30 Another message from the Lord!
2-3 “Son of dust, prophesy and say: The Lord God says, ‘Weep, for the terrible day is almost here; the day of the Lord; a day of clouds and gloom; a day of despair for the nations! 4 A sword shall fall on Egypt; the slain shall cover the ground. Her wealth is taken away, her foundations destroyed. The land of Cush has been ravished. 5 For Cush, Put, Lud, Arabia, and Libya, and all the countries leagued with them shall perish in that war.’”
6 For the Lord says: “All Egypt’s allies shall fall, and the pride of her power shall end. From Migdol to Syene they shall perish by the sword. 7 She shall be desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities shall be in ruins, surrounded by other ruined cities. 8 And they will know I am the Lord when I have set Egypt on fire and destroyed her allies. 9 At that time I will send swift messengers to bring panic to the Ethiopians; great terror shall befall them at that time of Egypt’s doom. This will all come true.”
10 For the Lord God says: “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, will destroy the multitudes of Egypt. 11 He and his armies—the terror of the nations—are sent to demolish the land. They shall war against Egypt and cover the ground with the slain. 12 I will dry up the Nile and sell the whole land to wicked men. I will destroy Egypt and everything in it, using foreigners to do it. I, the Lord, have spoken it.
13 “And I will smash the idols of Egypt and the images at Memphis, and there will be no king in Egypt; anarchy shall reign!
14 “The cities of Pathros along the upper Nile,[a] Zoan, and Thebes shall lie in ruins by my hand. 15 And I will pour out my fury upon Pelusium, the strongest fortress of Egypt, and I will stamp out the people of Thebes. 16 Yes, I will set fire to Egypt; Pelusium will be racked with pain. Thebes will be torn apart; Memphis will be in daily terror. 17 The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis shall die by the sword, and the women will be taken away as slaves. 18 When I come to break the power of Egypt, it will be a dark day for Tahpanhes too; a dark cloud will cover her, and her daughters will be taken away as captives. 19 And so I will greatly punish Egypt and they shall know I am the Lord.”
20 A year later,[b] around the middle of March of the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,* this message came to me:
21 “Son of dust, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh,[c] king of Egypt, and it has not been set nor put into a cast to make it strong enough to hold a sword again. 22 For the Lord God says, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and I will break both his arms—the strong one and the one that was broken before, and I will make his sword clatter to the ground. 23 And I will banish the Egyptians to many lands. 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and place my sword in his hand. But I will break the arms of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he shall groan before the king of Babylon as one who has been wounded unto death. 25 I will strengthen the hands of the king of Babylon, while the arms of Pharaoh fall useless to his sides. Yes, when I place my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he swings it over the land of Egypt, Egypt shall know I am the Lord. 26 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations; then they shall know I am the Lord.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 30:14 along the upper Nile, implied.
- Ezekiel 30:20 A year later, 587 b.c., the year Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar and was destroyed. the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, literally, “the eleventh year of our exile.”
- Ezekiel 30:21 I have broken the arm of Pharaoh. When Pharaoh Hophra sent an army to relieve Jerusalem in 588 b.c., Nebuchadnezzar withdrew from the siege just long enough to defeat the Egyptian force. This is what Ezekiel means by the first “broken arm.”