¹ The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

² Son of man, be a prophet, and say, These are the words of the Lord: Give a cry, Aha, for the day!

³ For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near, a day of cloud; it will be the time of the nations.

⁴ And a sword will come on Egypt, and cruel pain will be in Ethiopia, when they are falling by the sword in Egypt; and they will take away her wealth and her bases will be broken down.

⁵ Ethiopia and Put and Lud and all the mixed people and Libya and the children of the land of the Cherethites will all be Put to death with them by the sword.

⁶ This is what the Lord has said: The supporters of Egypt will have a fall, and the pride of her power will come down: from Migdol to Syene they will be put to the sword in it, says the Lord.

⁷ And she will be made waste among the countries which have been made waste, and her towns will be among the towns which are unpeopled.

⁸ And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have put a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken.

⁹ In that day men will go out quickly to take the news, causing fear in untroubled Ethiopia; and bitter pain will come on them as in the day of Egypt; for see, it is coming.

¹⁰ This is what the Lord has said: I will put an end to great numbers of the people of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.

¹¹ He and the people with him, causing fear among the nations, will be sent for the destruction of the land; their swords will be let loose against Egypt and the land will be full of dead.

¹² And I will make the Nile streams dry, and will give the land into the hands of evil men, causing the land and everything in it to be wasted by the hands of men from a strange country: I the Lord have said it.

¹³ This is what the Lord has said: In addition to this, I will give up the images to destruction and put an end to the false gods in Noph; never again will there be a ruler in the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ And I will make Pathros a waste, and put a fire in Zoan, and send my punishments on No.

¹⁵ I will let loose my wrath on Sin, the strong place of Egypt, cutting off the mass of the people of No.

¹⁶ And I will put a fire in Egypt; Syene will be twisting in pain, and No will be broken into, as by the onrush of waters.

¹⁷ The young men of On and Pi-beseth will be put to the sword: and these towns will be taken away prisoners.

¹⁸ And at Tehaphnehes the day will become dark, when the yoke of Egypt is broken there, and the pride of her power comes to an end: as for her, she will be covered with a cloud, and her daughters will be taken away prisoners.

¹⁹ And I will send my punishments on Egypt: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

²⁰ Now in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹ Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has been broken by me, and no band has been put round it to make it well, no band has been twisted round it to make it strong for gripping the sword.

²² For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and by me his strong arm will be broken; and I will make the sword go out of his hand.

²³ And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries.

²⁴ And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and will put my sword in his hand: but Pharaoh's arms will be broken, and he will give cries of pain before him like the cries of a man wounded to death.

²⁵ And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and the arms of Pharaoh will be hanging down; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and it is stretched out against the land of Egypt.

²⁶ And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

¹ Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,

² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us:

³ that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do.

⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words; and it shall happen that whatever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don't do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.

⁶ Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.

⁷ It happened after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.

⁸ Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

⁹ and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:

¹⁰ If you will still live in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you.

¹¹ Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid of him, says Yahweh: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

¹² I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.

¹³ But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you don't obey the voice of Yahweh your God,

¹⁴ saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:

¹⁵ now therefore hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there;

¹⁶ then it shall happen, that the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, shall follow close behind you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.

¹⁷ So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.

¹⁸ For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.

¹⁹ Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, Don't you go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you this day.

²⁰ For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:

²¹ and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.

²² Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to live there.