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Jeremiah 46

KJV · Chapter 46/52

1The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;

2Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh–necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

3Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

4Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.

5Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the Lord.

6Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.

7Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?

8Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.

9Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.

10For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.

12The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.

13The word that the Lord spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

14Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.

15Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the Lord did drive them.

16He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.

17They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.

18As I live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.

20Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.

21Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.

22The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.

23They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.

24The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:

26And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.

27But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

28Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the Lord: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.

📖 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 46:19An ironic instruction: the inhabitants of Egypt should pack their own bags for captivity, because Memphis will be destroyed and left uninhabited.
  20. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 46:21Even the foreign mercenaries hired by Egypt, compared to well-fed calves, flee instead of fighting when the decisive moment arrives.
  22. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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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