Egypt Will Be a Barren Desert
1 The Lord said:
2 Ezekiel, son of man, tell the people of Egypt that I am saying:
Cry out in despair,
3 because you will soon
be punished!
That will be a time
of darkness and doom
for all nations.
4 Your own nation of Egypt
will be attacked,
and Ethiopia will suffer.
You will be killed in battle,
and your land will be robbed
and left in ruins.
5 Soldiers hired from Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, Arabia, Kub, as well as from Israel, will die in that battle. 6 All of your allies will be killed, and your proud strength will crumble. People will die from Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south. I, the Lord, have spoken.
7 Your nation of Egypt will be the most deserted place on earth, and its cities will lie in complete ruin. 8 I will set fire to your land, and anyone who defended your nation will die. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
9 On the same day I destroy Egypt, I will send messengers to the Ethiopians to announce their coming destruction. They think they are safe, but they will be terrified.
10 Your Egyptian army is very strong, but I will send King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to completely defeat that army. 11 He and his cruel troops will invade and destroy your land and leave your dead bodies piled everywhere.
12 I will dry up the Nile River, then sell the land to evil buyers. I will send foreigners to turn your entire nation into a barren desert. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Egypt's Proud Cities Will Lie in Ruins
The Lord said to the people of Egypt:
13 All the idols and images you Egyptians worship in the city of Memphis will be smashed. No one will be left to rule your nation, and terror will fill the land. 14 The city of Pathros will be left in ruins, and Zoan will be burned to the ground. Thebes, your capital city, will also be destroyed! 15 The fortress city of Pelusium will feel my fierce anger, and all the troops stationed at Thebes will be slaughtered.
16 I will set fire to your nation of Egypt! The city of Pelusium will be in anguish. Thebes will fall, and the people of Memphis will live in constant fear. 17 The young soldiers in the cities of Heliopolis and Bubastis will die in battle, and the rest of the people will be taken prisoner. 18 You were so proud of your nation's power, but when I crush that power and kill that pride, darkness will fall over the city of Tahpanhes. A dark, gloomy cloud will cover the land as you are being led away into captivity. 19 When I'm through punishing Egypt, you will know that I am the Lord.
Egypt's King Is Powerless
20 Eleven years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, the Lord spoke to me on the seventh day of the first month. He said:
21 Ezekiel, son of man, I, the Lord, have defeated the king of Egypt! I broke his arm, and no one has wrapped it or put it in a sling, so that it could heal and get strong enough to hold a sword. 22 So tell him that I am now his worst enemy. I will break both his arms—the good one and the broken one! His sword will drop from his hand forever, 23 and I will scatter the Egyptians all over the world.
24-25 I will strengthen the power of Babylonia's king and give him my sword to use against Egypt. I will also make the wounded king of Egypt powerless, and he will moan in pain and die in front of the Babylonian king. Then everyone on earth will know that I am the Lord. 26 I will force the Egyptians to live as prisoners in foreign nations, and they will know that I, the Lord, have punished them.
1 The worde of the Lord came againe vnto me, saying, 2 Sonne of man, prophesie, and say, Thus sayth the Lord God, Howle and cry, Wo be vnto this day. 3 For the day is neere, and the day of the Lord is at hand, a cloudie day, and it shall be the time of the heathen. 4 And the sword shall come vpon Egypt, and feare shall be in Ethiopia, when the slaine shall fall in Egypt, when they shall take away her multitude, and when her foundations shall be broken downe. 5 Ethiopia and Phut, and Lud, and all the common people, and Cub, and the men of the land, that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. 6 Thus sayth the Lord, They also that mainteine Egypt, shall fall, and the pride of her power shall come downe: from the towre of Seueneh shall they fall by the sword, sayth the Lord God. 7 And they shall be desolate in the middes of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the middes of the cities that are wasted. 8 And they shall knowe that I am the Lord, when I haue set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed. 9 In that day shall there messengers go forth from me in shippes, to make the carelesse Mores aftaide, and feare shall come vpon them, as in the day of Egypt: for loe, it commeth. 10 Thus sayth the Lord God, I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babel. 11 For he and his people with him, euen the terrible nations shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall drawe their swordes against Egypt, and fill the land with the slaine. 12 And I will make the riuers drye, and fell the land into the hands of the wicked, and I will make the land waste, and all that therein is by the hands of strangers: I the Lord haue spoken it. 13 Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idoles, and I will cause their idoles to cease out of Noph, and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt, and I will send a feare in the land of Egypt. 14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and I will execute iudgement in No. 15 And I will powre my wrath vpon Sin, which is the strength of Egypt: and I will destroy the multitude of No. 16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall haue great sorowe and No shalbe destroyed, and Noph shall haue sorowes dayly. 17 The yong men of Auen, and of Phibeseth shall fall by the sworde: and these cities shall goe into captiuitie. 18 At Tehaphnehes the day shall restraine his light, when I shall breake there the barres of Egypt: and when the pompe of her power shall cease in her, the cloude shall couer her, and her daughters shall goe into captiuitie. 19 Thus will I execute iudgements in Egypt, and they shall knowe that I am the Lord. 20 And in the eleuenth yeere, in the first moneth, and in the seuenth day of the moneth, the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 21 Sonne of man, I haue broken the arme of Pharaoh King of Egypt: and lo, it shall not be boud vp to be healed, neither shall they put a roule to bind it, and so make it strong, to hold the sworde. 22 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I come against Pharaoh King of Egypt, and will breake his arme, that was strong, but is broken, and I will cause the sworde to fall out of his hande. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countreys. 24 And I will strengthen the arme of the King of Babel, and put my sworde in his hand, but I will breake Pharaohs armes, and he shall cast out sighings, as the sighings of him, that is wounded before him. 25 But I will strengthen the armes of the king of Babel, and the armes of Pharaoh shall fall downe, and they shall knowe, that I am the Lord, when I shall put my sworde into the hand of the King of Babel, and he shall stretch it out vpon the land of Egypt. 26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among ye countreys, and they shall knowe, that I am the Lord.