^29:1In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month,¹ the word of the Lord came to me: ^29:2“Son of man, turn toward² Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. ^29:3Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“ ‘Look, I am against³ you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great monster⁴ lying in the midst of its waterways,

who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.”⁵

^29:4I will put hooks in your jaws

and stick the fish of your waterways to your scales.

I will haul you up from the midst of your waterways,

and all the fish of your waterways will stick to your scales.

^29:5I will leave you in the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your waterways;

you will fall in the open field and will not be gathered up or collected.⁶

I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies.

^29:6Then all those living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord

because they were a reed staff⁷ for the house of Israel;

^29:7when they grasped you with their hand,⁸ you broke and tore⁹ their shoulders,

and when they leaned on you, you splintered and caused their legs to be unsteady.¹⁰

^29:8“ ‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will kill¹¹ every person and every animal. ^29:9The land of Egypt will become a desolate ruin. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,” ^29:10I am against¹² you and your waterways. I will turn the land of Egypt into an utter desolate ruin from Migdol¹³ to Syene,¹⁴ as far as the border with Ethiopia. ^29:11No human foot will pass through it, and no animal’s foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years. ^29:12I will turn the land of Egypt into a desolation in the midst of desolate lands; for forty years her cities will lie desolate in the midst of ruined cities. I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries.

^29:13“ ‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years¹⁵ I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they were scattered. ^29:14I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and will bring them back¹⁶ to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin; there they will be an insignificant kingdom. ^29:15It will be the most insignificant of the kingdoms; it will never again exalt itself over the nations. I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. ^29:16It will never again be Israel’s source of confidence, but a reminder of how they sinned by turning to Egypt for help.¹⁷ Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.’ ”

^29:17In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month,¹⁸ the word of the Lord came to me: ^29:18“Son of man, King Nebuchadrezzar¹⁹ of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre.²⁰ Every head was rubbed bald and every shoulder rubbed bare; yet he and his army received no wages from Tyre for the work he carried out against it. ^29:19Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. He will carry off her wealth, capture her loot, and seize her plunder; it will be his army’s wages. ^29:20I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre²¹, because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord. ^29:21On that day I will make Israel powerful,²² and I will give you the right to be heard²³ among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

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Footnotes

1 January 7, 587 b.c.
2 Heb “set your face against.”
3 Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 1:, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘hinnenî êlêkâ,’ ” 45 (1933): 101–8.
4 Heb “jackals,” but many medieval Hebrew read correctly “the serpent.” The Hebrew term appears to refer to a serpent in Exod 7:9–10, 12; Deut 32:33; and Ps 91:13. It also refers to large creatures that inhabit the sea (Gen 1:21; Ps 148:7). In several passages it is associated with the sea or with the multiheaded sea monster Leviathan (Job 7:12; Ps 74:13; Isa 27:1; 51:9). Because of the Egyptian setting of this prophecy and the reference to the creature’s scales (v. 4), many understand a crocodile to be the referent here (e.g., “a great crocodile”; “you monster crocodile”; “a giant crocodile”).
5 In Egyptian theology Pharaoh owned and controlled the Nile. See J. D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 240–44.
6 Some Hebrew , the , and the read “buried.”
7 Compare Isa 36:6.
8 The Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has “by your hand,” but the marginal reading (Qere) has simply “by the hand.” The reads “with their hand.”
9 Or perhaps “dislocated.”
10 Heb “you caused to stand for them all their hips.” An emendation which switches two letters but is supported by the yields the reading “you caused all their hips to shake.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (), 2:. In 2 Kgs 18:21 and Isa 36:6 trusting in the Pharaoh is compared to leaning on a staff. The oracle may reflect Hophra’s attempt to aid Jerusalem (Jer 37:5–8).
11 Heb “I will cut off from you.”
12 Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 1:, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘hinnenî êlêkâ,’ ” 45 (1933): 101–8.
13 This may refer to a site in the Egyptian Delta which served as a refuge for Jews (Jer 44:1; 46:14).
14 Syene is known today as Aswan.
15 In Ezek 4:4–8 it was said that the house of Judah would suffer forty years.
16 Thus the Masoretic Text. The , , and translate as though the Hebrew read “cause to inhabit.”
17 Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”
18 April 26, 571 b.c.
19 Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “r” rather than an “n” (so also in v. 19).
20 Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre from 585 to 571 b.c. For location see ; ; ; ; .
21 Heb “for which he worked,” referring to the assault on Tyre (v. 18).
22 Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT (Ps 92:10). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17.
23 Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”