Ezekiel 29–32

Chapter 29

¹In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; ³speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Behold, I am against you,

Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great dragon that lies

in the midst of his streams,

that says, ‘My Nile is my own;

I made it.’

⁴I will put hooks in your jaws,

and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales;

and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams,

with all the fish of your streams

which stick to your scales.

⁵And I will cast you forth into the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your streams;

you shall fall upon the open field,

and not be gathered and buried.

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

I have given you as food.

⁶“Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord. Because you^u have been 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 upon you, you broke, and made all their loins to shake;^{v 8}therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast; ⁹and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

“Because you^w said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’ ¹⁰therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. ¹¹No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. ¹²And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of 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.

¹³“For thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered; ¹⁴and 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. ¹⁶And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.”

¹⁷In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸“Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king 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 performed against it. ¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth^x and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. ²⁰I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord GOD.

²¹“On that day I will cause a horn to spring forth to the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Chapter 30

¹The word of the Lord came to me: ²“Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’

³For the day is near,

the day of the Lord is near;

it will be a day of clouds,

a time of doom for the nations.

⁴A sword shall come upon Egypt,

and anguish shall be in Ethiopia,

when the slain fall in Egypt,

and her wealth is carried away,

and her foundations are torn down.

⁵Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all Arabia, and Libya,^y and the people of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

⁶“Thus says the Lord:

Those who support Egypt shall fall,

and her proud might shall come down;

from Migdol to Syene

they shall fall within her by the sword,

says the Lord GOD.

⁷And she^z shall be desolated in the midst of desolated countries

and her cities shall be in the midst of cities that are laid waste.

⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord,

when I have set fire to Egypt,

and all her helpers are broken.

⁹“On that day swift^a messengers shall go forth from me to terrify the unsuspecting Ethiopians; and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom; for, lo, it comes!

¹⁰“Thus says the Lord GOD:

I will put an end to the wealth^b of Egypt,

by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king 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.

¹²And I will dry up the Nile,

and will sell the land into the hand of evil men;

I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it,

by the hand of foreigners;

I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹³“Thus 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 upon Thebes.

¹⁵And I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium,

the stronghold of Egypt,

and cut off the multitude of Thebes.

¹⁶And I will set fire to Egypt;

Pelusium shall be in great agony;

Thebes shall be breached,

and its walls broken down.^c

¹⁷The young men of On and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword;

and the women shall go into captivity.

¹⁸At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark,

when I break there the dominion of Egypt,

and her proud might shall come to an end;

she shall be covered by a cloud,

and her daughters shall go into captivity.

¹⁹Thus I will execute acts of judgment upon Egypt.

Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

²⁰In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²¹“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and lo, it has not been bound up, to heal it by binding it with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. ²²Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, 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. ²³I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the lands. ²⁴And 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 like a man mortally wounded. ²⁵I 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; ²⁶and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Chapter 31

¹In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

“Whom are you like in your greatness?

³Behold, I will liken you to^d a cedar in Lebanon,

with fair branches and forest shade,

and of great height,

its top among the clouds.^e

⁴The waters nourished it,

the deep made it grow tall,

making its rivers flow^f

round the place of its planting,

sending forth its streams

to all the trees of the forest.

⁵So it towered high

above all the trees of the forest;

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 beasts of the field

brought forth their young;

and under its shadow

dwelt all great nations.

⁷It was beautiful in its greatness,

in the length of its branches;

for its roots went down

to abundant waters.

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

in the mass of its branches,

and all the trees of Eden envied it,

that were in the garden of God.

¹⁰“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it^g towered high and set its top among the clouds,^h and its heart was proud of its height, ¹¹I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. ¹²Foreigners, the most terrible of the nations, will cut it down and leave it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches will fall, and its boughs will lie broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth will go from its shadow and leave it. ¹³Upon its ruin will dwell all the birds of the air, and upon its branches will be all the beasts of the field. ¹⁴All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to lofty height or set their tops among the clouds,^h and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height; for they are all given over to death, to the nether world among mortal men, with those who go down to the Pit.

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord GOD: When it goes down to Sheol I will make the deep mourn forⁱ it, and restrain its rivers, and many waters shall be stopped; I will clothe Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field shall faint because of it. ¹⁶I will make 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 drink water, will be comforted in the nether world. ¹⁷They also shall go down to Sheol with it, to those who are…