Ezekiel 29-33

New King James Version

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, saying, ²“Son of man, ^(A)set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and ^(B)against all Egypt. ³Speak, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

^(C)“Behold, I am against you,
O Pharaoh king of Egypt,
O great ^(D)monster who lies in the midst of his rivers,
^(E)Who has said, ‘My ^[a]River is my own;
I have made it for myself.’
⁴But ^(F)I will put hooks in your jaws,
And cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales;
I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers,
And all the fish in your rivers will stick to your scales.
⁵I will leave you in the wilderness,
You and all the fish of your rivers;
You shall fall on the ^[b]open ^(G)field;
^(H)You shall not be picked up or ^[c]gathered.
^(I)I have given you as food
To the beasts of the field
And to the birds of the heavens.

⁶“Then all the inhabitants of Egypt
Shall know that I am the Lord,
Because they have been a ^(J)staff of reed to the house of Israel.
⁷^(K)When they took hold of you with the hand,
You broke and tore all their ^[d]shoulders;
When they leaned on you,
You broke and made all their backs quiver.”

⁸‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will bring ^(L)a sword upon you and cut off from you man and beast. ⁹And the land of Egypt shall become ^(M)desolate and waste; then they will know that I am the Lord, because he said, ‘The River is mine, and I have made it.’ ¹⁰Indeed, therefore, I am against you and against your rivers, ^(N)and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, ^(O)from ^[e]Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. ¹¹^(P)Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor foot of beast pass through it, and it shall be uninhabited forty years. ¹²^(Q)I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and among the cities that are laid waste, her cities shall be desolate forty years; and I will ^(R)scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries.”

¹³‘Yet, thus says the Lord God: “At the ^(S)end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered. ¹⁴I will bring back the captives of Egypt and cause them to return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they shall be a ^(T)lowly kingdom. ¹⁵It shall be the lowliest of kingdoms; it shall never again exalt itself above the nations, for I will diminish them so that they will not rule over the nations anymore. ¹⁶No longer shall it be ^(U)the confidence of the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity when they turned to follow them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.” ’ ”

Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt

¹⁷And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁸“Son of man, ^(V)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made ^(W)bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it. ¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I will give the land of Egypt to ^(X)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army. ²⁰I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they ^(Y)worked for Me,’ says the Lord God.

²¹‘In that day ^(Z)I will cause the ^[f]horn of the house of Israel to spring forth, and I will ^(AA)open your mouth to speak in their midst. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Egypt and Her Allies Will Fall

30 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, ²“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

^(AB)“Wail, ‘Woe to the day!’
³For ^(AC)the day is near,
Even the day of the Lord is near;
It will be a day of clouds, the time of the Gentiles.
⁴The sword shall come upon Egypt,
And great anguish shall be in ^[g]Ethiopia,
When the slain fall in Egypt,
And they ^(AD)take away her wealth,
And ^(AE)her foundations are broken down.

⁵“Ethiopia, ^[h]Libya, ^[i]Lydia, ^(AF)all the mingled people, Chub, and the men of the lands who are allied, shall fall with them by the sword.”

⁶‘Thus says the Lord:

“Those who uphold Egypt shall fall,
And the pride of her power shall come down.
^(AG)From ^[j]Migdol to Syene
Those within her shall fall by the sword,”
Says the Lord God.

⁷“They^(AH) shall be desolate in the midst of the desolate countries,
And her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are laid waste.
⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord,
When I have set a fire in Egypt
And all her helpers are destroyed.
⁹On that day ^(AI)messengers shall go forth from Me in ships
To make the ^[k]careless Ethiopians afraid,
And great anguish shall come upon them,
As on the day of Egypt;
For indeed it is coming!”

¹⁰‘Thus says the Lord God:

^(AJ)“I will also make a multitude of Egypt to cease
By the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
¹¹He and his people with him, ^(AK)the most terrible of the nations,
Shall be brought to destroy the land;
They shall draw their swords against Egypt,
And fill the land with the slain.
¹²^(AL)I will make the rivers dry,
And ^(AM)sell the land into the hand of the wicked;
I will make the land waste, and all that is in it,
By the hand of aliens.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹³‘Thus says the Lord God:

“I will also ^(AN)destroy the idols,
And cause the images to cease from ^[l]Noph;
^(AO)There shall no longer be princes from the land of Egypt;
^(AP)I will put fear in the land of Egypt.
¹⁴I will make ^(AQ)Pathros desolate,
Set fire to ^(AR)Zoan,
^(AS)And execute judgments in ^[m]No.
¹⁵I will pour My fury on ^[n]Sin, the strength of Egypt;
^(AT)I will cut off the multitude of ^[o]No,
¹⁶And ^(AU)set a fire in Egypt;
Sin shall have great pain,
No shall be split open,
And Noph shall be in distress daily.
¹⁷The young men of ^[p]Aven and Pi Beseth shall fall by the sword,
And these cities shall go into captivity.
¹⁸^(AV)At ^[q]Tehaphnehes the day shall also be ^[r]darkened,
When I break the yokes of Egypt there.
And her arrogant strength shall cease in her;
As for her, a cloud shall cover her,
And her daughters shall go into captivity.
¹⁹Thus I will ^(AW)execute judgments on Egypt,
Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

Proclamation Against Pharaoh

²⁰And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²¹“Son of man, I have ^(AX)broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and see, ^(AY)it has not been bandaged for healing, nor a ^[s]splint put on to bind it, to make it strong enough to hold a sword. ²²Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I am ^(AZ)against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will ^(BA)break his arms, both the strong one and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall out of his hand. ²³^(BB)I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the countries. ²⁴I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he will groan before him with the groanings of a mortally wounded man. ²⁵Thus I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; ^(BC)they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. ²⁶^(BD)I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Egypt Cut Down Like a Great Tree^(BE)

31 Now it came to pass in the ^(BF)eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

^(BG)‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
³^(BH)Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
With fine branches that shaded the forest,
And of high stature;
And its top was among the thick boughs.
⁴^(BI)The waters made it grow;
Underground waters gave it height,
With their rivers running around the place where it was planted,
And sent out ^[t]rivulets to all the trees of the field.

⁵‘Therefore ^(BJ)its height was exalted above all the trees of the field;
Its boughs were multiplied,
And its branches became long because of the abundance of water,
As it sent them out.
⁶All the ^(BK)birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs;
Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young;
And in its shadow all great nations ^[u]made their home.

⁷‘Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches,
Because its roots reached to abundant waters.
⁸The cedars in the ^(BL)garden of God could not hide it;
The fir trees were not like its boughs,
And the ^[v]chestnut trees were not like its branches;
No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.
⁹I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches,
So that all the trees of Eden envied it,
That were in the garden of God.’

¹⁰“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and ^(BM)its heart was ^[w]lifted up in its height, ¹¹therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the ^(BN)mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness. ¹²And aliens, ^(BO)the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen ^(BP)on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs lie ^(BQ)broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it.

¹³‘On ^(BR)its ruin will remain all the birds of the heavens,
And all the beasts of the field will come to its branches—

¹⁴So that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor set their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drinks water may ever be high enough to reach up to them.

‘For ^(BS)they have all been delivered to death,
^(BT)To the depths of the earth,
Among the children of men who go down to the Pit.’

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord God: ‘In the day when it ^(BU)went down to ^[x]hell, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it. I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were held back. I caused Lebanon to ^[y]mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. ¹⁶I made the nations ^(BV)shake at the sound of its fall, when I ^(BW)cast it down to ^[z]hell together with those who descend into the Pit; and ^(BX)all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, ^(BY)were comforted in the depths of the earth. ¹⁷They also went down to hell with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its strong arm ^(BZ)dwelt in its shadows among the nations.

¹⁸^(CA)‘To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth; ^(CB)you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord God.”

Lamentation for Pharaoh and Egypt

32 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the ^(CC)twelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, ^(CD)take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him:

^(CE)‘You are like a young lion among the nations,
And ^(CF)you are like a monster in the seas,
^(CG)Bursting forth in your rivers,
Troubling the waters with your feet,
And ^(CH)fouling their rivers.

³‘Thus says the Lord God:

“I will therefore ^(CI)spread My net over you with a company of many people,
And they will draw you up in My net.
⁴Then ^(CJ)I will leave you on the land;
I will cast you out on the open fields,
^(CK)And cause to ^[aa]settle on you all the birds of the heavens.
And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth.
⁵I will lay your flesh ^(CL)on the mountains,
And fill the valleys with your carcass.

⁶“I will also water the land with the flow of your blood,
Even to the mountains;
And the riverbeds will be full of you.
⁷When I put out your light,
^(CM)I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
And the moon shall not give her light.
⁸All the ^[ab]bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you,
And bring darkness upon your land,”
Says the Lord God.

⁹‘I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. ¹⁰Yes, I will make many peoples astonished at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and ^(CN)they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.

¹¹^(CO)‘For thus says the Lord God: “The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. ¹²By the swords of the mighty warriors, all of them ^(CP)the most terrible of the nations, I will cause your multitude to fall.

^(CQ)“They shall plunder the pomp of Egypt,
And all its multitude shall be destroyed.
¹³Also I will destroy all its animals
From beside its great waters;
^(CR)The foot of man shall muddy them no more,
Nor shall the hooves of animals muddy them.
¹⁴Then I will make their waters ^[ac]clear,
And make their rivers run like oil,”
Says the Lord God.

¹⁵“When I make the land of Egypt desolate,
And the country is destitute of all that once filled it,
When I strike all who dwell in it,
^(CS)Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁶“This is the ^(CT)lamentation
With which they shall lament her;
The daughters of the nations shall lament her;
They shall lament for her, for Egypt,
And for all her multitude,”
Says the Lord God.’ ”

Egypt and Others Consigned to the Pit

¹⁷It came to pass also in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, ^(CU)that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

¹⁸“Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt,
And ^(CV)cast them down to the depths of the earth,
Her and the daughters of the famous nations,
With those who go down to the Pit:
¹⁹‘Whom ^(CW)do you surpass in beauty?
^(CX)Go down, be placed with the uncircumcised.’

²⁰“They shall fall in the midst of those slain by the sword;
She is delivered to the sword,
^(CY)Drawing her and all her multitudes.
²¹^(CZ)The strong among the mighty
Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell
With those who help him:
‘They have ^(DA)gone down,
They lie with the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

²²“Assyria^(DB) is there, and all her company,
With their graves all around her,
All of them slain, fallen by the sword.
²³^(DC)Her graves are set in the recesses of the Pit,
And her company is all around her grave,
All of them slain, fallen by the sword,
Who ^(DD)caused terror in the land of the living.

²⁴“There is ^(DE)Elam and all her multitude,
All around her grave,
All of them slain, fallen by the sword,
Who have ^(DF)gone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth,
^(DG)Who caused their terror in the land of the living;
Now they bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.
²⁵They have set her ^(DH)bed in the midst of the slain,
With all her multitude,
With her graves all around it,
All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword;
Though their terror was caused
In the land of the living,
Yet they bear their shame
With those who go down to the Pit;
It was put in the midst of the slain.

²⁶“There are ^(DI)Meshech and Tubal and all their multitudes,
With all their graves around it,
All of them ^(DJ)uncircumcised, slain by the sword,
Though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
²⁷^(DK)They do not lie with the mighty
Who are fallen of the uncircumcised,
Who have gone down to hell with their weapons of war;
They have laid their swords under their heads,
But their iniquities will be on their bones,
Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
²⁸Yes, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised,
And lie with those slain by the sword.

²⁹“There is ^(DL)Edom,
Her kings and all her princes,
Who despite their might
Are laid beside those slain by the sword;
They shall lie with the uncircumcised,
And with those who go down to the Pit.
³⁰^(DM)There are the princes of the north,
All of them, and all the ^(DN)Sidonians,
Who have gone down with the slain
In shame at the terror which they caused by their might;
They lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword,
And bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

³¹“Pharaoh will see them
And be ^(DO)comforted over all his multitude,
Pharaoh and all his army,
Slain by the sword,”
Says the Lord God.

³²“For I have caused My terror in the land of the living;
And he shall be placed in the midst of the uncircumcised
With those slain by the sword,
Pharaoh and all his multitude,”
Says the Lord God.

The Watchman and His Message

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, speak to ^(DP)the children of your people, and say to them: ^(DQ)‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their ^(DR)watchman, ³when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, ⁴then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does ^(DS)not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, ^(DT)his blood shall be on his own head. ⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will ^[ad]save his life. ⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, ^(DU)he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

⁷^(DV)“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. ⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ^[ae]delivered your soul.

¹⁰“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we ^(DW)pine^[af] away in them, ^(DX)how can we then live?” ’ ¹¹Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ^(DY)‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked ^(DZ)turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For ^(EA)why should you die, O house of Israel?’

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

¹²“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The ^(EB)righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, ^(EC)he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’ ¹³When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, ^(ED)but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die. ¹⁴Again, ^(EE)when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does ^[ag]what is lawful and ^[ah]right, ¹⁵if the wicked ^(EF)restores the pledge, ^(EG)gives back what he has stolen, and walks in ^(EH)the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ¹⁶^(EI)None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷^(EJ)“Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not ^[ai]fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair! ¹⁸^(EK)When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it. ¹⁹But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it. ²⁰Yet you say, ^(EL)‘The way of the Lord is not ^[aj]fair.’ O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways.”

The Fall of Jerusalem

²¹And it came to pass in the twelfth year ^(EM)of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, ^(EN)that one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, ^(EO)“The city has been ^[ak]captured!”

²²Now ^(EP)the hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the man came who had escaped. And He had ^(EQ)opened my mouth; so when he came to me in the morning, my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

The Cause of Judah’s Ruin

²³Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²⁴“Son of man, ^(ER)they who inhabit those ^(ES)ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ^(ET)‘Abraham was only one, and he inherited the land. ^(EU)But we are many; the land has been given to us as a ^(EV)possession.’

²⁵“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ^(EW)“You eat meat with blood, you ^(EX)lift up your eyes toward your idols, and ^(EY)shed blood. Should you then possess the ^(EZ)land? ²⁶You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and you ^(FA)defile one another’s wives. Should you then possess the land?” ’

²⁷“Say thus to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “As I live, surely ^(FB)those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and the one who is in the open field ^(FC)I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and ^(FD)caves shall die of the pestilence. ²⁸^(FE)For I will make the land most desolate, ^[al]her ^(FF)arrogant strength shall cease, and ^(FG)the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through. ²⁹Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.” ’

Hearing and Not Doing

³⁰“As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they ^(FH)speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, ‘Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ ³¹So ^(FI)they come to you as people do, they ^(FJ)sit before you as My people, and they ^(FK)hear your words, but they do not do them; ^(FL)for with their mouth they show much love, but ^(FM)their hearts pursue their own gain. ³²Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do ^(FN)not do them. ³³^(FO)And when this comes to pass—surely it will come—then ^(FP)they will know that a prophet has been among them.”