Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute— you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Jeremiah 43:8The MessageWhile in Tahpanhes, God’s Word came to Jeremiah: “Pick up some large stones and cover them with mortar in the vicinity of the pavement that leads up to the building set aside for Pharaoh’s use in Tahpanhes. Make sure some of the men of Judah are watching. See the chapter |
11 Cross References
The Message that Jeremiah received for all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, who had their homes in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and the land of Pathros: “This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You saw with your own eyes the terrible doom that I brought down on Jerusalem and the Judean cities. Look at what’s left: ghost towns of rubble and smoking ruins, and all because they took up with evil ways, making me angry by going off to offer sacrifices and worship the latest in gods—no-gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors knew the first thing about. Morning after morning and long into the night I kept after you, sending you all those prophets, my servants, begging you, “Please, please—don’t do this, don’t fool around in this loathsome gutter of gods that I hate with a passion.” But do you think anyone paid the least bit of attention or repented of evil or quit offering sacrifices to the no-gods? Not one. So I let loose with my anger, a firestorm of wrath in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and left them in ruins and wasted. And they’re still in ruins and wasted.’
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, confront Pharaoh king of Egypt. Preach against him and all the Egyptians. Tell him, ‘God, the Master, says: “‘Watch yourself, Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I’m dead set against you, You lumbering old dragon, lolling and flaccid in the Nile, Saying, “It’s my Nile. I made it. It’s mine.” I’ll set hooks in your jaw; I’ll make the fish of the Nile stick to your scales. I’ll pull you out of the Nile, with all the fish stuck to your scales. Then I’ll drag you out into the desert, you and all the Nile fish sticking to your scales. You’ll lie there in the open, rotting in the sun, meat to the wild animals and carrion birds. Everybody living in Egypt will realize that I am God.
God, the Master, spoke to me: “Son of man, preach. Give them the Message of God, the Master. Wail: “‘Doomsday!’ Time’s up! God’s big day of judgment is near. Thick clouds are rolling in. It’s doomsday for the nations. Death will rain down on Egypt. Terror will paralyze Ethiopia When they see the Egyptians killed, their wealth hauled off, their foundations demolished, And Ethiopia, Put, Lud, Arabia, Libya —all of Egypt’s old allies— killed right along with them.
In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, that pompous old goat: “‘Who do you, astride the world, think you really are? Look! Assyria was a Big Tree, huge as a Lebanon cedar, beautiful limbs offering cool shade, Skyscraper high, piercing the clouds. The waters gave it drink, the primordial deep lifted it high, Gushing out rivers around the place where it was planted, And then branching out in streams to all the trees in the forest. It was immense, dwarfing all the trees in the forest— Thick boughs, long limbs, roots delving deep into earth’s waters. All the birds of the air nested in its boughs. All the wild animals gave birth under its branches. All the mighty nations lived in its shade. It was stunning in its majesty— the reach of its branches! the depth of its water-seeking roots! Not a cedar in God’s garden came close to it. No pine tree was anything like it. Mighty oaks looked like bushes growing alongside it. Not a tree in God’s garden was in the same class of beauty. I made it beautiful, a work of art in limbs and leaves, The envy of every tree in Eden, every last tree in God’s garden.’”
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