Judgment on the King of Egypt
1 Ten years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, the Lord spoke to me on the twelfth day of the tenth month. He said:
2 Ezekiel, son of man, condemn the king of Egypt. Tell him and his people 3 that I am saying:
King of Egypt, you were like a giant crocodile lying in a river. You acted as though you owned the Nile and made it for yourself. But now I, the Lord God, am your enemy! 4 I will put a hook in your jaw and pull you out of the water, and all the fish in your river will stick to your scaly body. 5 I'll throw you and the fish into the desert, and your body will fall on the hard ground. You will be left unburied, and wild animals and birds will eat your flesh. 6 Then everyone in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.
You and your nation refused to help the people of Israel and were nothing more than a broken stick. 7 When they reached out to you for support, you broke in half, cutting their arms and making them fall.
8 So I, the Lord God, will send troops to attack you, king of Egypt. They will kill your people and livestock, 9 until your land is a barren desert. Then you will know that I have done these things.
You claimed that you made the Nile River and control it. 10 Now I am turning against you and your river. Your nation will be nothing but an empty wasteland all the way from the town of Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south, and as far as the border of Ethiopia. 11 No human or animal will even dare travel through Egypt, because no sign of life will be found there for 40 years. 12 It will be the most barren place on earth. Every city in Egypt will lie in ruins during those 40 years, and I will scatter your people throughout the nations of the world.
13 Then after those 40 years have passed, I will bring your people back from the places where I scattered them. 14 They will once again live in their homeland in southern Egypt. But they will be a weak kingdom 15 and won't ever be strong enough to rule nations, as they did in the past. 16 My own people Israel will never again depend on your nation. In fact, when the Israelites remember what happened to you Egyptians, they will realize how wrong they were to turn to you for help. Then the Israelites will know that I, the Lord God, did these things.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia Will Conquer Egypt
17 Twenty-seven years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, the Lord spoke to me on the first day of the first month. He said:
18 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia has attacked the city of Tyre. He forced his soldiers to carry so many heavy loads that their heads were rubbed bald, and their shoulders were red and sore. Nebuchadnezzar and his army still could not capture the city. 19 So now I will hand over the nation of Egypt to him. He will take Egypt's valuable treasures and give them to his own troops. 20 Egypt will be his reward, because he and his army have been following my orders. I, the Lord God, have spoken.
21 Ezekiel, when Egypt is defeated, I will make the people of Israel strong, and I will give you the power to speak to them. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have done these things.
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.