Jeremiah 46:9
Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow. Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.
The summons is for horses to advance, for chariots to press furiously forward, and for mighty men to come forth to battle, naming Ethiopians and Libyans who handle the shield and Lydians who handle and bend the bow as the foreign troops called up. It belongs to the prophecy concerning Egypt, one of the kingdoms surrounding Israel whose doom is announced, within the larger prophecy against the nations. The prophecy does not stand in chronological order in the book, as is especially true of Jeremiah after chapter 20, because displacement occurred when the manuscript rolls were gathered into one book. This makes no change in the teaching, since the chapter itself nearly always clearly indicates its chronology, and in order of time chapter 46 belongs after chapters 40 to 45 and after chapter 47.
The chapter describes the revolutions and future state of Egypt, foretelling that Egypt would be invaded, conquered and spoiled by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the mighty conqueror, and would fall into the hands of strangers. This stands as part of the prophecies that Egypt would become the basest of the kingdoms and would no more rule over the nations. The call for horses, chariots and mighty men to advance means a vast waking up of military power and preparation for war on a scale without precedent. The surrounding prophecy places the defeat in the north country by the river Euphrates and calls it a day of divine vengeance, the day of the Lord God of hosts in which He avenges Himself on His adversaries and the sword devours and is satiated and made drunk with blood.
The Euphrates setting is identified with the Ottoman Empire, so the north-country defeat and its judgment are applied to that empire and to the end of the world. The war preparation is fulfilled in the American Civil War mobilization of 500,000 men and hundreds of millions of dollars and in all other nations preparing for war more extensively than ever before. This preparation proves the day of the Lord is near and hastens greatly, and it is the sign and instrument of that day. That day would break at once into the battle of the great day of God Almighty were not the winds held until the servants of God are sealed.