Message to Baruch
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch when he wrote the words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah were:
“This says the Lord, God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: You said, ‘Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.’
Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up–that is, the whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself?
Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.”
Judgment on Egypt
The word of the Lord went to Jeremiah concerning the judgment on all of the nations. About Egypt:
Prepare buckler and shield,
and advance for battle!
Harness the horse;
mount, O horsemen!
Take your stations with your helmets,
polish your spears,
put on your armor!
Why have I seen it?
They are dismayed
and have turned backward.
Their warriors are beaten down
and have fled in haste;
they look not back–
terror on every side!
declares the Lord.
-Jeremiah 46:3-6
Egypt is like the Nile,
like rivers whose waters surge.
He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth,
I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’
-Jeremiah 46:8
That day is a day of the Lord God of hosts,
a day of vengeance,
to avenge himself on his foes.
The sword shall devour and be sated
and drink its fill of their blood.
For the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice
in the north country by the river Euphrates.
-Jeremiah 46:10
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.
-Jeremiah 46:12
Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:
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.’
-Jeremiah 46:14
Why are your mighty ones face down?
They do not stand
because the Lord thrust them down.
He made many stumble, and they fell,
and they said to one another,
‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people
and to the land of our birth,
because of the sword of the oppressor.’
-Jeremiah 46:15-16
Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,
O inhabitants of Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste,
a ruin, without inhabitant.
-Jeremiah 46:19
A beautiful heifer is Egypt,
but a biting fly from the north
has come upon her.
Even her hired soldiers in her midst
are 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.
-Jeremiah 46:20-21
She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away;
for her enemies march in force
and come against her with axes
like those who fell trees.
They shall cut down her forest,
declares the Lord,
though it is impenetrable,
because they are more numerous than locusts;
they are without number.
The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;
she shall be delivered into the hand
of a people from the north.
-Jeremiah 46:22-24
The Lord was bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, Pharaoh of Egypt, her gods and kings, and all the people who trusted in him. The Lord would deliver them into the hand of those who sought their lives, and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers.
Afterward Egypt would be inhabited as in the days of old, declares the Lord.
But fear not, O Jacob my servant,
nor be dismayed, O Israel,
for behold, I will save you from far away,
and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
and none shall make him afraid.
Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
declares the Lord,
for I am with you.
I will make a full end of all the nations
to which I have driven you,
but of you I will not make a full end.
I will discipline you in just measure,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
-Jeremiah 46:27-28
Judgment on the Philistines
The word of the Lord went to Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck down Gaza.
Thus says the Lord:
Behold, waters are rising out of the north,
and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
Men shall cry out,
and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.
-Jeremiah 47:2
At the noise of the stamping
of the hoofs of the stallions,
at the rushing of his chariots,
at the rumbling of their wheels,
the fathers look not back to their children,
so feeble are their hands,
because of the day that is coming to destroy
all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
-Jeremiah 47:3-4
Ah, sword of the Lord!
How long till you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
rest and be still!
How can it be quiet
when the Lord has given it a charge?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore
he has appointed it.
-Jeremiah 47:6-7
Judgment on Moab
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Moab.
Moab is destroyed;
her little ones have made a cry.
-Jeremiah 48:4
Flee! Save yourselves!
You will be like a juniper in the desert!
For, because you trusted in your works
and your treasures,
you also shall be taken;
and Chemosh shall go into exile
with his priests and his officials.
The destroyer shall come upon every city,
and no city shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
and the plain shall be destroyed,
as the Lord has spoken
-Jeremiah 48:6-8
Give wings to Moab,
for she would fly away;
her cities shall become a desolation,
with no inhabitant in them.
-Jeremiah 48:9
Moab has been at ease from his youth
and has settled on his dregs;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
nor has he gone into exile;
so his taste remains in him,
and his scent is not changed.
-Jeremiah 48:11
Therefore, the days were coming, declared the Lord, when He would send to Moab pourers who would pour him out. They would empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces. Then Moab would be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
How do you say, ‘We are heroes
and mighty men of war?’
The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up,
and the choicest of his young men
have gone down to slaughter,
declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
-Jeremiah 48:14-15
The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
and his affliction hastens swiftly.
Grieve for him, all you who are around him,
and all who know his name;
say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken,
the glorious staff.’
-Jeremiah 48:16-17
Moab is put to shame, for it is broken;
wail and cry!
Tell it beside the Arnon,
that Moab is laid to waste.
-Jeremiah 48:20
Judgment had gone upon the tableland and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. The horn of Moab was cut off, and his arm was broken, declared the Lord.
Make him drunk,
because he has magnified himself against the Lord,
so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit,
and he too shall be held in derision.
Was not Israel a derision to you?
Was he found among thieves,
that whenever you spoke of him
you wagged your head?
-Jeremiah 48:26-27
Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,
O inhabitants of Moab!
Be like the dove that nests
in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
-Jeremiah 48:28
We have heard of the pride of Moab–
he is very proud–
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
and the haughtiness of his heart.
I know his insolence, declares the Lord;
his boasts are false,
his deeds are false.
Therefore I wail for Moab;
I cry out for all Moab;
for the men of Kir-hareseth I mourn.
-Jeremiah 48:29-31
Gladness and joy have been taken away
from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have made the wine cease from the winepresses;
no one treads them with shouts of joy;
the shouting is not the shout of joy.
-Jeremiah 48:33
The Lord would bring an end in Moab, to those who offered sacrifices in high places and made offerings to other gods. The Lord’s heart moaned for Moab like a flute for the men of Kir-hareseth. Therefore the riches they gained had perished.
For every head was shaved and every beard cut off. On all the hands were gashes, and sackcloths around the waists. Every housetop of Moab and in the squares there was nothing but lamentation, for Moab was broken like a vessel for which no one cared.
How is it broken!
How they wail!
How Moab has turned his back in shame!
So Moab has become a derision
and a horror to all that are around him.
-Jeremiah 48:39
For thus says the Lord:
Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle
and spread his wings against Moab;
the cities shall be taken
and the strongholds seized.
The heart of the warriors of Moab
shall be in that day
like the heart of a woman in her birth pains;
Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people,
because he magnified himself against the Lord.
Terror, pit, and snare are before you,
O inhabitant of Moab!
-Jeremiah 48:40-43
He who flees from the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For I will bring these things upon Moab,
the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.
-Jeremiah 48:44
Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
in the latter days, declares the Lord.
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.
-Jeremiah 48:47