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Who is this that rises like the Nile,
like its streams[a] turbulent at flood stage?[b]
Egypt rises like the Nile,
like its streams turbulent at flood stage.
Egypt said, ‘I will arise and cover the earth.
I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 46:7 tn The word translated “streams” here refers to the streams of the Nile (cf. Exod 7:19 and 8:1 for parallel usage).
  2. Jeremiah 46:7 sn The time frame moves backward now to where it began in v. 3. Possibly v. 6 ends an oracle, and now Jeremiah continues on the same topic. Or it could be that the rhetoric of a single oracle starts at battle preparations and then, after showing what God has foreseen about the battle, returns to address those preparing for battle.
  3. Jeremiah 46:8 sn Jeremiah shows the hubris of the Egyptian Pharoah by comparing his might to that of the Nile River. Isaiah 8:7-8 similarly pictures the armies of Assyria overcoming everything in their path.

“Who is this that rises like the Nile,
    like rivers of surging waters?(A)
Egypt rises like the Nile,(B)
    like rivers of surging waters.
She says, ‘I will rise and cover the earth;
    I will destroy cities and their people.’(C)

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