Today's reading is a prophecy against Egypt during the time of the Babylonian reign of terror. The cause of this punishment, like the rest of Jeremiah, is the Egyptians' worship of false gods. However, there is an underlying cause too -- it seems that the Egyptians had formed an alliance with Judah, hoping that the small kingdom would be a buffer state between the two empires. After Judah was defeated by Babylon, Egypt was next. The prophet Jeremiah suggested that this was a punishment for Egypt picking the wrong side (the idolatrous Jews), so they too would suffer at the hands of the Babylonians.
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