A Prophecy Against Egypt

¹In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:[#tn January 7, 587 b.c.]

²“Son of man, turn toward Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.[#tn Heb “set your face against.”]

³Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

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

the great monster lying in the midst of its waterways,

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

⁷when they grasped you with their hand, you broke and tore their shoulders,[#tn The Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has “by your hand,” but the marginal reading (Qere) has simply “by the hand.” The LXX reads “with their hand.”; #tn Or perhaps “dislocated.”]

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

⁸“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will kill every person and every animal.[#tn Heb “I will cut off from you.”]

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,”

¹⁰I am against you and your waterways. I will turn the land of Egypt into an utter desolate ruin from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border with Ethiopia.[#tn 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 (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.; #sn This may refer to a site in the Egyptian Delta which served as a refuge for Jews (Jer 44:1; 46:14).; #sn Syene is known today as Aswan.]

¹¹No human foot will pass through it, and no animal’s foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years.

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.

¹³“‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they were scattered.[#sn In Ezek 4:4-8 it was said that the house of Judah would suffer forty years.]

¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and will bring them back to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin; there they will be an insignificant kingdom.[#tc Thus the Masoretic Text. The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as though the Hebrew read “cause to inhabit.”]

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.

¹⁶It will never again be Israel’s source of confidence, but a reminder of how they sinned by turning to Egypt for help. Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord .’”[#tn Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”]

¹⁷In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:[#sn April 26, 571 b.c.]

¹⁸“Son of man, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. 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.[#tn 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).; #sn Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre from 585 to 571 b.c.map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.]

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.

²⁰I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre, because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord .[#tn Heb “for which he worked,” referring to the assault on Tyre (v. 18).]

²¹On that day I will make Israel powerful, and I will give you the right to be heard among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord .”[#tn 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.; #tn Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”]