“Why have your powerful ones been cut down? They do not stand because the Lord has thrust them away.
Parallel translations
- WEB Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn’t stand, because Yahweh pushed them.
- KJV Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
- BSB Why have your warriors been laid low? They cannot stand, for the LORD has thrust them down.
- NKJV Why are your valiant men swept away? They did not stand Because the Lord drove them away.
- NLT Why have your warriors fallen? They cannot stand, for the Lord has knocked them down.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Egypt's strong ones are swept away because Yahweh pushed them down. Their mighty warriors and gods cannot stand before the Lord.
Overview
The verse attributes Egypt's collapse directly to God, who casts down its champions, possibly alluding also to the impotence of its idols like Apis. No strength can stand when the Lord opposes it. This declaration that God overthrows the mighty exposes the futility of trusting in human or false-god power, directing faith instead to the Lord who exalts Christ above every name.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 68:2As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- Isa 66:15–16For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
- Ps 18:14He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them.
- Jer 46:5Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back. Terror is on every side,” says Yahweh.
- Ps 18:39For you have armed me with strength to the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
- Judg 5:20–21From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisera.
- Jer 46:21Also her hired men in the middle of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back. They have fled away together. They didn’t stand, for the day of their calamity has come on them, the time of their visitation.
- Ps 44:2You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.
- Exod 6:1Yahweh said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand he shall let them go, and by a strong hand he shall drive them out of his land.”
- Ps 114:2–7Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
- Deut 11:23then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 46:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.