Ezekiel 29:1-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Proclamation against Egypt
29 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt;(A) 3 speak and say: Thus says the Lord God:
I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon sprawling
in the midst of its channels,
saying, “My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.”(B)
4 I will put hooks in your jaws
and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales.
I will draw you up from your channels,
with all the fish of your channels
sticking to your scales.(C)
5 I will fling you into the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your channels;
you shall fall in the open field
and not be gathered or picked up.
To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air
I have given you as food.(D)
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know
that I am the Lord,
because you[a] were a staff of reed
to the house of Israel;(E)
7 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke
and tore all their shoulders,
and when they leaned on you, you broke
and made all their legs give way.[b](F)
8 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will bring a sword upon you and will cut off from you human and animal,(G) 9 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Because you[c] said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,” 10 therefore, I am against you and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush.(H) 11 No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years.(I) 12 I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.(J)
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