Ezekiel 29–32

Chapter 29

Judgment of Egypt

¹In the ^atenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of the Lord 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 the Lord ¹God,

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

The great ^2amonster that lies in the midst of his ³rivers,

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 ¹rivers cling to your scales.

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

And all the fish of your rivers will cling to your scales.

⁵“I will ^aabandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your ¹rivers;

You will fall on the ²open field; you will not be brought together or ^3bgathered.

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 the Lord,

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

⁷“When they took hold of you with the hand,

You ^abroke and tore all their ¹hands;

And when they leaned on you,

You broke and made all their loins ²quake.”

⁸‘Therefore thus says the Lord God, “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 the Lord.

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

¹⁰therefore, behold, I am ^aagainst you and against your ¹rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene and even to the border of ²Ethiopia.

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 the Lord God, “At the end of forty years I will ^agather the Egyptians from the peoples ¹among whom they were scattered.

¹⁴“I will turn 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 ^brule over the nations.

¹⁶“And it will never again be the ^aconfidence of the house of Israel, ^1bbringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned ²to Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.” ’ ”

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

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

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

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

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 the Lord.”

Chapter 30

Lament over Egypt

¹The word of the Lord came again to me saying,

²“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord ¹God,

“^aWail, ‘Alas for the day!’

³“For the day is near,

Even ^athe day of the Lord 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 ²wealth,

And her foundations are torn down.

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

⁶‘Thus says the Lord,

“Indeed, those who support ^aEgypt will fall

And the pride of her power will come down;

From Migdol to Syene

They will fall within her by the sword,”

Declares the Lord God.

⁷“They will be desolate

In the ^amidst of the desolated lands;

And her cities will be

In the midst of the devastated cities.

⁸“And they will ^aknow that I am the Lord,

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 comes!”

¹⁰‘Thus says the Lord God,

“^aI will also make the ¹hordes 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 destroy the land;

And they will draw their swords against Egypt

And fill the land with the slain.

¹²“Moreover, I will make the ^aNile canals dry

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

And I will make the land desolate

And ¹all that is in it,

By the hand of strangers; I the Lord have spoken.”

¹³‘Thus says the Lord God,

“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 stronghold of Egypt;

I will also cut off the hordes 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 young 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 yoke bars of Egypt.

Then the pride of her power 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 the Lord.” ’ ”

Victory for Babylon

²⁰In the ^aeleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh of the month, the word of the Lord 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 ¹for healing ²or wrapped with a bandage, that it may be strong to hold the sword.

²²“Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘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 the Lord, 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 the Lord.’ ”

Chapter 31

Pharaoh Warned of Assyria’s Fate

¹In the ^aeleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying,

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

‘Whom are you like in your greatness?

³‘Behold, Assyria was a ^acedar in Lebanon

With beautiful branches and forest shade,

And ^1bvery high,

And its top was among the ²clouds.

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

With its rivers it continually ²extended all around its planting place,

And sent out its channels 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 heavens 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 branches;

For its ¹roots extended to many waters.

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

The ²cypresses could not compare with its boughs,

And the plane trees ³could not match its branches.

No tree in God’s garden could compare with it in its beauty.

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

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

¹⁰‘Therefore thus says the Lord ¹God, “Because ²it is high in stature and has set its top among the ³clouds, and its ^aheart is haughty in its loftiness,

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

¹²“^aAlien ^btyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; on the ^cmountains and in all the valleys its branches 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 left it.

¹³“On its ruin all the ^abirds of the heavens 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 exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the ¹clouds, nor their ²well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. 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 the Lord God, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I ^acaused lamentations; I closed 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…