Ezekiel 30

¹ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

² ‘Son of man, prophesy and say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: Howl: Alas, the day!

³ For the day is near, the day of Yahweh is near; it will be a day dark with cloud, the end of an epoch for the nations.

⁴ The sword will come on Egypt, and terror will visit Ethiopia when the slaughtered fall in Egypt, when her riches are carried away, when her foundations are destroyed.

⁵ Cush and Put and Lud, the whole of Arabia and Cub and the sons of my covenant will fall by the sword along with them.

⁶ Yahweh says this: The supports of Egypt will fall; the pride of her strength will crumble; people will fall by the sword from Migdol to Syene – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.

⁷ They will be laid waste among wasted countries; her cities will rank with other ruined cities.

⁸ They will learn that I am Yahweh when I set fire to Egypt and all her supports are shattered.

⁹ On that day messengers despatched by me will set out in boats to shake the complacency of Ethiopia Terror will run through her inhabitants on the day of Egypt – it is coming now!

¹⁰ The Lord Yahweh says this: I intend to destroy the huge population of Egypt at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

¹¹ He and his people, most barbarous of nations, will be sent to ravage the country. They will draw the sword against Egypt and fill the country with corpses.

¹² I am going to dry up the arms of the Nile, hand the country over to brigands. and lay the whole country waste and everything in it, at the hand of foreigners. I, Yahweh, have spoken.

¹³ The Lord Yahweh says this: I mean to destroy the idols, and take the rams away from Noph.[*a] The land of Egypt will be left without a ruler. I shall spread terror through the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ I shall lay Pathros waste, set Zoan on fire, inflict my punishments on No.

¹⁵ I shall discharge my fury on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; I shall wipe out the crowding population of No.

¹⁶ I shall set fire to Egypt; Sin will be racked with anguish; there will be a flood at No, the waters will inundate it.

¹⁷ The young men of On and Pi-beseth will fall by the sword and the cities themselves go into captivity.

¹⁸ At Tahpanhes day will turn to darkness when I shatter the yoke of Egypt there, when the pride of her strength ceases. A cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.

¹⁹ Such will be the punishments that I am going to inflict on Egypt. And so men will learn that I am Yahweh.”‘

²⁰ In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month,[*b] the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

²¹ ‘Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; you can see that no one has bound up his wound to heal it, given it a bandage or a dressing to make the arm strong enough to wield the sword again.

²² And so, the Lord Yahweh says this: Now I set myself against Pharaoh king of Egypt; I intend to break his arms, the sound one and the broken one, and make the sword drop from his hand.

²³ I shall scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse her throughout the countries.

²⁴ I shall strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand. I shall break Pharaoh’s arms and, confronted with his enemy, he will groan like a dying man.

²⁵ I shall strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall. And so men will learn that I am Yahweh, when I put my sword into the hands of the king of Babylon and he wields it against the land of Egypt.

²⁶ I mean to scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse her throughout the countries; and men will learn that I am Yahweh.’