Ezekiel 29–32

CHAPTER 29

Prophesy Against Egypt

¹In the ^atenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

²“Son of man, set your face against ^aPharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all ^bEgypt.

³“Speak and say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

The great ^1amonster that lies in the midst of his canals of the Nile,

That ^bhas said, ‘My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.’

⁴“I will put ^ahooks in your jaws

And make the fish of your canals of the Nile cling to your scales.

And I will bring you up out of the midst of your canals of the Nile,

And all the fish of your canals of the Nile will cling to your scales.

⁵“I will ^aabandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your canals of the Nile;

You will fall on the ¹open field; you will not be brought together or ^2bgathered.

I have given you for ^cfood to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the sky.

⁶“Then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh

Because they have been only a ^astaff made of reed to the house of Israel.

⁷“When they seized you with the hand,

You ^atore and split open all their ¹shoulders;

And when they leaned on you,

You broke and made all their loins ²quake.”

⁸‘Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will ^abring upon you a sword, and I will cut off from you man and beast.

⁹“The ^aland of Egypt will become a desolation and waste. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.

Because ¹you ^bsaid, ‘The Nile is mine, and I have made it,’

¹⁰therefore, behold, I am ^aagainst you and against your canals of the Nile, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene and even to the border of ¹Ethiopia.

¹¹“A man’s foot will ^anot pass through it, and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.

¹²“So I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the ^amidst of desolated lands. And her cities, in the midst of cities that are laid waste, will be desolate forty years; and I will ^bscatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.”

¹³‘For thus says Lord Yahweh, “At the end of forty years I will ^agather the Egyptians from the peoples ¹among whom they were scattered.

¹⁴“I will return the fortunes of Egypt and make them return to the land of ^aPathros, to the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom.

¹⁵“It will be the ^alowest of the kingdoms, and it will never again lift itself up above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will not ^bhave dominion over the nations.

¹⁶“And it will never again be the ^asecurity of the house of Israel, ^bbringing to remembrance the iniquity of their having turned to go after Egypt. Then they will know that I am Lord Yahweh.” ’ ”

¹⁷Now in the ^atwenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

¹⁸“Son of man, ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his military force ¹labor hard against Tyre; every head was made ^bbald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his military force had no wages from Tyre for the ²labor that he had ³labored against it.”

¹⁹Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I ^awill give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her ^1babundance and capture her spoil and seize her plunder; and it will be wages for his military force.

²⁰“I have given him the land of Egypt for his work which he ^1alabored because they acted for Me,” declares Lord Yahweh.

²¹“On that day I will make a ^ahorn sprout for the house of Israel, and I will ^1bopen your mouth in their midst. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”

CHAPTER 30

Those Who Support Egypt Will Fall

¹The word of Yahweh came again to me saying,

²“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“^aWail, ‘Alas for the day!’

³“For the day is near,

Even ^athe day of Yahweh is near;

It will be a day of ^bclouds,

A time of doom for the nations.

⁴“A sword will come upon Egypt,

And anguish will be in ¹Ethiopia;

When the slain fall in Egypt,

They ^atake away her multitude,

And her foundations are pulled down.

⁵“¹Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all ^2aArabia, ³Libya, and the ⁴people of the land ⁵that is in covenant will fall with them by the sword.”

⁶‘Thus says Yahweh,

“Indeed, those who support ^aEgypt will fall,

And the pride of her strength will come down;

From Migdol to Syene

They will fall within her by the sword,”

Declares Lord Yahweh.

⁷“They will be desolate

In the ^amidst of the desolated lands;

And her cities will be

In the midst of the cities laid waste.

⁸“And they will ^aknow that I am Yahweh,

When I set a ^bfire in Egypt

And all her helpers are broken.

⁹“On that day ^amessengers will go forth from Me in ships to frighten ^bsecure ¹Ethiopia; and ^canguish will be on them as on the day of Egypt; for behold, it is coming!”

¹⁰‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“^aI will also make the multitude of Egypt cease

By the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

¹¹“He and his people with him,

^aThe most ruthless of the nations,

Will be brought in to make the land a ruin;

And they will draw their swords against Egypt

And fill the land with the slain.

¹²“Moreover, I will make the ^acanals of the Nile dry

And ^bsell the land into the hands of evil men.

And I will make the land desolate,

As well as its fullness,

By the hand of strangers; I, Yahweh, have spoken.”

¹³‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“I will also ^adestroy the idols

And make the ¹images cease from ^2bMemphis.

And there will no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt;

And I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“I will make ^aPathros desolate,

Set a fire in ^bZoan,

And execute judgments on ^1cThebes.

¹⁵“I will pour out My wrath on ¹Sin,

The strong defense of Egypt;

I will also cut off the multitude of ²Thebes.

¹⁶“I will set a fire in Egypt;

¹Sin will writhe in anguish;

²Thebes will be breached,

And ³Memphis will have ⁴distresses daily.

¹⁷“The choice men of ^1aOn and of Pi-beseth

Will fall by the sword,

And ²the women will go into captivity.

¹⁸“In ^aTehaphnehes the day will ¹be ^bdark

When I ^cbreak there the bars of the yoke of Egypt.

Then the pride of her strength will cease in her;

A cloud will cover her,

And her daughters will go into captivity.

¹⁹“Thus I will ^aexecute judgments on Egypt,

And they will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ ”

Yahweh Scatters the Egyptians

²⁰In the ^aeleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

²¹“Son of man, I have ^abroken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been ^bbound up to be given healing ¹or wrapped with a bandage, that it may be strong to seize the sword.

²²“Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am ^aagainst Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong and the ^bbroken; and I will make the sword ^cfall from his hand.

²³‘I will ^ascatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.

²⁴‘For I will ^astrengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put ^bMy sword in his hand; and I will break the arms of Pharaoh so that he will groan before him with the groanings of a wounded man.

²⁵‘Thus I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he ^astretches it out against the land of Egypt.

²⁶‘When I scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands, then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

CHAPTER 31

Egypt Will Be Brought Down to Sheol

¹Now it happened in the ^aeleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his ^amultitude,

‘To whom do you liken yourself in your greatness?

³‘Behold, Assyria was a ^acedar in Lebanon

With beautiful branches and forest shade

And ^blofty in height,

And its top was among the ¹clouds.

⁴‘The ^awaters made it grow; the ¹deep made it high.

With its rivers it was going all around its planting place

And sent out its conduits to all the trees of the field.

⁵‘Therefore ^aits height was loftier than all the trees of the field,

And its boughs became many and its branches long

Because of ^bmany waters ¹as it spread them out.

⁶‘All the ^abirds of the sky nested in its boughs,

And under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,

And all great nations lived under its shade.

⁷‘So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its foliage;

For its ¹roots extended to many waters.

⁸‘The ^acedars in ^bGod’s garden ¹could not match it;

The ²cypresses ³could not liken themselves with its boughs,

And the plane trees were not like its branches.

No tree in ^cGod’s garden ⁴could liken itself with it in its beauty.

⁹‘I made it beautiful with the multitude of its foliage,

And all the trees of ^aEden, which were in the ^bgarden of God, were jealous of it.

¹⁰‘Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because ¹it is lofty in height and has put its top among the ²clouds, and its ^aheart is high up in its loftiness,

¹¹therefore I will give it into the hand of a ^1adominant one of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have ^bdriven it away.

¹²“^aStrangers—^bruthless ones of the nations have cut it down and abandoned it; on the ^cmountains and in all the valleys its foliage have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have ^dgone down from its shade and abandoned it.

¹³“On its downfall all the ^abirds of the sky will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches

¹⁴so that all the trees by the waters may not be lofty in their height, nor put their top among the ¹clouds, nor their dominant ones—all the ²well-watered ones—stand in their loftiness. For they have all been given over to death, to the ^aearth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.”

¹⁵‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I ^acaused…