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,29:1 January 587 BC.⚜
2 📚“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt.
29:2 For other prophecies concerning Egypt see Isaiah chapters 19 and 20 and Jeremiah chapter 46.⚜
3 📚Speak and say, Thus says the Lord God:
See, I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great monster 📖 that lies
among its rivers, who has said 📖,
‘My river is my own,
and I made it for myself.’
4 📚But I will put hooks 📖 in your jaws,
and I will cause the fish of your rivers
to stick to your scales,
and I will bring you up from
among your rivers,
and all the fish of your rivers will stick
to your scales.
5 📚And I will leave you in the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your rivers.
You will fall on the open field.
You will not be picked up
or gathered.
I have given you as food to the beasts
of the field and to the birds of the sky.
6 📚“And all the inhabitants of Egypt
will know that I am the LORD,
because they have been a staff
of reed to the house of Israel.
7 📚When they took hold of you
with the hand, you broke,
and tore their whole shoulder;
and when they leaned on you,
you broke, and made all their
lower back to shake.
29:7 Egypt was a useless ally to Israel against the Babylonians.⚜
8 📚“Therefore thus says the Lord God: See, I will bring a sword 📖 on you, and cut off man and beast from you. 9 📚And the land of Egypt will be desolate and ruined, because he said, ‘The river is mine, and I made it’; and they will know that I am the LORD.
29:9 Pharaoh would find out who the true Creator is.⚜
10 📚Therefore, see, I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly ruined and desolate, from the tower of Syene to the border of Ethiopia 📖. 11 📚No human foot will pass through it, no foot of beast will pass through it; and it will not be inhabited for forty years. 12 📚And I will make the land of Egypt desolate among the countries that are desolate, and among the cities that are ruined her cities will be desolate for forty years. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
13 📚“Yet thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the people where they are scattered, 14 📚and I will bring Egypt back from captivity, and will cause them to return to the land of Pathros, to the land from which they came, and there they will be a lowly kingdom. 15 📚It will be the lowliest of the kingdoms. No longer will it exalt itself above the nations; for I will make them small, so that they will no longer rule over the nations.
29:15 Egypt has never regained the power it had under the ancient Pharaohs.⚜
16 📚And it will no longer be the confidence of the house of Israel, but it will bring to remembrance their guilt in looking to them 📖; and they will know that I am the Lord God”.
17 📚And it came about 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, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to work hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare. Yet neither he nor his army received any wages for Tyre, for the work he did against it.
29:18 Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for nearly 15 years but was unable to capture the city’s main part which was on an island in the bay (Ezek 26:7-8).⚜
19 📚Therefore thus says the Lord God: See, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will take away her wealth, and capture her plunder, and take her prey, and this will be the wages for his army.
20 📚I have given him the land of Egypt for the work that he did against it, because they were working for me 📖, says the Lord God.
21 📚“In that day I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them; and they will know that I am the LORD”.
29:21 Horn signifies power, strength, or authority.⚜