Accordingly at the first great crisis of the new international system, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, either just before or just after the battle of Carchemish--it matters little which--Jeremiah takes up his prophecy against Egypt. First of all, with an ostensible friendliness which only masks his bitter sarcasm, he invites the Egyptians to take the field:-- "Prepare buckler and shield, and draw near to battle. Harness the horses to the chariots, mount the chargers, stand forth armed cap-à-pie for battle; Furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail." This great host with its splendid equipment must surely conquer. The prophet professes to await its triumphant return; but he sees instead a breathless mob of panic-stricken fugitives, and pours upon them the torrent of his irony:-- "How is it that I behold this? These heroes are dismayed and have turned their backs; Their warriors have been beaten down; They flee apace, and do not look behind them: Terror on every side--is the utterance of Jehovah." Then irony passes into explicit malediction:-- "Let not the swift flee away, nor the warrior escape; Away northward, they stumble and fall by the river Euphrates." Then, in a new strophe, Jeremiah again recurs in imagination to the proud march of the countless hosts of Egypt:-- "Who is this that riseth up like the Nile, Whose waters toss themselves like the rivers? Egypt riseth up like the Nile, His waters toss themselves like the rivers. And he saith, I will go up and cover the land" (like the Nile in flood); "I will destroy the cities and their inhabitants" (and, above all other cities, Babylon). Again the prophet urges them on with ironical encouragement:-- "Go up, ye horses; rage, ye chariots; Ethiopians and Libyans that handle the shield, Lydians that handle and bend the bow" (the tributaries and mercenaries of Egypt). Then, as before, he speaks plainly of coming disaster: "That day is a day of vengeance for the Lord Jehovah Sabaoth, whereon He will avenge Him of His adversaries" (a day of vengeance upon Pharaoh Necho for Megiddo and Josiah). "The sword shall devour and be sated, and drink its fill of their blood: For the Lord Jehovah Sabaoth hath a sacrifice in the northern land, by the river Euphrates." In a final strophe, the prophet turns to the land left bereaved and defenceless by the defeat at Carchemish:--