Ezekiel 29:1–32:2

Proclamation against Egypt

²⁹In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt;^{* 3}speak and say: Thus says the Lord God:

I am against you,

Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great dragon sprawling

in the midst of its channels,

saying, “My Nile is my own;

I made it for myself.”^*

⁴I will put hooks in your jaws

and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales.

I will draw you up from your channels,

with all the fish of your channels

sticking to your scales.^*

⁵I will fling you into the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your channels;

you shall fall in the open field

and not be gathered or picked up.

To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air

I have given you as food.^*

⁶Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know

that I am the Lord,

because you^j were a staff of reed

to the house of Israel;^*

⁷when they grasped you with the hand, you broke

and tore all their shoulders,

and when they leaned on you, you broke

and made all their legs give way.^k*

⁸Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will bring a sword upon you and will cut off from you human and animal,^{* 9}and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

Because you^l said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,” ¹⁰therefore, I am against you and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush.^{* 11}No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years.^{* 12}I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.^*

¹³Further, thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered,^{* 14}and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. ¹⁵It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms and never again exalt itself above the nations, and I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. ¹⁶The Egyptians^m shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel; they will recall their iniquity when they turned to them for aid. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.^*

Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt

¹⁷In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it.^{* 19}Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it, and it shall be the wages for his army.^{* 20}I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord God.^*

²¹On that day I will cause a horn to sprout up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.^*

Lamentation for Egypt

³⁰The word of the Lord came to me: ²Mortal, prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord God:

Wail, “Alas for the day!”^*

³For a day is near,

the day of the Lord is near;

it will be a day of clouds,

a time of doomⁿ for the nations.^*

⁴A sword shall come upon Egypt,

and anguish shall be in Cush,

when the slain fall in Egypt,

and its wealth is carried away,

and its foundations are torn down.^*

⁵Cush and Put and Lud and all the mixed populations and Libya^o and the people of the allied land^p shall fall with them by the sword.^*

⁶Thus says the Lord:

Those who support Egypt shall fall,

and its proud might shall come down;

from Migdol to Syene

they shall fall within it by the sword,

says the Lord God.^*

⁷They shall be desolated among other desolated countries,

and their cities shall lie among cities laid waste.^*

⁸Then they shall know that I am the Lord,

when I have set fire to Egypt,

and all who help it are broken.^*

⁹On that day, messengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the secure Cushites, and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom,^q for it is coming!^*

¹⁰Thus says the Lord God:

I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,

by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.^*

¹¹He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations,

shall be brought in to destroy the land,

and they shall draw their swords against Egypt

and fill the land with the slain.^*

¹²I will dry up the channels of the Nile

and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers;

I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it

by the hand of foreigners;

I the Lord have spoken.^*

¹³Thus says the Lord God:

I will destroy the idols

and put an end to the images in Memphis;

there shall no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt,

so I will put fear in the land of Egypt.^*

¹⁴I will make Pathros a desolation

and will set fire to Zoan

and will execute acts of judgment on Thebes.^*

¹⁵I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium,

the stronghold of Egypt,

and will cut off the hordes of Thebes.^*

¹⁶I will set fire to Egypt;

Pelusium shall be in great agony;

Thebes shall be breached

and Memphis face adversaries by day.

¹⁷The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword,

and the cities themselves^r shall go into captivity.

¹⁸At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark,

when I break there the dominion of Egypt,

and its proud might shall come to an end;

the city^s shall be covered by a cloud,

and its daughter towns shall go into captivity.^*

¹⁹Thus I will execute acts of judgment on Egypt.

Then they shall know that I am the Lord.^*

Proclamation against Pharaoh

²⁰In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²¹Mortal, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; it has not been bound up for healing or wrapped with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword.^{* 22}Therefore thus says the Lord God: I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand.^{* 23}I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.^{* 24}I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him with the groans of one mortally wounded.^{* 25}I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall stretch it out against the land of Egypt,^{* 26}and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.^*

The Lofty Cedar

³¹In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²Mortal, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:

Whom are you like in your greatness?^*

³Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon,

with fair branches and forest shade,

and of great height,

its top among the clouds.^*

⁴The waters nourished it;

the deep made it grow tall,

flowing with its rivers

around the place it was planted,

sending forth its streams

to all the trees of the field.^*

⁵So it towered high

above all the trees of the field;

its boughs grew large

and its branches long,

from abundant water in its shoots.^*

⁶All the birds of the air

made their nests in its boughs;

under its branches all the animals of the field

gave birth to their young,

and in its shade

all great nations lived.^*

⁷It was beautiful in its greatness,

in the length of its branches,

for its roots went down

to abundant water.

⁸The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it

nor the fir trees equal its boughs;

the plane trees were as nothing

compared with its branches;

no tree in the garden of God

was like it in beauty.^*

⁹I made it beautiful

with its mass of branches,

the envy of all the trees of Eden

that were in the garden of God.

¹⁰Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it^t towered high and set its top among the clouds and its heart was proud of its height,^{* 11}I gave it into the hand of the prince of the nations; he has dealt with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out.^{* 12}Foreigners from the most terrible of the nations have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in all the watercourses of the land, and all the peoples of the earth went away from its shade and left it.^*

¹³On its fallen trunk settle

all the birds of the air,

and among its boughs lodge

all the wild animals.^*

¹⁴All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to lofty height or set their tops among the clouds and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height.

For all of them are handed over to death,

to the world below;

along with mortals,

with those who go down to the Pit.^*

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God: On the day it went down to Sheol I closed the deep over it and covered it; I restrained its rivers, and its mighty waters were checked. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.^{* 16}I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the Pit, and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that were well watered, were consoled in the world below.^{* 17}They also went down to Sheol with it, to those killed by the sword, along with its allies,^u those who…