Ezekiel 29–32

Prophecy Against Egypt

29ⁱIn the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ^2j“Son of man, ^kset your face against ^lPharaoh king of Egypt, ^mand prophesy against him and ⁿagainst all Egypt; ³speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:

^o“Behold, I am against you,

Pharaoh king of Egypt,

^pthe great dragon that lies

in the midst of his streams,

^qthat says, ‘My Nile is my own;

I made it for myself.’

⁴I will ^rput hooks in your jaws,

and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales;

and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams,

with all the fish of your streams

that stick to your scales.

^5sAnd I will cast you out into the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your streams;

you shall fall ^ton the open field,

and ^unot be brought together or gathered.

To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens

^sI give you as food.

⁶Then all the inhabitants of Egypt ^vshall know that I am the Lord.

“Because you¹ have been ^wa staff of reed to the house of Israel, ^7xwhen they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake.^{2 8}Therefore thus says the Lord God: ^yBehold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, ⁹and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. ^vThen they will know that I am the Lord.

^z“Because you³ said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’ ¹⁰therefore, ^zbehold, I am against you and ^aagainst your streams, and ^aI will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, ^bfrom Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. ^11cNo foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. ^12dAnd I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. ^eI will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries.

¹³“For thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years ^fI will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, ¹⁴and ^gI will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to ^hthe land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. ¹⁵It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, ⁱand never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. ¹⁶And it shall never again be ^jthe reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. ^kThen they will know that I am the Lord God.”

^17lIn the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ^18m“Son of man, ⁿNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. ¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord God: ^oBehold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; ^pand he shall carry off its wealth^{4 q}and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. ^20rI have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord God.

²¹“On that day ^sI will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and ^tI will open your lips among them. ^uThen they will know that I am the Lord.”

A Lament for Egypt

30The word of the Lord came to me: ^2v“Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God:

^w“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’

^3wFor the day is near,

^xthe day of the Lord is near;

it will be ^ya day of clouds,

a time of doom for¹ the nations.

^4zA sword shall come upon Egypt,

^aand anguish shall be in ^bCush,

when the slain fall in Egypt,

and ^cher wealth² is carried away,

and ^dher foundations are torn down.

^5bCush, and ^ePut, and Lud, and ^fall Arabia, and Libya,³ and the people of the land that is in league,⁴ shall fall with them by the sword.

⁶“Thus says the Lord:

^gThose who support Egypt shall fall,

and ^hher proud might shall come down;

ⁱfrom Migdol to Syene

they shall fall within her by the sword,

declares the Lord God.

^7jAnd they shall be desolated in the midst of desolated countries,

and their cities shall be in the midst of cities that are laid waste.

^8kThen they will know that I am the Lord,

when ^lI have set fire to Egypt,

and ^gall her helpers are broken.

⁹“On that day ^mmessengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the unsuspecting ^bpeople of Cush, and ^aanguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom;⁵ for, behold, it comes!

¹⁰“Thus says the Lord God:

ⁿ“I will put an end to the wealth of Egypt,

by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

¹¹He and his people with him, ^othe most ruthless of nations,

shall be brought in to destroy the land,

^zand they shall draw their swords against Egypt

and fill the land with the slain.

¹²And ^pI will ^qdry up the Nile

and will sell the land into the hand of ^revildoers;

^sI will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it,

by the hand of ^tforeigners;

^uI am the Lord; I have spoken.

¹³“Thus says the Lord God:

^v“I will destroy the idols

and put an end to the images in ^wMemphis;

^xthere shall no longer be a prince from the land of Egypt;

so ^yI will put fear in the land of Egypt.

¹⁴I will make ^zPathros a desolation

and will set fire to ^aZoan

^band will execute judgments on ^cThebes.

¹⁵And I will pour out my wrath on Pelusium,

the stronghold of Egypt,

and cut off the multitude⁶ of Thebes.

¹⁶And I will set fire to Egypt;

Pelusium shall be in great agony;

Thebes shall be breached,

and ^wMemphis shall face enemies⁷ by day.

¹⁷The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword,

and the women⁸ shall go into captivity.

¹⁸At ^dTehaphnehes ^ethe day shall be dark,

when I break there the yoke bars of Egypt,

and ^fher proud might shall come to an end in her;

she shall be covered by a cloud,

and her daughters shall go into captivity.

¹⁹Thus ^gI will execute judgments on Egypt.

^hThen they will know that I am the Lord.”

Egypt Shall Fall to Babylon

²⁰ⁱIn the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ^21j“Son of man, ^kI have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, ^lit has not been bound up, to heal it by binding it with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. ²²Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and ^mwill break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand. ²³ⁿI will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries. ²⁴And ^oI will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put ^pmy sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him ^qlike a man mortally wounded. ²⁵I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. ^rThen they shall know that I am the Lord, ^swhen I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. ²⁶And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Pharaoh to Be Slain

31^tIn the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ^2u“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to ^vhis multitude:

^w“Whom are you like in your greatness?

³Behold, ^xAssyria was a ^ycedar in ^zLebanon,

with beautiful branches and ^aforest shade,

^band of towering height,

its top among the clouds.¹

⁴The waters nourished it;

the deep made it grow tall,

making ^cits rivers flow

around the place of its planting,

sending forth its streams

to all the trees of the field.

⁵So ^dit towered high

above all the trees of the field;

its boughs grew large

and its branches long

from ^eabundant water in its shoots.

^6fAll the birds of the heavens

made their nests in its boughs;

under its branches all the beasts of the field

gave birth to their young,

and under its shadow

lived all great nations.

⁷It was ^gbeautiful in its greatness,

in the length of its branches;

^efor its roots went down

to abundant waters.

^8hThe cedars ⁱin the garden of God could not rival it,

nor the fir trees equal its boughs;

neither were the plane trees

like its branches;

no tree ⁱin the garden of God

was its equal in beauty.

⁹I made it beautiful

in the mass of its branches,

and all the trees of ^jEden envied it,

that were in the garden of God.

¹⁰“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because ^kit² towered high and set its top among the clouds,³ and ^lits heart was proud of its height, ¹¹I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. ^12mForeigners, ^mthe most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. ⁿOn the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all ^othe ravines of the land, and ^pall the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. ^13qOn its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field. ^14rAll this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds,⁴ and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, ^sto the world ^tbelow, among the children of man,⁵ with those who go down to the pit.

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord God: On the day ^uthe cedar⁶ went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. ^16vI made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, ^uwhen I cast it down to…