[1] In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month,
the word of the LORD came to me: [2] "Son of man, set your face against
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; [3]
speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh
king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that
says, `My Nile is my own; I made it.' [4] I will put hooks in your jaws,
and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales; and I will draw you
up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams
which stick to your scales. [5] And I will cast you forth into the
wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams; you shall fall upon the
open field, and not be gathered and buried. To the beasts of the earth and
to the birds of the air I have given you as food. [6] "Then all the
inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD. Because you have been a
staff of reed to the house of Israel; [7] when they grasped you with the
hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned upon
you, you broke, and made all their loins to shake; [8] therefore thus says
the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from
you man and beast; [9] and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a
waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD. "Because you said, `The
Nile is mine, and I made it,' [10] therefore, behold, I am against you, and
against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and
desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. [11] No
foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through
it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. [12] And I will make the land of
Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries; and her cities
shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will
scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the
countries. [13] "For thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I
will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered;
[14] and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and bring them back to the
land of Pathros, the land of their origin; and there they shall be a lowly
kingdom. [15] It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again
exalt itself above the nations; and I will make them so small that they
will never again rule over the nations. [16] And it shall never again be
the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they
turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD." [17] In
the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month,
the word of the LORD came to me: [18] "Son of man, Nebuchadrez'zar king of
Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and
every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything
from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against it. [19]
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to
Nebuchadrez'zar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and
despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. [20] I
have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he labored,
because they worked for me, says the Lord GOD. [21] "On that day I will
cause a horn to spring forth to the house of Israel, and I will open your
lips among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
