Jeremiah 46:8
Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof. Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
Egypt rises like a flood, its waters surging and tossing like rivers, while it boasts that it will go up to cover the earth and destroy the city and its inhabitants. Flood and waters and rivers mean a nation and its army on the march, here Egypt rising in power to overwhelm lands and destroy cities and their people. Countries and governments are represented by the great rivers flowing through them, Egypt being called by its river the Nile, so the swelling flood pictures the nation itself swelling for conquest.
Naming a country and people by its great river was a common Bible custom, which explains why the power dwelling beside the Euphrates is called the great river Euphrates. The verse belongs to an oracle against the nations, a prophecy against Egypt found among the closing chapters covering personal experiences and the going into Egypt. Its surrounding verses place the battle by the Euphrates and call it a day of the Lord's vengeance. Chapter 46 is not in chronological place in the book; up to chapter 20 the chapters are in fairly chronological order, but from chapter 20 to 46 the chronological order is 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 35, 36, 45, 24, 29, 30, 31, 27, 28, 21, 34, 37, 32, 33, 38, 39:15-18, 39:1-14, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, and so chapter 46 belongs late, after chapters 40 through 44.
The prophecies after chapter 20 are not placed in chronological order because of the way the manuscript rolls were gathered together into one book, which makes no change in the teaching, and the chapter itself nearly always clearly shows its own time. In chronological order chapter 46 comes last, after chapters 40 to 45 and after chapter 47. The chapter describes the revolutions and future state of Egypt and foretells its defeat and fall before the mighty conqueror Nebuchadnezzar, identifying where he would set his standard in Egypt's capital. Though one of the most ancient and powerful kingdoms and most defensible by the Red Sea, the desert, a powerful navy, and the inundation of the Nile, Egypt would be invaded, conquered, spoiled, fall into the hands of strangers forever, and become the basest of kingdoms.
That word was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded and subdued Egypt, after which Egypt was successively ruled by Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes, and Turks, with no native prince, its idols cut off, and its land and people brought into lasting poverty and servitude. In that setting the Euphrates is identified with the Ottoman Empire and the north country is connected with the king of the north and the end of the world. The image of waters rising like a flood and moving like rivers is applied to the Ottoman Empire's rapid rise and former power, when its expansion made it a major threat to Western Europe. Egypt's rushing waters picture organized opposition to God's kingdom, with Egypt standing alongside Babylon as a leading example of that opposition. The flood image of Egypt's power and advance threatening to cover the land and destroy a city is applied to a modern deception spreading into the Erzingan field from Egypt, from which one brother's mind was cleared through Bible study.