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Judgment of Egypt

¹ In the ^(C1)tenth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin by the king of Babylon, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,² "Son of man, set your face toward ^(C1)Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all ^(C2)Egypt.³ "Speak and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,

"Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,
The great ^(C1)monster that lies in the midst of his rivers,
Boastfully ^(C2)declaring, 'My Nile is my own, and I have made it for myself.'

⁴ "I will put ^(C1)hooks in your jaws
And I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales.
And I will pull you up from the midst of your rivers,
And all the fish of your rivers will stick to your scales.

⁵ "I will ^(C1)abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers;
You will fall on the open field; and you will not be ^(C2)gathered up or buried.
I have given you as ^(C3)food to the wild animals of the earth and the birds of the sky.

⁶ "And all the inhabitants of Egypt will know without any doubt that I am the LORD,
Because they have been only a ^(C1)staff made of fragile reeds to the house of Israel.

⁷ "When they (Israel) grasped you (Egypt) by the hand,
You ^(C1)broke and tore apart their hands;
When they leaned on you,
You broke and strained their backs."

⁸ 'Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am going to ^(C1)bring a sword on you and cut off (destroy) both man and animal,

⁹ and the ^(C1)land of Egypt will be a desolation and a wasteland. And they will know without any doubt that I am the LORD. "Because you ^(C2)said, 'The Nile is mine and I have made it,'¹⁰ behold (hear this), therefore, I am ^(C1)against you and against your rivers (the Nile, its tributaries), and I will make the land of Egypt a complete waste and a desolation, from northern Migdol to southern ^(F1)Syene, even as far as the border of Ethiopia (Cush).¹¹ "^(C1)No man's foot will pass through it, no animal's foot will pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.¹² "So I will make the land of Egypt a desolation plundered and ruined ^(C1)among desolated lands; and her cities, among cities that are laid waste, will be desolate forty years. I will ^(C2)scatter the Egyptians among the nations and I will disperse them through the lands."

¹³ 'For thus says the Lord GOD, "At the end of forty years I will ^(C1)gather the Egyptians from the nations among whom they were scattered. ^(VR1)14 "I will reverse the fortunes of Egypt as I will that of Israel and cause them to return to the land of ^(C1)Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom.¹⁵ "It will be the ^(C1)lowliest of the kingdoms, and it will ^(F1)never again exalt itself above the nations; I will diminish the Egyptians so they will never again ^(C2)rule over the nations.¹⁶ "And Egypt will never again have the ^(C1)confidence of the house of Israel; their wickedness will be ^(C2)remembered whenever Israel looks toward them for help. Then they will know without any doubt that I am the Lord GOD."'"

¹⁷ In the ^(C1)twenty-seventh year after King Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon, in the first month, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,¹⁸ "Son of man, ^(C1)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army ^(F1)work hard at My command against Tyre; every soldier's head became ^(F2)(C2)bald and every shoulder was worn and peeled from carrying loads of dirt and stones for siege works. Yet he had no wages from Tyre in proportion to the time and labor expended during the siege, either for himself or his army, for the work that he had done against it for Me."¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I ^(C1)will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her ^(C2)wealth and capture her spoil and seize her plunder; and it shall be the wages for his army.²⁰ "I have given him the land of Egypt for the hard work which he ^(C1)did against Tyre, because they did it for Me," says the Lord GOD.

²¹ "In that day I will make a ^(C1)horn sprout for the house of Israel, and I will ^(C2)open your mouth among them, and they will know without any doubt that I am the LORD when I renew their strength."