Lamentation for Pharaoh and Egypt

32 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the atwelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, btake up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him:

c‘You are like a young lion among the nations,

And dyou are like a monster in the seas,

eBursting forth in your rivers,

Troubling the waters with your feet,

And ffouling their rivers.’

3 “Thus says the Lord God:

‘I will therefore gspread My net over you with a company of many people,

And they will draw you up in My net.

4 Then hI will leave you on the land;

I will cast you out on the open fields,

iAnd cause to 1settle on you all the birds of the heavens.

And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth.

5 I will lay your flesh jon the mountains,

And fill the valleys with your carcass.

6 ‘I will also water the land with the flow of your blood,

Even to the mountains;

And the riverbeds will be full of you.

7 When I put out your light,

kI will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark;

I will cover the sun with a cloud,

And the moon shall not give her light.

8 All the 2bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you,

And bring darkness upon your land,’

Says the Lord God.

9 ‘I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. 10 Yes, I will make many peoples astonished at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and lthey shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.’

11 m“For thus says the Lord God: ‘The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. 12 ‘By the swords of the mighty warriors, all of them nthe most terrible of the nations, I will cause your multitude to fall.

o“They shall plunder the pomp of Egypt,

And all its multitude shall be destroyed.

13 Also I will destroy all its animals

From beside its great waters;

pThe foot of man shall muddy them no more,

Nor shall the hooves of animals muddy them.

14 Then I will make their waters 3clear,

And make their rivers run like oil,’

Says the Lord God.

15 ‘When I make the land of Egypt desolate,

And the country is destitute of all that once filled it,

When I strike all who dwell in it,

qThen they shall know that I am the Lord.

16 ‘This is the rlamentation

With which they shall lament her;

The daughters of the nations shall lament her;

They shall lament for her, for Egypt,

And for all her multitude,’

Says the Lord God.”

Egypt and Others Consigned to the Pit

17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, sthat the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

18 “Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt,

And tcast them down to the depths of the earth,

Her and the daughters of the famous nations,

With those who go down to the Pit:

19 ‘Whom udo you surpass in beauty?

vGo down, be placed with the uncircumcised.’

20 “They shall fall in the midst of those slain by the sword;

She is delivered to the sword,

wDrawing her and all her multitudes.

21 xThe strong among the mighty

Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell

With those who help him:

‘They have ygone down,

They lie with the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

22 “Assyria zis there, and all her company,

With their graves all around her,

All of them slain, fallen by the sword.

23 aHer graves are set in the recesses of the Pit,

And her company is all around her grave,

All of them slain, fallen by the sword,

Who bcaused terror in the land of the living.

24 “There is cElam and all her multitude,

All around her grave,

All of them slain, fallen by the sword,

Who have dgone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth,

eWho caused their terror in the land of the living;

Now they bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

25 They have set her fbed in the midst of the slain,

With all her multitude,

With her graves all around it,

All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword;

Though their terror was caused

In the land of the living,

Yet they bear their shame

With those who go down to the Pit;

It was put in the midst of the slain.

26 “There are gMeshech and Tubal and all their multitudes,

With all their graves around it,

All of them huncircumcised, slain by the sword,

Though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

27 iThey do not lie with the mighty

Who are fallen of the uncircumcised,

Who have gone down to hell with their weapons of war;

They have laid their swords under their heads,

But their iniquities will be on their bones,

Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

28 Yes, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised,

And lie with those slain by the sword.

29 “There is jEdom,

Her kings and all her princes,

Who despite their might

Are laid beside those slain by the sword;

They shall lie with the uncircumcised,

And with those who go down to the Pit.

30 kThere are the princes of the north,

All of them, and all the lSidonians,

Who have gone down with the slain

In shame at the terror which they caused by their might;

They lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword,

And bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

31 “Pharaoh will see them

And be mcomforted over all his multitude,

Pharaoh and all his army,

Slain by the sword,”

Says the Lord God.

32 “For I have caused My terror in the land of the living;

And he shall be placed in the midst of the uncircumcised

With those slain by the sword,

Pharaoh and all his multitude,”

Says the Lord God.

The Watchman and His Message

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to athe children of your people, and say to them: b‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their cwatchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does dnot take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, ehis blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will 1save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, fhe is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

7 g“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have 2delivered your soul.

10 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we hpine 3away in them, ihow can we then live?” ’ 11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, j‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked kturn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For lwhy should you die, O house of Israel?’

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

12 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The mrighteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, nhe shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’ 13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, obut he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die. 14 Again, pwhen I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does 4what is lawful and 5right, 15 if the wicked qrestores the pledge, rgives back what he has stolen, and walks in sthe statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 tNone of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

17 u“Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not 6fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair! 18 vWhen the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it. 19 But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it. 20 Yet you say, w‘The way of the Lord is not 7fair.’ O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways.”

The Fall of Jerusalem

21 And it came to pass in the twelfth year xof our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, ythat one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, z“The city has been 8captured!”

22 Now athe hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the man came who had escaped. And He had bopened my mouth; so when he came to me in the morning, my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

The Cause of Judah’s Ruin

23 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 24 “Son of man, cthey who inhabit those druins in the land of Israel are saying, e‘Abraham was only one, and he inherited the land. fBut we are many; the land has been given to us as a gpossession.’

25 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: h“You eat meat with blood, you ilift up your eyes toward your idols, and jshed blood. Should you then possess the kland? 26 You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and you ldefile one another’s wives. Should you then possess the land?” ’

27 “Say thus to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “As I live, surely mthose who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and the one who is in the open field nI will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who …