forest of its trees. 24 Egypt is as helpless as a girl before these men from the north.
25 The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will punish Amon, god of Thebes, and all the other gods of Egypt. I will punish Pharaoh too, and all who trust in him. 26 I will deliver them into the hands of those who want them killed—into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his army. But afterwards the land shall recover from the ravages of war.
27 But don’t you be afraid, O my people who return to your own land, don’t be dismayed; for I will save you from far away and bring your children from a distant land. Yes, Israel shall return and be at rest, and nothing shall make her afraid. 28 Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. I will destroy all the nations to which I have exiled you, but I will not destroy you. I will punish you, but only enough to correct you.
47 The Philistines
This is God’s message to Jeremiah concerning the Philistines of Gaza, before the city was captured[a] by the Egyptian army:
2 The Lord says: A flood is coming from the north to overflow the land of the Philistines; it will destroy their cities and everything in them. Strong men will scream in terror, and all the land will weep. 3 Hear the clattering hoofs and rumbling wheels as the chariots go rushing by; fathers flee without a backward glance at their helpless children, 4 for the time has come when all the Philistines and their allies from Tyre and Sidon will be destroyed. For the Lord is destroying the Philistines, those colonists from Caphtor. 5 The cities of Gaza and Ashkelon will be razed to the ground and lie in ruins. O descendants of the Anakim, how you will lament and mourn!
6 O sword of the Lord, when will you be at rest again? Go back into your scabbard; rest and be still! 7 But how can it be still when the Lord has sent it on an errand? For the city of Ashkelon and those living along the sea must be destroyed.
6 Let us stop going over the same old ground again and again, always teaching those first lessons about Christ. Let us go on instead to other things and become mature in our understanding, as strong Christians ought to be. Surely we don’t need to speak further about the foolishness of trying to be saved by being good, or about the necessity of faith in God; 2 you don’t need further instruction about baptism and spiritual gifts[a] and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
3 The Lord willing, we will go on now to other things.
4 There is no use trying to bring you back to the Lord again if you have once understood the Good News and tasted for yourself the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and know how good the Word of God is, and felt the mighty powers of the world to come, 6 and then have turned against God. You cannot bring yourself to repent again if you have nailed the Son of God to the cross again by rejecting him, holding him up to mocking and to public shame.
7 When a farmer’s land has had many showers upon it and good crops come up, that land has experienced God’s blessing upon it. 8 But if it keeps on having crops of thistles and thorns, the land is considered no good and is ready for condemnation and burning off.
9 Dear friends, even though I am talking like this I really don’t believe that what I am saying applies to you. I am confident you are producing the good fruit that comes along with your salvation. 10 For God is not unfair. How can he forget your hard work for him, or forget the way you used to show your love for him—and still do—by helping his children? 11 And we are anxious that you keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, so that you will get your full reward.
12 Then, knowing what lies ahead for you, you won’t become bored with being a Christian nor become spiritually dull and indifferent, but you will be anxious to follow the example of those who receive all that God has promised them because of their strong faith and patience.
13 For instance, there was God’s promise to Abraham: God took an oath in his own name, since there was no one greater to swear by, 14 that he would bless Abraham again and again, and give him a son and make him the father of a great nation of people. 15 Then Abraham waited patiently until finally God gave him a son, Isaac, just as he had promised.
16 When a man takes an oath, he is calling upon someone greater than himself to force him to do what he has promised or to punish him if he later refuses to do it; the oath ends all argument about it. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those he promised to help would be perfectly sure and never need to wonder whether he might change his plans.
18 He has given us both his promise and his oath, two things we can completely count on, for it is impossible for God to tell a lie. Now all those who flee to him to save them can take new courage when they hear such assurances from God; now they can know without doubt that he will give them the salvation he has promised them.
19 This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself behind the sacred curtains of heaven, 20 where Christ has gone ahead to plead for us from his position as our High Priest,[b] with the honor and rank of Melchizedek.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.