Ezekiel 29

¹ In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month,[*a] the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

² ‘Son of man, turn towards Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against the whole of Egypt.

³ Speak to him and say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: Now I set myself against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great crocodile wallowing in your Niles, you have said: My Niles are mine, I made them.

⁴ I am going to put hooks through your jaws, make your Nile fish stick to your scales, and pull you out of your Niles with all your Nile fish sticking to your scales.

⁵ I shall drop you in the desert, with all your Nile fish. You will fall on open ground and not be taken up or buried. I shall give you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven,

⁶ so that all the inhabitants of Egypt may learn that I am Yahweh, since they have given no more support than a reed to the House of Israel.

⁷ Whenever they grasped you, you broke in their hands and cut their hands all over. Whenever they leaned on you, you broke and left their loins shaking.

⁸ For this reason, the Lord Yahweh says this: I am sending the sword against you, to kill your men and your beasts.

⁹ Egypt will be reduced to desert and desolation, and men will learn that I am Yahweh. Since he has said: The Nile is mine, I made it,

¹⁰ very well, now I set myself against you and your Niles. I mean to reduce Egypt to desert and desolation, from Migdol to Syene and beyond to the frontiers of Ethiopia.[*b]

¹¹ The feet of men will not pass that way, the feet of animals will not pass that way. For forty years it will remain uninhabited.

¹² I intend to reduce the land of Egypt to a waste among wasted countries; for forty years its cities will be a waste among ruined cities. And I shall scatter the Egyptians among the nations, dispersing them throughout the peoples.

¹³ And the Lord Yahweh says this: After forty years have passed, I will gather the inhabitants of Egypt from the nations where they have been scattered.

¹⁴ I will bring the Egyptian captives back and reinstall them in the land of Pathros,[*c] the land they came from. There they will constitute a weak kingdom.

¹⁵ Egypt will be the weakest of kingdoms and no longer dominate other nations; I shall reduce her, and she will not rule any more over the nations.

¹⁶ She will no longer be anything for the House of Israel to trust in, but will be living evidence of the sins of Israel at the time when Israel turned to her for help. And men will learn that I am the Lord Yahweh.”‘

¹⁷ In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month,[*d] the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows:

¹⁸ ‘Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon mobilised his army for a great expedition against Tyre. Their heads have all gone bald, their shoulders are all chafed, but even so he has derived no profit from the expedition mounted against Tyre either for himself or for his army.

¹⁹ Since this is so, the Lord Yahweh says this: I am going to hand Egypt over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will levy his share of riches there instead, will loot it and carry off the booty to pay his army.

²⁰ In reward for his efforts against Tyre I am handing the land of Egypt over to him, since he has been working for me – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.

²¹ ‘On that day I will cause the House of Israel to sprout a horn, and I shall allow you to open your mouth for all to hear. And so they will learn that I am Yahweh.’