3  “Prepare buckler and shield,

and advance for battle!

4  Harness the horses;

mount, O horsemen!

Take your stations with your helmets,

polish your spears,

put on your armor!

5  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—

ⁿterror on every side!

declares the Lord.

6  “The swift cannot flee away,

nor the warrior escape;

in the north by the river Euphrates

they have stumbled and fallen.

7  “Who is this, rising like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters surge?

8  Egypt rises 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.’

9  Advance, O horses,

and rage, O chariots!

Let the warriors go out:

men of Cush and Put who handle the shield,

men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.

10  That day is the ^oday of the Lord God of hosts,

a ^pday 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 ^qsacrifice

in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11  Go up to Gilead, and take balm,

O virgin daughter of Egypt!

In vain you have used many medicines;

there is ^rno healing for you.

12  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.”

14  “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in ^sMigdol;

proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;

say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared,

for the sword shall devour around you.’

15  Why are your mighty ones face down?

They do not stand¹

because the Lord thrust them down.

16  He made many stumble, and they fell,

and they said one to another,

‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people

and to the land of our birth,

^tbecause of the sword of the oppressor.’

17  Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

18  “As I live, declares the ^uKing,

whose name is the Lord of hosts,

like Tabor among the mountains

and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.

19  Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,

O inhabitants of Egypt!

For Memphis shall become a waste,

a ruin, without inhabitant.

20  “A beautiful heifer is Egypt,

but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.

21  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.

22  “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.

23  They shall cut down her forest,

declares the Lord,

though it is impenetrable,

because they are ^vmore numerous than locusts;

they are without number.

24  The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;

she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”

27  ^z“But ^afear 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 ^bnone shall make him afraid.

28  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 ^cof you I will not make a full end.

I will ^ddiscipline you in just measure,

and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

2  “Thus says the Lord:

Behold, ^fwaters 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.

3  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his 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,

4  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.

5  ^gBaldness has come upon Gaza;

Ashkelon has perished.

O remnant of their valley,

how long will you ^hgash yourselves?

6  Ah, ⁱsword of the Lord!

How long till you are quiet?

Put yourself into your scabbard;

rest and be still!

7  How can it² be quiet

when the Lord has given it a charge?

Against Ashkelon and against the seashore

he has appointed it.”