Ezekiel 29

¹In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁷In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and they sat down before me.

¹In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord God fell upon me.

¹In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month—in the fourteenth year after Jerusalem had been struck down—on that very day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and He took me there.

²On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—

²“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

²concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah:

³“Deploy your shields, small and large; advance for battle!

³⁰This is what the Lord says: Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who seek his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who was seeking his life.”

²“Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

²“Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel

¹⁸to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;

¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officials, his leaders, and all his people;

¹In that day the Lord will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.

²“Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’

³⁰This is what the Lord says: Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who seek his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who was seeking his life.”

¹⁷You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

⁹The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it,’

¹⁰therefore I am against you and against your rivers. I will turn the land of Egypt into a ruin, a desolate wasteland from Migdol to Syene, and as far as the border of Cush.

³Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads.

⁴His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, hurling them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth.

⁴I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws, and bring you out with all your army—your horses, your horsemen in full armor, and a great company armed with shields and bucklers, all brandishing their swords.

²⁸Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’

²⁹Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’

¹⁴You have made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler.

¹⁵The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.

²The Lord God has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

¹“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³³The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.

²They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground.

⁴I will abandon you on the land and hurl you into the open field. I will cause all the birds of the air to settle upon you, and all the beasts of the earth to eat their fill of you.

⁵I will put your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains.

²⁰I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

³³Those slain by the Lord on that day will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung lying on the ground.

⁵The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.

⁶He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead; He will crush the leaders far and wide.

⁶Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

²¹Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

²⁶And there they will dwell securely, build houses, and plant vineyards. They will dwell securely when I execute judgments against all those around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.’”

³⁶How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

⁵Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

⁶And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

¹⁸The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

⁶Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

¹⁵But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and yet escape?’

¹⁶‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who enthroned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

⁶He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

⁸It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

⁹It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

³Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.

⁴When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

¹⁹Like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.

¹⁷Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,

¹³This is the word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol; proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes: ‘Take your positions and prepare yourself, for the sword devours those around you.’

⁴A sword will come against Egypt, and there will be anguish in Cush when the slain fall in Egypt, its wealth is taken away, and its foundations are torn down.

⁷So the Lord said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

¹⁰I will cause many peoples to be appalled over you, and their kings will shudder in horror because of you when I brandish My sword before them. On the day of your downfall each of them will tremble every moment for his life.’

¹¹For this is what the Lord God says: ‘The sword of the king of Babylon will come against you!

¹³therefore this is what the Lord God says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.

³Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’

¹⁰therefore I am against you and against your rivers. I will turn the land of Egypt into a ruin, a desolate wasteland from Migdol to Syene, and as far as the border of Cush.

¹¹No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.

¹²Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

²³A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.

⁷They will be desolate among desolate lands, and their cities will lie among ruined cities.

⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord when I set fire to Egypt and all her helpers are shattered.

¹²I will make the streams dry up and sell the land to the wicked. By the hands of foreigners I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it. I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹¹No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.

²“Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal-zephon.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis—and in the land of Pathros:

¹⁴“Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol; proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes: ‘Take your positions and prepare yourself, for the sword devours those around you.’

⁸Were You angry at the rivers, O Lord? Was Your wrath against the streams? Did You rage against the sea when You rode on Your horses, on Your chariots of salvation?

¹³I will slaughter all her cattle beside the abundant waters. No human foot will muddy them again, and no cattle hooves will disturb them.

¹¹He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.

¹²Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.

¹⁰This is what the Lord God says: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

¹¹He and his people with him, the most ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.

²⁸I will make the land a desolate waste, and the pride of her strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will become desolate, so that no one will pass through.

²⁸Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.

²³I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

¹⁹Pack your bags for exile, O daughter dwelling in Egypt! For Memphis will be laid waste, destroyed and uninhabited.

⁷They will be desolate among desolate lands, and their cities will lie among ruined cities.

¹⁵This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.

¹⁶And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.”

²⁶I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

⁷All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.

²⁶I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives—of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old, declares the Lord.

²²And the Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; He will strike them but heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and He will hear their prayers and heal them.

¹⁴I will lay waste Pathros, set fire to Zoan, and execute judgment on Thebes.

¹¹On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis—and in the land of Pathros:

¹²the Pathrusites, the Casluhites (from whom the Philistines came), and the Caphtorites.

¹⁴the Pathrusites, the Casluhites (from whom the Philistines came), and the Caphtorites.

¹³This is what the Lord God says: I will destroy the idols and put an end to the images in Memphis. There will no longer be a prince in Egypt, and I will instill fear in that land.

¹¹They will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves of the sea; all the depths of the Nile will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart.

⁸Are you better than Thebes, stationed by the Nile with water around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the water?

⁹Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were her allies.

⁶It sprouted and became a spreading vine, low in height, with branches turned toward him; yet its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine and yielded branches and sent out shoots.

¹⁴so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to lift itself up, surviving only by keeping his covenant.

²“Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’

⁵Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

¹³Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the Lord does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.

⁶Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the Lord. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.

⁷When Israel took hold of you with their hands, you splintered, tearing all their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke, and their backs were wrenched.

⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O Lord.

³⁶How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

³⁷Moreover, you will leave that place with your hands on your head, for the Lord has rejected those you trust; you will not prosper by their help.”

⁹Do not be angry, O Lord, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!

¹In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—

¹In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

⁷For this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with cavalry and a great company of troops.

⁸He will slaughter the villages of your mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp to your walls, and raise his shields against you.

⁹behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

³⁷For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.

²⁴I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king and place My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, who will groan before him like a mortally wounded man.

²⁵I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king, but Pharaoh’s arms will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I place My sword in the hand of Babylon’s king, and he wields it against the land of Egypt.

¹⁰Then tell them that this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.

¹¹He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.

¹⁰This is what the Lord God says: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

¹¹He and his people with him, the most ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.

¹¹For this is what the Lord God says: ‘The sword of the king of Babylon will come against you!

⁴A sword will come against Egypt, and there will be anguish in Cush when the slain fall in Egypt, its wealth is taken away, and its foundations are torn down.

⁸Therefore this is what the Lord God says: I will bring a sword against you and cut off from you man and beast.

⁹The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it,’

⁹behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

⁷But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.

¹This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:

²“I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

³⁰Nevertheless, the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in My sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”

¹⁵For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

¹⁰Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder from heaven against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth and will give power to His king. He will exalt the horn of His anointed.”

¹⁷There I will make a horn grow for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.

⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken—who will not prophesy?

¹⁰But You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; with fine oil I have been anointed.

²⁷On that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped; you will speak and no longer be mute. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord.”