Ezekiel 30 - 31

Those Who Support Egypt Will Fall

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

“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’

For the day is near,

Even the day of Yahweh is near;

It will be a day of clouds,

A time of doom for the nations.

A sword will come upon Egypt,

And anguish will be in Ethiopia;

When the slain fall in Egypt,

They take away her multitude,

And her foundations are pulled down.

5 Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya, and the people of the land that is in covenant will fall with them by the sword.”
6 ‘Thus says Yahweh,

“Indeed, those who support Egypt will fall,

And the pride of her strength will come down;

From Migdol to Syene

They will fall within her by the sword,”

Declares Lord Yahweh.

“They will be desolate

In the midst of the desolated lands;

And her cities will be

In the midst of the cities laid waste.

And they will know that I am Yahweh,

When I set a fire in Egypt

And all her helpers are broken.

9 On that day messengers will go forth from Me in ships to frighten secure Ethiopia; and anguish will be on them as on the day of Egypt; for behold, it is coming!”
10 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“I will also make the multitude of Egypt cease

By the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

He and his people with him,

The most ruthless of the nations,

Will be brought in to make the land a ruin;

And they will draw their swords against Egypt

And fill the land with the slain.

Moreover, I will make the canals of the Nile dry

And sell the land into the hands of evil men.

And I will make the land desolate,

As well as its fullness,

By the hand of strangers; I, Yahweh, have spoken.”

13 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

“I will also destroy the idols

And make the images cease from Memphis.

And there will no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt;

And I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

I will make Pathros desolate,

Set a fire in Zoan,

And execute judgments on Thebes.

I will pour out My wrath on Sin,

The strong defense of Egypt;

I will also cut off the multitude of Thebes.

I will set a fire in Egypt;

Sin will writhe in anguish;

Thebes will be breached,

And Memphis will have distresses daily.

The choice men of On and of Pi‑beseth

Will fall by the sword,

And the women will go into captivity.

In Tehaphnehes the day will be dark

When I break there the bars of the yoke of Egypt.

Then the pride of her strength will cease in her;

A cloud will cover her,

And her daughters will go into captivity.

Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt,

And they will know that I am Yahweh.”’”

Yahweh Scatters the Egyptians

20 In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 21 “Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up to be given healing or wrapped with a bandage, that it may be strong to seize the sword. 22 Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong and the broken; and I will make the sword fall from his hand. 23 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands. 24 For I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; and I will break the arms of Pharaoh so that he will groan before him with the groanings of a wounded man. 25 Thus I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. 26 When I scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands, then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

Egypt Will Be Brought Down to Sheol

Now it happened in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude,

‘To whom do you liken yourself in your greatness?

Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon

With beautiful branches and forest shade

And lofty in height,

And its top was among the clouds.

The waters made it grow; the deep made it high.

With its rivers it was going all around its planting place

And sent out its conduits to all the trees of the field.

Therefore its height was loftier than all the trees of the field,

And its boughs became many and its branches long

Because of many waters as it spread them out.

All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs,

And under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,

And all great nations lived under its shade.

So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its foliage;

For its roots extended to many waters.

The cedars in God’s garden could not match it;

The cypresses could not liken themselves with its boughs,

And the plane trees were not like its branches.

No tree in God’s garden could liken itself with it in its beauty.

I made it beautiful with the multitude of its foliage,

And all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, were jealous of it.

10 ‘Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because it is lofty in height and has put its top among the clouds, and its heart is high up in its loftiness, 11 therefore I will give it into the hand of a dominant one of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away. 12 Strangers—ruthless ones of the nations have cut it down and abandoned it; on the mountains and in all the valleys its foliage has fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shade and abandoned it. 13 On its downfall all the birds of the sky will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches 14 so that all the trees by the waters may not be lofty in their height, nor put their top among the clouds, nor their dominant ones—all the well-watered ones—stand in their loftiness. For they have all been given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.”
15 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I covered it with the deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered ones, were comforted in the earth beneath. 17 They also went down with it to Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; and those who were its strength lived under its shade among the nations.
18 “To which among the trees of Eden do you thus liken yourself in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath; you will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. So is Pharaoh and all his multitude!”’ declares Lord Yahweh.”