3 For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time [of doom] for the nations.
4 And a sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish and great sorrow shall be in Ethiopia (Cush), when the slain fall in Egypt and they [of Babylon] carry away her great mass of people and of things and her foundations are broken down.
5 Ethiopia (Cush) and Put, Lud and all the mingled people [foreigners living in Egypt], Cub (Lub, Libya) and the children of the land of the covenant [the Jews who had taken refuge in Egypt] shall fall with [the Egyptians] by the sword.
6 Thus says the Lord: They also who uphold or lean upon and are supported by Egypt shall fall, and the pride of her power shall come down; from Migdol [in the north] to Syene [in the south] they shall fall within her by the sword, says the Lord God.
7 And they shall be desolated in the midst of countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be in the midst of cities that are wasted [by plunder and subjection].
8 And they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], when I have set a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken and destroyed.
9 In that day shall [swift] messengers go forth from Me in ships to terrify the careless and unsuspecting Ethiopians, and there shall be anguish and great sorrow upon them as in the day of Egypt's [doom], for behold, [their day] comes!