1. Jeremiah 46:19 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why must the inhabitants of Egypt prepare baggage for exile?

Jeremiah 46:19 (ESV)

19 Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, O inhabitants of Egypt! For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant.

The Lord commands the inhabitants of Egypt, and Memphis in particular, to pack for exile. Egypt had taken Jeconiah and others into exile in 609 BC and many Judeans had fled to Egypt as exiles over the years. So those who had taken people from Judah as exiles would find themselves exiled from their own country. There is no evidence that Nebuchadnezzar ever captured Memphis or took its citizens into exile, but in 525 BC Memphis did fall to the Persian emperor Cambyses.1