Ezekiel 30

A Lament for Egypt

¹ The word of the Lord came to me:

² Mortal, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God:

Wail, "Alas for the day!"
³ For a day is near,
the day of the Lord is near;
it will be a day of clouds,
a time of doom ₁ for the nations.
⁴ A sword shall come upon Egypt,
and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, ₂
when the slain fall in Egypt,
and its wealth is carried away,
and its foundations are torn down.

⁵ Ethiopia, ₃ and Put, and Lud, and all Arabia, and Libya, ₄ and the people of the allied land ₅ shall fall with them by the sword.

⁶ Thus says the Lord:
Those who support Egypt shall fall,
and its proud might shall come down;
from Migdol to Syene
they shall fall within it by the sword,
says the Lord God.
⁷ They shall be desolated among other desolated countries,
and their cities shall lie among cities laid waste.
⁸ Then they shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have set fire to Egypt,
and all who help it are broken.

⁹ On that day, messengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the unsuspecting Ethiopians; ₆ and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt's doom; ₇ for it is coming!

¹⁰ Thus says the Lord God:

I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,
by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.
¹¹ He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations,
shall be brought in to destroy the land;
and they shall draw their swords against Egypt,
and fill the land with the slain.
¹² I will dry up the channels,
and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers;
I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it
by the hand of foreigners;
I the Lord have spoken.

¹³ Thus says the Lord God:

I will destroy the idols
and put an end to the images in Memphis;
there shall no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt;
so I will put fear in the land of Egypt.
¹⁴ I will make Pathros a desolation,
and will set fire to Zoan,
and will execute acts of judgment on Thebes.
¹⁵ I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium,
the stronghold of Egypt,
and cut off the hordes of Thebes.
¹⁶ I will set fire to Egypt;
Pelusium shall be in great agony;
Thebes shall be breached,
and Memphis face adversaries by day.
¹⁷ The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword;
and the cities themselves ₈ shall go into captivity.
¹⁸ At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark,
when I break there the dominion of Egypt,
and its proud might shall come to an end;
the city ₉ shall be covered by a cloud,
and its daughter-towns shall go into captivity.
¹⁹ Thus I will execute acts of judgment on Egypt.
Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

Egypt Shall Fall to Babylon

²⁰ In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ Mortal, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; it has not been bound up for healing or wrapped with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. ²² Therefore thus says the Lord God: I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall from his hand. ²³ I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the lands. ²⁴ I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him with the groans of one mortally wounded. ²⁵ I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall stretch it out against the land of Egypt, ²⁶ and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.