A lament for Egypt
30
The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 📚“Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God: Wail! Woe for the day!
3 📚For the day is near,
the day of the LORD is near,
a day of clouds.
It will be the time of the nations.
30:3 Notes on the Day of the LORD at Joel 1:15. In the midst of prophecies about Egypt, some of which were fulfilled long ago, God speaks of a time of judgment at the end of this age and punishment on all nations.⚜
4 📚And the sword will come on Egypt,
and there will be great anguish
in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt,
and they take away her wealth,
and her foundations are broken down.
5 📚“Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia,
and all the mixed peoples, and Khub,
and the men of the land
which is allied,
will fall by the sword with them.
6 📚“Thus says the LORD:
Those who support Egypt
will also fall.
And the pride of her power
will come down.
They will fall in it by the sword,
from the tower of Syene,
says the Lord God.
7 📚And they will be desolate among
the countries that are desolate,
and her cities will be among
the ruined cities.
8 📚And they will know that
I am the LORD,
when I set a fire in Egypt,
and when all her helpers
are destroyed.
9 📚“In that day messengers
will go out from me in ships to make
the careless Ethiopians afraid,
and great anguish will come
on them, as in the day of Egypt;
for, see, it is coming.
10 📚Thus says the Lord God:
“I will also make an end of the hordes
of Egypt at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon.
11 📚He and his people with him,
the most terrible 📖 of the nations,
will be brought to destroy the land,
and they will draw their swords against
Egypt and fill the land with the slain.
12 📚And I will dry up the rivers,
and sell the land into the hands
of the wicked,
and I will lay waste the land
and everything in it at the hand
of strangers.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
13 📚“Thus says the Lord God:
I will also destroy the idols 📖,
and put an end to the images of Noph 📖.
And there will no longer be a prince
of the land of Egypt;
and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.
14 📚And I will make Pathros desolate,
and set fire to Zoan,
and execute judgments in No 📖.
15 📚And I will pour my fury on Sin 📖,
the strength of Egypt,
and I will cut off the populace of No.
16 📚And I will set fire to Egypt.
Sin will have great anguish,
and No will be torn in two,
and Noph will have daily distress.
17 📚The young men of Aven
and of Pibeseth will fall by the sword,
and these cities will go into captivity.
18 📚At Tahpanhes also the day
will be dark, when I break there
the yokes of Egypt,
and the pomp of her strength
will cease in her.
As for her, a cloud will cover her,
and her daughters will go
into captivity.
19 📚Thus I will execute judgments
in Egypt, and they will know
that I am the LORD”.
20 📚And it came about 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 broken the arm 📖 of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and, see, it will not be bandaged for healing, and a splint will not be put on to bind it to make it strong enough to hold a sword. 22 📚Therefore thus says the Lord God: See, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong one, and the one that was broken, and I will cause the sword to fall from his hand.
30:22 God would completely break Pharaoh’s power and make it impossible for him to go to war.⚜
23 📚And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24 📚And I 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 man with a deadly wound. 25 📚But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they will know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretches it out over the land of Egypt. 26 📚And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they will know that I am the LORD”.