CHAPTER 46 Aug. 24 
God's Message for Egypt
The word of Yahweh which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. 2Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. 3Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle! 4Harness the horses, rise up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail. 5Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down and have fled apace, and don’t look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh. 6Don’t let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen. 7Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers? 8Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the land; I will destroy cities and its inhabitants. 9Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty ones go forth: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow. 10For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself of His adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. 11Go up into Gilead and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you use many medicines; there is no healing for you. 12The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.
Egypt Is Warned
13The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt. 14Declare in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, Stand forth, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you. 15Why are your strong ones swept away? They didn’t stand, because Yahweh pushed them over. 16He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword. 17They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by. 18As I live, says the King whose name is Yahweh of Armies, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come. 19You daughter who dwells in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation and shall be burnt up without inhabitant. 20Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; but destruction out of the north has come, it has come. 21Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they didn’t stand: for the day of their calamity has come on them, the time of their visitation. 22The sound of it shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters. 23They shall cut down her forest, says Yahweh, though it can’t be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable. 24The daughter of Egypt shall be disappointed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north. 25Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him: 26and I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited like in the days of old, says Yahweh.
God Will Save His People
27But don’t you be afraid, Jacob My servant, neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. 28Don’t you be afraid, O Jacob My servant, says Yahweh; for I am with you: for although I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

Commentary

46:2 The disobedient Jews had fled to Egypt because they thought there would be support and stability there from the Babylonians. Here God prophesies that the Egyptian army would be destroyed and wouldn’t be a strength to the Jews. Egypt so often becomes a symbol of human strength which God’s people are tempted to trust in rather than in Him. His requirements are often counter-instinctive to obey; to remain in the ruins of Judah under Babylonian occupation was in fact the way to peace; but Egypt always looks the logical, more attractive choice.
46:5 Why have I seen it?- Jeremiah like us at times was weary at having to teach bad news to sinners, and the loss of life because of human pride.
46:9 The reference to “mighty ones” here and in :5 is an allusion to the Hebrew wordelohim, which also means “mighty ones” or ‘the one great mighty one’, and is often applied to God and His armies of Angels. The mighty ones of Egypt and her allies were what Judah preferred to trust in, rather than in the mighty ones of Israel’s God. Hence God calls Himself by His title “Yahweh of Armies” in :18. His was the true army, not human armies. Day by day and at times hour by hour, we have this same choice- between trust in God’s might or human might. Biblical history is recorded so that we might make the right choice.
46:27 None shall make him afraid- This was how it would be at the time of the restored Kingdom of God; and yet Judah are then told that therefore right now in this life “Don’t you be afraid” (:28). They were to live now the kind of life they would eternally live in the Kingdom; and we too are asked to live the Kingdom life now. In this sense as Jesus often promised, we who believe in Him “have eternal life” right now (1 Jn. 5:13); not in that we will never die in this life, but in the sense that we can begin to live now the kind of life we will eternally live in the future Kingdom.