I will send My terror ahead of you, and I will throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you [in flight].

Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight; your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

As for those who are left of you, I will bring despair (lack of courage, weakness) into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a scattered leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as if [running] from the sword, and will fall even when no one is chasing them.

“How could one chase a thousand,And two put ten thousand to flight,Unless their Rock had sold them,And the Lord had given them up?

One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who is fighting for you, just as He promised you.

They went after them to the Jordan, and all the road was entirely littered with clothing and equipment which the Arameans (Syrians) had thrown away when they hurriedly fled. And the messengers returned and told the king.

and Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers’ households of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who drove out the inhabitants of Gath;

These are the men who crossed over the Jordan in the first month when it had overflowed all its banks and they put to flight all those in the valleys, east and west.

“Yet when she lifts herself on high,[So swift is she that] she laughs at the horse and his rider.

They saw it, then they were amazed;They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.

The Lord of hosts will brandish a whip against them like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the [Red] Sea and He will lift it up the way He did in [the flight from] Egypt.

Madmenah has fled;The inhabitants of Gebim have fled [with their belongings] to safety.

And you said, “No! We will flee on horses!”Therefore you will flee [from your enemies]!And [you said], “We will ride on swift horses!”Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

“His rock [his stronghold] will pass away because of panic,And his princes will be terrified at the [sight of the battle] standard,”Declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

For you will not go out in a hurry [as when you left Egypt],Nor will you go in flight [fleeing, as you did from the Egyptians];For the Lord will go before you,And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

So they will fear the name of the Lord from the westAnd His glory from the rising of the sun.For He will come in like a narrow, rushing streamWhich the breath of the Lord drives [overwhelming the enemy].

How long [O Lord] must I see the banner [marking the way for flight]And hear the sound of the trumpet [urging the people to run for safety]?

“Even the stork in the skyKnows her seasons [of migration],And the turtledove, the swallow and the craneObserve the time of their return.But My people do not knowThe law of the Lord.

[The Lord rebukes Jeremiah for his impatience, saying] “If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out,Then how can you compete with horses?If you fall down in a land of peace [where you feel secure],Then how will you do [among the lions] in the [flooded] thicket beside the Jordan?

“Wander away from the midst of BabylonAnd go out of the land of the Chaldeans;Be like the male goats [who serve as leaders] at the head of the flocks.

“Flight will be lost to the swift [so they will be unable to escape],And the strong shall not strengthen nor maintain his power,Nor shall the mighty man save his own life.

Pray that your flight [from persecution and suffering] will not be in winter, or on a Sabbath [when Jewish laws prohibit travel].

At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

Therefore, my beloved, run [keep far, far away] from [any sort of] idolatry [and that includes loving anything more than God, or participating in anything that leads to sin and enslaves the soul].

For by these He has bestowed on us His precious and magnificent promises [of inexpressible value], so that by them you may escape from the immoral freedom that is in the world because of disreputable desire, and become sharers of the divine nature.