Brenton/LXX Jeremiah 26 continues the oracles against the nations after the Elam oracle at the end of chapter 25. The Lord announces the humbling of Egypt’s proud military power at the Euphrates. In many English Bibles the same material appears as Jeremiah 46. This guide follows the embedded Brenton/LXX source while naming the familiar reference so the reader can locate it in standard Bibles.
Source Shape Note
Brenton/LXX Jeremiah 26 contains the full oracle against Egypt (Pharaoh Necho defeated by Nabuchodonosor at the river Euphrates). In standard Bibles the same material appears as Jeremiah 46. This guide uses the LXX sequence (nations oracles immediately after ch. 25).
The decisive action occurs at the river Euphrates in Carchemish (Charmis). Egypt’s army, with hired soldiers from Ethiopia, Libya, and Lydia, stands there in chariots and armor. Babylon comes from the north. The warning is proclaimed at Magdol and Memphis. The geography shows two great powers colliding under the Lord’s decree; no river or fortress protects the one He has marked for the sacrifice.
Jeremiah 26 LXX: Egypt’s failed strength
2. For Egypt, against the Power of Pharao Nechao King of Egypt, who was by the river Euphrates in Charmis, whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Joakim king of Juda. 3. Take up arms and spears, and draw nigh to battle; 4. and harness the horses: mount, ye horsemen, and stand ready in your helmets; advance the spears, and put on your breast-plates. 5. Why do they fear, and turn back? even because their mighty men shall be slain: they have utterly fled, and being hemmed in they have not rallied, saith the Lord. 6. Let not the swift flee, and let not the mighty man escape to the north: the forces at Euphrates are become feeble, and they have fallen. 7. Who is this that shall come up as a river, and as rivers roll their waves? 8. The waters of Egypt shall come up like a river: and he said, I will go up, and will cover the earth, and will destroy the dwellers in it. 9. Mount ye the horses, prepare the chariots; go forth, ye warriors of the Ethiopians, and Libyans armed with shields; and mount, ye Lydians, bend the bow. 10. And that day shall be to the Lord our God a day of vengeance, to take vengeance on his enemies: and the sword of the Lord shall devour, and be glutted, and be drunken with their blood: for the Lord has a sacrifice from the land of the north at the river Euphrates. 11. Go up to Galaad, and take balm for the virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain hast thou multiplied thy medicines; there is no help in thee. 12. The nations have heard thy voice, and the land has been filled with thy cry: for the warriors have fainted fighting one against another, and both are fallen together. 13. The Words which the Lord spoke by Jeremias, concerning the coming of the king of Babylon to smite the land of Egypt. 14. Proclaim it at Magdol, and declare it at Memphis: say ye, Stand up, and prepare; for the sword has devoured thy yew-tree. 15. Wherefore has Apis fled from thee? thy choice calf has not remained; for the Lord has utterly weakened him. 16. And thy multitude has fainted and fallen; and each one said to his neighbour, Let us arise, and return into our country to our people, from the Grecian sword. 17. Call ye the name of Pharao Nechao king of Egypt, Saon esbeie moed. 18. As I live, saith the Lord God, he shall come as Itabyrion among the mountains, and as Carmel that is on the sea. 19. O daughter of Egypt dwelling at home, prepare thee stuff for removing: for Memphis shall be utterly desolate, and shall be called Woe, because there are no inhabitants in it. 20. Egypt is a fair heifer, but destruction from the north is come upon her. 21. Also her hired soldiers in the midst of her are as fatted calves fed in her; for they also have turned, and fled with one accord: they stood not, for the day of destruction was come upon them, and the time of their retribution. 22. Their voice is as that of a hissing serpent, for they go upon the sand; they shall come upon Egypt with axes, as men that cut wood. 23. They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, for their number cannot at all be conjectured, for it exceeds the locust in multitude, and they are innumerable. 24. The daughter of Egypt is confounded; she is delivered into the hands of a people from the north. 25. Behold, I will avenge Ammon her son upon Pharao, and upon them that trust in him. 27. But fear not thou, my servant Jacob, neither be thou alarmed, Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be at ease, and sleep, and there shall be no one to trouble him. 28. Fear not thou, my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; for I am with thee: she that was without fear and in luxury, has been delivered up: for I will make a full end of every nation among whom I have thrust thee forth; but I will not cause thee to fail: yet will I chastise thee in the way of judgment, and will not hold thee entirely guiltless.
Egypt comes to the Euphrates with every visible advantage: chariots, horsemen, shields, bows, hired warriors from distant lands, the sacred bull Apis, medicines and balms from Galaad. The text names the preparation in detail, then shows it collapse in a single sentence: “the forces at Euphrates are become feeble, and they have fallen.” The “fair heifer” and “fatted calves” (the hired soldiers) turn and flee together. “In vain hast thou multiplied thy medicines; there is no help in thee.”
The Lord calls the day “a sacrifice from the land of the north.” Egypt is not merely defeated in battle; she is offered up. The sword of the Lord is “glutted, and be drunken with their blood.” This is hard language. It guards against any reading that treats divine judgment as tidy moralism or as something the powerful can negotiate away with numbers or alliances. The same Lord who judges Egypt also speaks to His servant Jacob: “Fear not thou… for I am with thee… I will make a full end of every nation among whom I have thrust thee forth; but I will not cause thee to fail.”
The oracle therefore does two things at once. It strips every false strength from Egypt, and it promises preservation to the scattered people of God even in the midst of the nations’ overthrow. The “virgin daughter of Egypt” who trusted in her own voice and her own medicines is confounded. The servant who has been “delivered up” is told that the Lord Himself is his portion.
The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪
No specific Coptic Orthodox lectionary reading for Jeremiah 26 is attested in the sources consulted. The oracle’s themes of false security, multiplied human remedies, and the vanity of trusting in visible power align with the Church’s ascetic teaching (e.g., the call to single-hearted reliance on God in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Lenten stichera).
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
The fruit is the refusal to multiply “medicines” while ignoring the Lord. Egypt comes to the Euphrates with every visible advantage: chariots, horsemen, shields, bows, hired warriors from distant lands, the sacred bull Apis, medicines and balms from Galaad. The text names the preparation in detail, then shows it collapse in a single sentence: “the forces at Euphrates are become feeble, and they have fallen.” “In vain hast thou multiplied thy medicines; there is no help in thee.” The “fair heifer” and “fatted calves” (the hired soldiers) turn and flee together. The Lord calls the day “a sacrifice from the land of the north.”
In parish life this calls us to examine the “medicines” such as programs, reputation, political alignments, or sacred symbols we multiply while neglecting repentance and trust. Alliances and visible strength collapse when the word goes forth. The same Lord who judges Egypt also speaks to His servant Jacob: “Fear not thou… for I am with thee… I will make a full end of every nation among whom I have thrust thee forth; but I will not cause thee to fail.”
Ascetically, the oracle invites the reader to ask what visible strengths or clever strategies he treats as ultimate protection. Ecclesially, it reminds the Church that preservation is not earned by righteousness but promised by the Lord’s faithfulness amid the scattering of nations. The hand that humbles the proud is the hand that holds the servant fast.
Teaching Notes
People and nations at a glance
- Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, whose “fair heifer” and “choice calf” (Apis) are struck down.
- Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, the instrument who smites Egypt.
- The Lord, who declares the day of vengeance and calls the nations to the slaughter at the Euphrates.
- Jacob / Israel, the servant who must not fear even while the nations among whom he was scattered are judged.
Jeremiah 26 LXX: Egypt’s failed strength
- Ask: What does the detailed preparation of Egypt’s army reveal about the nature of false confidence, and why does the Lord address His servant Jacob in the middle of the judgment?
- Emphasize: No amount of military power, hired help, or religious symbols can stand when the Lord has decreed judgment. Preservation is not earned by Israel’s righteousness but promised by the Lord’s faithfulness.
- Watch for: Reading the oracle as simple ancient politics or as permission to gloat over national downfall. The text judges the heart that trusts in anything but God. Do not turn the promise into national exceptionalism that ignores the call to repentance.
- Connect: Christ is the one before whom every knee will bow; all earthly powers are ultimately subject to Him. The Church is the new Israel, preserved through the judgment of the nations by the same Lord who keeps covenant.
- Show: Locate Carchemish on a map of the ancient Near East to show the collision of the two powers. Return to the geography: the servant is scattered among the very nations being judged, yet the Lord is with him.
Sources
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).