Jeremiah 46

Egypt Rises Like a Flood

Pharaoh's great army marches out like a flood and is broken at the Euphrates; the Lord then names the cities of Egypt that Nebuchadnezzar will strike, and turns to Jacob with the words “fear not.”

Verses 1–12 are dated to the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 B.C.), the year Babylon defeated Egypt at Carchemish; verses 13–28 give no date Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

The book now turns from Judah to the nations. Verse 1 is the heading for chapters 46–51, the “prophecies against foreign nations”: “the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the…

The book now turns from Judah to the nations. Verse 1 is the heading for chapters 46–51, the “prophecies against foreign nations”: “the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles.” Egypt comes first, the great power that Judah's rulers looked to “for protection and power against Babylon's growing influence.”

The chapter holds two oracles, each opened by its own heading. The first (verses 2–12) is dated to “the fourth year of Jehoiakim,” when Nebuchadnezzar's army broke Pharaoh Necho's at Carchemish on the Euphrates. By the Church's reckoning that was 605 B.C., and it made Judah a vassal of Babylon rather than of Egypt. The second (verses 13–26) is headed “how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt,” and it names Egyptian cities. The chapter ends with two verses for Israel (27–28), which also stand in Jer. 30:10–11.

The Church's chapter heading says it plainly: “Jeremiah prophesies the conquest of Egypt by Babylon—Jacob will be saved and will return to his own land.”

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 46 answers the question Judah kept asking: can Egypt save us?

Jeremiah 46 answers the question Judah kept asking: can Egypt save us? The chapter's answer is built in three steps. First, Egypt marches out in strength, “as a flood,” sure that it will “cover the earth” (verses 7–8), and the same army is seen turned back in fear (verses 3–6). Second, the Lord names the cities where the blow will land, and calls Pharaoh “but a noise” (verses 14–17), while the Lord Himself swears by His own life, as “the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts” (verse 18). Third, the oracle ends with a word to Jacob, not to Egypt: the nations will end, but Israel will be saved and corrected, not ended.

The words about Pharaoh and “all them that trust in him” (verse 25) sit directly beside the words to Jacob (verses 27–28). The chapter is a judgment on Egypt, but Judah, whose rulers looked to Egypt for protection, was among those who trusted in Pharaoh, and the chapter ends with the one security that can be trusted: “I am with thee.”

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

Against the nations, beginning with Egypt

In plain words

This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah about the nations. First, about Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Necho, which was at Carchemish by the Euphrates and which Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

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

Related Scriptures #

The call to be a prophet to the nations

Chapters 46–51 are the other half of the commission given in the first chapter: “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1:5).

Chapters 46–51 are the other half of the commission given in the first chapter: “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1:5). The Church edition links the heading of this chapter to that verse, and to the passage where Jeremiah is told to make “all the nations” drink “the wine cup of this fury” (Jer. 25:15–29).

That cup includes “Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people” (Jer. 25:19). The cup is drunk first by Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and then by “Egypt, the nations of the west and east, and Babylonia.” So Egypt's place at the head of the list is not a change of subject. It is the first nation after Judah to drink what chapter 25 already announced.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

2 Against 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.

Context #

Who Necho was

Pharaoh Necho is the king who killed Josiah. The Bible Dictionary says that “it was in resisting the advance of Necho, king of Egypt, that Josiah was killed at Megiddo,” and 2…

Pharaoh Necho is the king who killed Josiah. The Bible Dictionary says that “it was in resisting the advance of Necho, king of Egypt, that Josiah was killed at Megiddo,” and 2 Kgs. 23:29 records it in one line: Necho “went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo.”

The Chronicles account adds what Necho said before the fight. He sent word to Josiah, “I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste,” and Josiah “hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God” (2 Chr. 35:21–22). Josiah's son Jehoahaz was then taken to Egypt, and his half brother Jehoiakim “ruled as an Egyptian vassal.” Jeremiah's oracle therefore addresses the king who had cost Judah Josiah, and whom Judah's rulers still looked to for protection.

Sources: “Egypt”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Context #

Carchemish and the fourth year of Jehoiakim

Carchemish, on the Euphrates, was where the balance of power changed. “Babylon defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C.”; after it, “Judah became a vassal of the new…

Carchemish, on the Euphrates, was where the balance of power changed. “Babylon defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C.”; after it, “Judah became a vassal of the new conquerors,” and Jehoiakim paid tribute to Babylon for three years before trying to break free. That date is the one the heading gives, “the fourth year of Jehoiakim.”

Verse 2 speaks of the defeat as past (“which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote”), while verses 3–12 watch the army move out and break as if it were happening in front of the prophet. The heading and the poem may come from different moments, and the text does not say. The verse does make the main point: the “north country by the river Euphrates” (verse 10) is where the Lord's sentence on Egypt was first carried out.

Sources: Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 3–12

The army that marches and breaks

In plain words

“Get your shields ready and march to battle. Harness the horses, mount up, put on your helmets, polish your spears, put on your armor.” Then: “What do I see? They are terrified and falling back. Their warriors are beaten down and run without looking back. Terror is all around. The swift cannot flee and the strong cannot escape; they stumble and fall by the Euphrates in the north.” Who is this rising like a river in flood? Egypt, saying, “I will rise up and cover the earth and destroy cities and their people.” Let the horses charge and the chariots race, and let the warriors of Ethiopia, Libya, and Lydia come out with their shields and bows. But this is the Lord's day, a day of vengeance, and the sword will be filled with their blood; the Lord has a sacrifice by the Euphrates. Go to Gilead for balm, daughter of Egypt; the many medicines will be useless, for you will not be healed. The nations have heard your shame, and your cry fills the earth, for warrior has stumbled over warrior and both have fallen.

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

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

5 Wherefore 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.

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

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

Imagery #

The flood that is Egypt, and the flood that is Assyria

Egypt is drawn as a river in flood: its army comes up and spreads over everything, and its king boasts “I will go up, and will cover the earth” (verse 8).

Egypt is drawn as a river in flood: its army comes up and spreads over everything, and its king boasts “I will go up, and will cover the earth” (verse 8). The Church edition links the image to Isa. 8:7–8, where the Lord says He will bring up “the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria,” over Judah's banks.

The comparison runs one way in Isaiah and the other here. In Isaiah the flood is the Lord's judgment on Judah. In Jeremiah the flood is Egypt's own boast, and the next verses break it: the same army is seen fleeing (verse 5), and the Lord has His own day at the Euphrates (verse 10). A river in flood looks unstoppable and then drops back within its banks.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

8 Egypt 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.

9 Come 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.

Context #

Egypt's allies from Africa

Egypt's allies came from its African neighbors. In the Hebrew they are “Cush,” “Phut,” and “Ludim.”

Egypt's allies came from its African neighbors. In the Hebrew they are “Cush,” “Phut,” and “Ludim.” Cush is the Ethiopia of the Bible, which “extended from Syene on the frontier of Egypt southward,” including modern Nubia, and Phut is Libya, “the district west of Egypt and bordering on the Mediterranean.” The “Lydians” are, on one reading, “Hamitic, African Lydians.” Ezekiel lists the same three together, saying that “Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia… shall fall with them by the sword” (Ezek. 30:5).

Pharaoh's army is a coalition, and verse 10 says that whole coalition is the Lord's “sacrifice” at the Euphrates.

Sources: “Ethiopia or Cush”, Bible Dictionary. “Libya”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

10 For 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.

Related Scriptures #

A day of vengeance

The “day of the Lord” in this verse, “a day of vengeance,” “refers to the Second Coming (see Joel 1:15; Amos 5:18).”

The “day of the Lord” in this verse, “a day of vengeance,” “refers to the Second Coming (see Joel 1:15; Amos 5:18).” The Church edition links the verse to Joel 1:15 and to Isa. 34:6.

The verse also names a battlefield. The “sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates” is Carchemish, and the image of a sword “made drunk with their blood” and a slaughter called a sacrifice is the one Isaiah uses against Edom: “the sword of the Lord is filled with blood… for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah” (Isa. 34:6). So the verse holds a nearby event and the great day the prophets point to in one phrase. The text itself places the first at the Euphrates; the second is the Church's reading of “the day of the Lord.”

Sources: Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

11 Go 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.

Related Scriptures #

The balm that cannot help Egypt

Balm from Gilead is Jeremiah's sign of a cure, and Egypt is told to go there and fetch it: “in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.”

The Church edition links this to Jer. 8:22 and Jer. 51:8. In chapter 8 the question is Jeremiah's own about his people: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” In chapter 51 Babylon is told, “take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.” Judah's wound is put as a question, Babylon's carries an “if so be,” and Egypt's is flatly incurable. The balm is the same each time; what the text varies is whether healing is possible.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 The 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.

Verses 13–24

Nebuchadnezzar comes to Egypt itself

In plain words

This is what the Lord told Jeremiah about Nebuchadnezzar's coming to strike Egypt. “Announce it in Migdol, Noph, and Tahpanhes: Take your stand and prepare, for the sword will devour all around you. Why have your strong ones been swept away? They could not stand, because the Lord pushed them down. They stumbled over one another and said, ‘Get up, let's go back to our own people and our own land, away from the sword.’ There they cry, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is only noise; he has let the moment pass.’” The King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, swears by His life that the one who comes will come as surely as Tabor stands among the mountains and Carmel by the sea. Pack for exile, people of Egypt; Noph will be a ruin with no one living there. Egypt is a beautiful heifer, but destruction is coming on her from the north. Her hired soldiers are fattened calves, and they too turn and run. The enemy comes against her with axes, as woodcutters, more numerous than grasshoppers, and cuts down her forest. The daughter of Egypt is put to shame and handed to a people from the north.

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

14 Declare 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.

Context #

The cities where Judah's refugees would settle

Migdol, Noph, and Tahpanhes lay in the north of Egypt, where an invader from Asia would arrive first.

Migdol, Noph, and Tahpanhes lay in the north of Egypt, where an invader from Asia would arrive first. Noph is Memphis, the “ancient capital of Egypt,” and Migdol and Tahpanhes were, on one reading, “the two frontier towns in the north.” That would explain why the heralds are sent there: “the sword shall devour round about thee.”

The same cities come up again, with Judeans in them. After Jerusalem fell, the remnant ignored the Lord's word and fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch “even to Tahpanhes” (Jer. 43:7), and the Lord's word to “all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt” names Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Noph together (Jer. 44:1). At Tahpanhes Jeremiah was told to hide stones “in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house,” and say that Nebuchadnezzar would set his throne on them (Jer. 43:8–10). The people who had run to Egypt for safety would find themselves in the places this chapter marks for the sword.

Sources: “Noph”, Bible Dictionary. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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

16 He 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.

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

Language #

“But a noise”

The word behind “noise,” sha'on, means “a loud noise.” On one reading the sense here is stronger, “desolation, destruction, ruin,” which would make the line “Pharaoh king of Egypt is ruin.”

The word behind “noise,” sha'on, means “a loud noise.” On one reading the sense here is stronger, “desolation, destruction, ruin,” which would make the line “Pharaoh king of Egypt is ruin.” Either way the verse goes on that “he hath passed the time appointed,” that is, he has let his moment go by.

Whichever sense is taken, the next verse supplies the contrast. Against “Pharaoh king of Egypt” stands “the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts,” and the Lord swears by His own life that the one He sends will come. Egypt's king is a sound; the Lord's word is an oath.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

18 As 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.

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

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

Imagery #

The heifer and the gadfly

What comes on the heifer out of the north may be a stinging insect. Where the KJV has “destruction,” the Hebrew has qerets, a word found only here and “variously rendered”; it is…

What comes on the heifer out of the north may be a stinging insect. Where the KJV has “destruction,” the Hebrew has qerets, a word found only here and “variously rendered”; it is glossed “a biting fly.” One reading takes it as a gadfly, matching the bee “in the land of Assyria” in Isa. 7:18. The sense is not certain: the old translators “have only made guesses from the context.”

Either way the summary holds: “destruction would come to her from the north (Babylon).”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

21 Also 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.

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

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

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

Verses 25–26

The gods, Pharaoh, and those who trust him

In plain words

The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am going to punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt with her gods and her kings, and Pharaoh and all who trust in him. I will give them into the hands of those who want to kill them, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt will be lived in again as in the past.”

25 The 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:

Context #

No, the city of Amon

“No is a name for Jupiter's city, or Thebes.” Where the KJV has “the multitude of No,” the Hebrew reads “Amon of No.”

“No is a name for Jupiter's city, or Thebes.” Where the KJV has “the multitude of No,” the Hebrew reads “Amon of No.” Amon was “an Egyptian god,” “originally the local deity of Thebes,” whom the Greeks compared with Zeus (the Romans' Jupiter). The verse names him first, then “Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings.”

Ezekiel speaks of No in the same way: “will execute judgments in No… I will cut off the multitude of No” (Ezek. 30:14–15). The Lord's judgments on Egypt are directed at its gods and its king, not only at its soldiers.

Sources: Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Context #

Judah's trust in Pharaoh

“All them that trust in him” includes Judah, whose rulers “looked to Egypt for protection and power against Babylon's growing influence, even though Jeremiah had again and again…

“All them that trust in him” includes Judah, whose rulers “looked to Egypt for protection and power against Babylon's growing influence, even though Jeremiah had again and again warned Judah not to trust in Egypt.” In Zedekiah's reign an Egyptian army moved north and Nebuchadnezzar lifted the siege of Jerusalem for a time; the Jews' hopes “soared, but again Jeremiah dashed them to pieces” by saying the Egyptians would return home and the siege would come back (Jer. 37:5–10).

So the oracle against Egypt is also a warning to Jerusalem: a nation that is itself judged cannot save the people who rely on it. In the chapter, the words of comfort to Jacob in verses 27–28 follow the words about those who trust in Pharaoh.

Sources: Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

26 And 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.

Verses 27–28

Fear not, Jacob

In plain words

“But you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid, Israel. I will save you from far away, and your children from the land where they are captives. Jacob will come back and have rest and quiet, and no one will make him afraid. Do not be afraid, Jacob, for I am with you. I will put a full end to all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not put a full end to you. I will correct you fairly, but I will not leave you wholly unpunished.”

27 But 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.

Related Scriptures #

Words repeated from chapter 30

Verses 27–28 are nearly word for word the same as Jer. 30:10–11: “fear not thou, O my servant Jacob… I will save thee from afar… though I make a full end of all nations whither I…

Verses 27–28 are nearly word for word the same as Jer. 30:10–11: “fear not thou, O my servant Jacob… I will save thee from afar… though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee.” These last two verses of chapter 46 “are the only ones in chapter 46 that were not fulfilled in Jeremiah's time or shortly thereafter.”

Placed here, they follow directly on “all them that trust in” Pharaoh (verse 25), among whom Judah had been, and they set Israel's end apart from Egypt's. The nations to which Jacob was driven will be ended; Jacob will be corrected “in measure,” not ended.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

28 Fear 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.

Witness of Christ #

“I am with thee”

The promise to Jacob rests on one fact: “for I am with thee.” On the same words in chapter 30, the answer to who is speaking is plain: “It is the Lord Jesus Christ who saves.

The promise to Jacob rests on one fact: “for I am with thee.” On the same words in chapter 30, the answer to who is speaking is plain: “It is the Lord Jesus Christ who saves. He is Israel's Savior and Redeemer. He does not, however, ignore the sins of His people.” That matches the balance of verse 28, which promises both rescue and correction: “correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.”

Like the promises of chapter 30, it can be fully understood only “now, in the last days, as these promises are realized.”

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 46

The chapter sets two kings side by side. Pharaoh is “but a noise,” and the Lord is “the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts,” who swears by His own life. “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ,” and of the same promise in Jeremiah 30 it is said that “it is the Lord Jesus Christ who saves. He is Israel's Savior and Redeemer.” The words to Jacob, “fear not… I am with thee… I will not make a full end of thee” (verses 27–28), are His, and they are the chapter's last word: the powers Judah feared and trusted will pass, and the Lord who saves and corrects Israel remains.

Worth exploring next

Egypt in Jeremiah's later years. Read Jer. 37:5–10, Jer. 43:8–13, and Jer. 44:1–14.
The same promise in chapter 30. Compare Jer. 46:27–28 with Jer. 30:10–11, and read the manual's treatment of Israel's latter-day gathering.
Egypt in Ezekiel. Read Ezek. 29:13–20 and Ezek. 30:4–5 alongside this chapter.
The cup for the nations. Read Jer. 25:15–29 to see where Egypt stands in the list.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Egypt”, Bible Dictionary.
“Ethiopia or Cush”, Bible Dictionary.
“Libya”, Bible Dictionary.
“Noph”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

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