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Dirge for Pharaoh and Egypt

¹ In the ^(C1)twelfth year after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken into exile by the king of Babylon, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,² "Son of man, take up a ^(C1)dirge (funeral poem to be sung) over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him,

'You have compared yourself to a young ^(C2)lion among the nations,
But you are like a ^(C3)monster in the seas;
You ^(C4)burst into your rivers
And disturbed and muddied the waters with your feet
And fouled their rivers the source of their prosperity.'"

³ Thus says the Lord GOD,

"I will ^(C1)spread out My net over you
With a company of many nations,
And they will bring you up in My net.

⁴ "Then I will leave you (Egypt) on the land;
I will hurl you on the open field.
And I will make all the ^(C1)birds of the sky dwell on you,
And I will satisfy the animals of all the earth with you.

⁵ "And I will scatter your flesh ^(C1)on the mountains
And fill the valleys with your debris your corpses and their worms.

⁶ "I will also water the land with your flowing ^(C1)blood
As far as the mountains,
And the ravines will be full of you.

⁷ "And when I ^(C1)extinguish you,
I will ^(C2)cover the heavens of Egypt and darken their ^(C3)stars;
I will cover the ^(C4)sun with a cloud
And the moon will not give its light.

⁸ "All the bright ^(C1)lights in the heavens
I will darken over you
And I will place darkness on your land,"
Says the Lord GOD.

¹¹ For ^(C1)thus says the Lord GOD, "The sword of the king of Babylon will come on you.¹² "I will make your horde of people fall by the swords of the mighty—all of them are ^(C1)tyrants among the nations,

And they will ^(C2)devastate the pride and presumption of Egypt,
And all its hordes will be destroyed.

¹³ "I will also destroy all its cattle from beside its great waters;
And ^(C1)the foot of man will not muddy them anymore
Nor will the hoofs of the animals muddy them.

¹⁴ "Then I will make their waters quiet and clear;
I will make their rivers run slowly and smoothly like oil,"
Says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵ "When I make the land of Egypt ^(C1)desolate,
And the country is stripped and deprived of all that which filled it,
When I strike all those who live in it,
Then they will ^(C2)know without any doubt that I am the LORD.

¹⁷ In the ^(C1)twelfth year after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken into exile, on the ^(C1)fifteenth of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,¹⁸ "Son of man, ^(C1)wail over the hordes of Egypt and ^(C2)cast them down, both her and the daughters of the powerful and majestic nations, to the ^(C3)nether world (the place of the dead), with those who go down to the pit;

¹⁹ 'Whom among them do you surpass in beauty?
Go down and make your bed with the ^(C1)uncircumcised (the barbaric, the boorish, the crude).'

²² "^(C1)Assyria is there with all her warriors; their graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword,²³ whose ^(C1)graves are set in the remotest parts of the pit and her army is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.

²⁴ "^(F1)(C1)Elam a conquest of Assyria is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised to the ^(C2)lower parts of the earth, who made their terror spread in the ^(C3)land of the living and ^(C4)bore their shame and defeat with those who went down to the pit.²⁵ "They have made a ^(C1)bed for her among the slain with all her hordes. Her graves are around it; they are all uncircumcised (barbaric, boorish, crude), slain by the sword (for their terror had been spread in the land of the living), and they bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit; they were laid among the slain.

²⁶ "^(C1)Meshech, ^(C2)Tubal, and all their hordes are there; their graves ^(F1)surround them. All of them ^(C3)uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for they spread their terror in the land of the living.²⁷ "^(C1)Nor do they lie beside the fallen ^(C2)heroes of the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid with honors under their heads. The punishment for their ^(C3)sins rested on their bones, for the terror of these heroes was once in the land of the living.²⁸ "But you will be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised and you will lie without honors with those who are slain by the sword.

²⁹ "^(C1)Edom is there also, her kings and all her princes, who for all their power and strength are laid with those who were slain by the sword; they will lie in shame and defeat with the uncircumcised and with those who go down to the pit.

³⁰ "The princes of the ^(C1)north are there also, all of them, and all the ^(C2)Sidonians, who in spite of the terror resulting from their power, have gone down in shame with the slain. So they lay down uncircumcised with those slain by the sword and bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit.

³¹ "Pharaoh will see them, and he will be ^(C1)comforted for all his hordes slain by the sword—Pharaoh and all his army," says the Lord GOD.³² "Though I instilled a terror of him in the land of the living, yet he will be made to lie down among the uncircumcised along with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his hordes," says the Lord GOD. ^(VR1)