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Jeremias 46

ARC · Chapter 46/52

1A palavra do Senhor, que veiu a Jeremias o propheta, contra as nações;

2Ácerca do Egypto, contra o exercito de Pharaó Necho, rei do Egypto, que estava junto ao rio Euphrates em Carchemis; ao qual feriu Nabucodonozor, rei de Babylonia, no anno quarto de Joaquim, filho de Josias, rei de Judah.

3Preparae o escudo e o pavez, e chegae-vos para a peleja.

4Sellae os cavallos, e montae, cavalleiros, e apresentae-vos com elmos: alimpae as lanças, vesti-vos de couraças.

5Por que razão vejo os medrosos voltando as costas? e os seus heroes são abatidos, e vão fugindo, sem olharem para traz: terror ha ao redor, diz o Senhor.

6Não fuja o ligeiro, e não escape o heroe: para a banda do norte, junto á borda do rio Euphrates tropeçaram e cairam.

7Quem é este que vem subindo como a corrente, cujas aguas se movem como os rios?

8O Egypto vem subindo como a corrente, e as suas aguas se movem como os rios; e disse: Subirei, cobrirei a terra, destruirei a cidade, e os que habitam n'ella.

9Trepae, ó cavallos, e estrondeae, ó carros, e saiam os valentes: como tambem os ethiopes, e os puteos, que tomam o escudo, e os lydios, que tomam e entezam o arco.

10Porém este dia é do Senhor Jehovah dos Exercitos, dia de vingança para se vingar dos seus adversarios, e devorará a espada, e fartar-se-ha, e embriagar-se-ha com o sangue d'elles, porque o Senhor Jehovah dos Exercitos tem um sacrificio na terra do norte, junto ao rio de Euphrates.

11Sobe a Gilead, e toma balsamo, ó virgem filha do Egypto: debalde multiplicas remedios, pois já não ha cura para ti

12As nações ouviram a tua vergonha, e a terra está cheia do teu clamor; porque o valente chorou com o valente e cairam ambos juntamente.

13A palavra que fallou o Senhor a Jeremias, o propheta, ácerca da vinda de Nabucodonozor, rei de Babylonia, para ferir a terra do Egypto.

14Annunciae no Egypto, e fazei ouvir isto em Migdol; fazei tambem ouvil-o em Noph, e em Tahpanhes: dizei: Apresenta-te, e prepara-te; porque já devorou a espada o que está ao redor de ti.

15Porque foram derribados os teus valentes? não se poderam ter em pé, porque o Senhor os empuxou.

16Multiplicou os que tropeçavam: tambem cairam uns sobre os outros, e disseram: Levanta-te, e voltemos ao nosso povo, e á terra do nosso nascimento, por causa da espada que opprime.

17Clamaram ali: Pharaó rei do Egypto é um estrondo; deixou passar o tempo assignalado.

18Vivo eu, diz o rei, cujo nome é o Senhor dos Exercitos, que assim como está Tabor entre os montes, e como o Carmelo sobre o mar, certamente assim virá.

19Prepara-te apparelhos para a ida em captiveiro, ó moradora, filha do Egypto: porque Noph será tornada em desolação, e será abrazada, até que ninguem mais ahi more.

20Bezerra mui formosa é o Egypto: já vem a destruição, ella vem do norte.

21Até os seus mercenarios no meio d'ella são como bezerros cevados; porém tambem elles viraram as costas, fugiram juntos; não estiveram firmes; porque já veiu sobre elles o dia da sua ruina e o tempo da sua visitação.

22A sua voz irá como a da serpente; porque irão com poder do exercito, e virão a ella com machados como cortadores de lenha.

23Cortaram o seu bosque, diz o Senhor, ainda que não podem contar-se; porque se multiplicaram mais do que os gafanhotos, não se podem numerar.

24A filha do Egypto está envergonhada: foi entregue na mão do povo do norte.

25Diz o Senhor dos Exercitos, o Deus de Israel: Eis que eu visitarei a multidão de No, e a Pharaó, e ao Egypto, e aos seus deuses, e aos seus reis, e até ao mesmo Pharaó, e aos que confiam n'elle.

26E os entregarei na mão dos que procuram a sua morte, na mão de Nabucodonozor, rei de Babylonia, e na mão dos seus servos; porém depois será habitada, como nos dias antigos, diz o Senhor.

27Não temas pois tu, servo meu Jacob, nem te espantes, ó Israel; porque eis que te livrarei de terras de longe, como tambem a tua semente da terra do seu captiveiro; e Jacob voltará, e descançará, e socegará, e não haverá quem o atemorize.

28Tu não temas, servo meu, Jacob, diz o Senhor, porque estou comtigo; porque farei consummação de todas as nações entre as quaes te lancei; porém de ti não farei consummação, mas castigar-te-hei com medida, e não te darei de todo por innocente

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The prophecies against foreign nations begin: first Egypt, whose army is defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, but God promises that Israel, unlike the neighboring nations, will be restored.

Explanation

The Battle of Carchemish, mentioned here, was a real and decisive historical event (605 BC) that established Babylon as the dominant power of the Middle East, replacing the old Assyrian-Egyptian dominance in the region. The vivid description of cavalry, shields, and the panic of military defeat reflects detailed knowledge of the warfare tactics of the time. Although the chapter announces a harsh defeat for Egypt, it ends by reaffirming the specific promise of restoration for Israel, repeating almost word for word a promise already made in chapter 30 — showing that, even amid judgments against various nations, hope for God's people remains central.

Fun facts

  • The Battle of Carchemish (605 BC) is one of the best historically documented events of the period, confirmed both by the Bible and by the Babylonian Chronicles discovered on cuneiform tablets.
  • Migdol, Noph (Memphis), and Tahpanhes, the Egyptian cities mentioned, are identified by archaeologists with real sites in the Nile Delta, confirming the precise geographical knowledge of the text.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Jeremias 46:1Opens the final section of the book (chapters 46-51): a series of oracles against foreign nations, not just against Judah -- God’s judgment reaches every people, not only his own.
  2. Jeremias 46:2The battle of Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates, in 605 BC, was the moment Babylon decisively defeated Egypt and became the dominant power in the region. This was the event that, in practice, set in motion the Babylonian threat over Judah told throughout the rest of the book.
  3. Jeremias 46:3Battle orders directed, ironically, at the Egyptian army itself: prepare shields and advance for combat -- a tone of military mobilization about to be disproved by defeat.
  4. Jeremias 46:4Continues the call to arms: harness the horses, mount up, put on helmets, sharpen the spears -- a scene of the Egyptian army’s full mobilization before the battle of Carchemish.
  5. Jeremias 46:5A rhetorical question of astonishment: instead of the expected victory, the Egyptian soldiers are in full retreat, fleeing in terror -- the surrounding dread describes the panic of defeat.
  6. Jeremias 46:6Neither the swiftest nor the strongest escape: the defeat is so complete that elite soldiers fall along with the rest, near the Euphrates River, where the battle took place.
  7. Jeremias 46:7A poetic question introducing a comparison: the advance of the Egyptian army is described as a river flooding over its banks -- great, but bound to recede.
  8. Jeremias 46:8Egypt itself is compared to the Nile River, which rises and covers the land periodically; Egyptian ambition was to cover and dominate territories like a flood, but the outcome would be different from what was expected.
  9. Jeremias 46:9Summons Egypt’s mercenary allies -- Ethiopians, Libyans (Put), Lydians -- archers and foreign soldiers who fought alongside Pharaoh, showing the size of the coalition that was defeated.
  10. Jeremias 46:10Calls the defeat “the day of the Lord,” a symbolic sacrifice in which God’s sword would gorge itself on blood -- the battle of Carchemish interpreted as divine judgment, not just a military event.
  11. Jeremias 46:11Gilead was famous for its healing balm (also mentioned in 8:22); the irony is that no remedy, however famous, will heal the military wound of a defeated Egypt.
  12. Jeremias 46:12The defeat becomes known among the neighboring nations, a cause of public shame -- even Egypt’s finest warriors fell over one another on the battlefield.
  13. Jeremias 46:13A new oracle, this time about a later attack by Nebuchadnezzar directly against Egyptian territory -- no longer Carchemish, but an invasion of Egypt itself.
  14. Jeremias 46:14Names specific Egyptian cities -- Migdol, Memphis (Noph), Tahpanhes (the same city where the Jewish refugees had settled) -- warning that the sword was already devouring all around them.
  15. Jeremias 46:15A rhetorical question about why Egypt’s elite warriors fell: because it was God himself who struck them down, not just an enemy’s military strength.
  16. Jeremias 46:16Describes Egyptian soldiers stumbling over one another and deciding to head home, giving up the fight in the face of the oppressing sword -- a general rout.
  17. Jeremias 46:17The nickname given to Pharaoh by his own disillusioned soldiers: “a noise that let the appointed time go by” -- someone who made a lot of noise but missed the moment to act.
  18. Jeremias 46:18God swears by His own name, comparing the certainty of the enemy’s coming to well-known mountains like Tabor and Carmel -- steady and visible from afar, impossible to avoid.
  19. Jeremias 46:19An ironic instruction: the inhabitants of Egypt should pack their own bags for captivity, because Memphis will be destroyed and left uninhabited.
  20. Jeremias 46:20Egypt is compared to a beautiful, well-kept young cow, but the destruction is already coming from the north -- the same direction every threat in the book of Jeremiah came from.
  21. Jeremias 46:21Even the foreign mercenaries hired by Egypt, compared to well-fed calves, flee instead of fighting when the decisive moment arrives.
  22. Jeremias 46:22The Egyptian army’s retreat is compared to the hiss of a fleeing serpent, while the enemy advances like woodcutters felling trees with axes.
  23. Jeremias 46:23The invaders are compared to a cloud of locusts, too numerous to count, stripping the Egyptian forest bare -- an image both literal and symbolic of the devastation.
  24. Jeremias 46:24Sums up the outcome: Egypt, personified as a shamed daughter, is handed over into the hands of the people from the north -- once again, Babylon.
  25. Jeremias 46:25Details the targets of the punishment: the city of Thebes (No), Pharaoh himself, the Egyptian gods, the kings, and all who trusted in Egypt’s protection -- the judgment reaches both political and religious power.
  26. Jeremias 46:26But even this sentence does not end completely closed: after the Babylonian conquest, Egypt would be inhabited again as in former times -- the destruction would not be eternal.
  27. Jeremias 46:27In the middle of a very harsh oracle against Egypt, a word of comfort for Israel suddenly appears, almost repeated from chapter 30. It reinforces that, even as foreign nations are being judged, God’s own people would receive different treatment -- discipline, not total destruction.
  28. Jeremias 46:28Repeats, almost word for word, the promise of comfort to Jacob from chapter 30: even in the midst of oracles of destruction against other nations, God reaffirms that He will spare His own people, with punishment measured in proportion.

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