Ezekiel 30–32

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 mourning; I covered it with the ¹deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon ²mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it.

¹⁶“I made the nations ^aquake at the sound of its downfall when I made it ^bgo down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of ^cLebanon, all the ¹well-watered ones, were ^dcomforted in the earth beneath.

¹⁷“They also ^awent down with it to Sheol to those who were ^bslain by the sword; and those who were its ¹strength lived ^cunder its shade among the nations.

¹⁸“To which among the trees of Eden do you thus liken yourself in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath; you will lie in the midst of the ^auncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. ^bSo is Pharaoh and all his multitude!” ’ declares Lord Yahweh.”

CHAPTER 32

A Lament over Pharaoh and Egypt

¹And it happened in the ^atwelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

²“Son of man, take up a ^alamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him,

‘You liken yourself to a young ^blion of the nations,

Yet you are like the ^cmonster in the seas;

And you ^dburst forth in your rivers

And muddied the waters with your feet

And ¹fouled their rivers.’”

³Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“So I will ^aspread My net over you

With an assembly of many peoples,

And they shall bring you up in My net.

⁴“I will abandon you on the land;

I will hurl you on the ¹open field.

And I will cause all the ^abirds of the sky to dwell on you,

And I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth ²with you.

⁵“I will put your flesh ^aon the mountains

And fill the valleys with your refuse.

⁶“I will also make the land drink the discharge of your ^ablood

As far as the mountains,

And the ravines will be full of you.

⁷“And when I ^aextinguish you,

I will ^bcover the heavens and darken their ^cstars;

I will cover the ^dsun with a cloud,

And the moon will not give its light.

⁸“All the shining ^alights in the heavens

I will darken over you

And will give darkness on your land,”

Declares Lord Yahweh.

⁹“I will also ^avex the hearts of many peoples when I ^bbring your destruction among the nations, into lands which you have not known.

¹⁰“I will make many peoples ^1aappalled at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and ^bthey will tremble every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your downfall.”

¹¹For ^athus says Lord Yahweh, “The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you.

¹²“By the swords of the mighty ones I will cause your multitude to fall; all of them are ^aruthless ones of the nations,

And they will ^bdevastate the lofty pride of Egypt,

And all its multitude will be destroyed.

¹³“I will also make all its cattle perish from beside many waters;

And ^athe foot of man will not muddy them anymore,

And the hoofs of beasts will not muddy them.

¹⁴“Then I will make their waters settle

And will cause their rivers to ¹run like oil,”

Declares Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵“When I make the land of Egypt a ^adesolation,

And the land is desolate of its fullness,

When I strike all those who inhabit it,

Then they shall ^bknow that I am Yahweh.

¹⁶“This is a ^alamentation, and they shall ¹lament over it. The daughters of the nations shall ²lament over it. Over Egypt and over all her multitude they shall ³lament over it,” declares Lord Yahweh.

¹⁷Now it happened in the ^atwelfth year, on the ^bfifteenth of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

¹⁸“Son of man, ^awail for the hordes of Egypt and ^bbring it down, her and the daughters of the powerful…