Prophecy against Egypt
1 On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me. 2 “Mortal man,” he said, “denounce the king of Egypt. Tell him how he and all the land of Egypt will be punished. 3 Say that this is what the Sovereign Lord is telling the king of Egypt: I am your enemy, you monster crocodile, lying in the river. You say that the Nile is yours and that you made it. 4 I am going to put a hook through your jaw and make the fish in your river stick fast to you. Then I will pull you up out of the Nile, with all the fish sticking to you. 5 I will throw you and all those fish into the desert. Your body will fall on the ground and be left unburied. I will give it to the birds and animals for food. 6 Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the Lord.”
The Lord says, “The Israelites relied on you Egyptians for support, but you were no better than a weak stick. 7 When they leaned on you, you broke, pierced their armpits, and made them wrench their backs. 8 Now then, I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling you that I will have troops attack you with swords, and they will kill your people and your animals. 9 Egypt will become an empty wasteland. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
“Because you said that the Nile is yours and you made it, 10 I am your enemy and the enemy of your Nile. I will make all of Egypt an empty wasteland, from the city of Migdol in the north to the city of Aswan in the south, all the way to the Ethiopian border. 11 No human being or animal will walk through it. For forty years nothing will live there. 12 I will make Egypt the most desolate country in the world. For forty years the cities of Egypt will lie in ruins, ruins worse than those of any other city. I will make the Egyptians refugees. They will flee to every country and live among other peoples.”
13 The Sovereign Lord says, “After forty years I will bring the Egyptians back from the nations where I have scattered them, 14 and I will let them live in southern Egypt, their original home. There they will be a weak kingdom, 15 the weakest kingdom of all, and they will never again rule other nations. I will make them so unimportant that they will not be able to bend any other nation to their will. 16 Israel will never again depend on them for help. Egypt's fate will remind Israel how wrong it was to rely on them. Then Israel will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”
King Nebuchadnezzar Will Conquer Egypt
17 On the first day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me. 18 “Mortal man,” he said, “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia launched an attack on Tyre. He made his soldiers carry such heavy loads that their heads were rubbed bald and their shoulders were worn raw, but neither the king nor his army got anything for all their trouble. 19 So now this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: I am giving the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar. He will loot and plunder it and carry off all the wealth of Egypt as his army's pay. 20 I am giving him Egypt in payment for his services, because his army was working for me. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.
21 “When that happens, I will make the people of Israel strong and let you, Ezekiel, speak out where everyone can hear you, so that they will know that I am the Lord.”
1 In the tenth yeere, and in the tenth moneth in the twelfth day of the moneth, the word of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 2 Sonne of man, set thy face against Pharaoh the King of Egypt, and prophecie against him, and against all Egypt. 3 Speake, and say, Thus sayth the Lord God, Beholde, I come against thee, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon, that lieth in the middes of his riuers, which hath saide, The riuer is mine, and I haue made it for my selfe. 4 But I will put hookes in thy chawes, and I will cause the fish of thy riuers to sticke vnto thy scales, and I will drawe thee out of the middes of thy riuers, and all the fishe of thy riuers shall sticke vnto thy scales. 5 And I will leaue thee in the wildernes, both thee and al the fish of thy riuers: thou shalt fal vpon ye open field: thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: for I haue giue thee for meat to the beasts of the field, and to the foules of heauen. 6 And al the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they haue ben a staffe of reede to the house of Israel. 7 When they tooke holde of thee with their hand, thou diddest breake, and rent all their shoulder: and when they leaned vpon thee, thou brakest and madest all their loynes to stand vpright. 8 Therefore thus sayeth the Lord God, Beholde, I will bring a sworde vpon thee, and destroy man and beast out of thee, 9 And the land of Egypt shalbe desolate, and waste, and they shall know that I am ye Lord: because he hath said, The riuer is mine, and I haue made it, 10 Behold, therefore I come vpon thee, and vpon thy riuers, and I will make the land of Egypt vtterly waste and desolate from the towre of Seueneh, euen vnto the borders of the blacke Mores. 11 No foote of man shall passe by it, nor foote of beast shall passe by it, neither shall it be inhabited fourtie yeeres. 12 And I wil make the land of Egypt desolate in the middes of the countries, that are desolate, and her cities shall be desolate among the cities that are desolate, for fourtie yeeres: and I wil scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and wil disperse them through the countreis. 13 Yet thus saieth the Lord God, At the end of fourtie yeeres will I gather the Egyptians from the people, where they were scattered, 14 And I wil bring againe the captiuitie of Egypt, and will cause them to returne into the land of Pathros, into the lande of their habitation, and they shalbe there a small kingdome. 15 It shall be the smallest of the kingdomes, neither shall it exalt it selfe any more aboue the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule the nations. 16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, to bring their iniquitie to remembrance by looking after them, so shall they knowe, that I am the Lord God. 17 In the seuen and twentieth yeere also in the first moneth, and in the first day of the moneth, came the word of the Lord vnto me, saying, 18 Sonne of man, Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babel caused his armie to serue a great seruice against Tyrus: euery head was made balde, and euery shoulder was made bare: yet had he no wages, nor his armie for Tyrus, for the seruice that he serued against it. 19 Therefore thus sayth the Lord God, Beholde, I will giue the land of Egypt vnto Nebuchad-nezzar the King of Babel, and he shall take her multitude, and spoyle her spoyle, and take her pray, and it shall be the wages for his armie. 20 I haue giuen him the land of Egypt for his labour, that he serued against it, because they wrought for me, sayth the Lord God. 21 In that day will I cause the horne of the house of Israel to growe, and I will giue thee an open mouth in the middes of them, and they shall knowe that I am the Lord.