Ezekiel 29 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
January 587 BC for the main oracle, with a later addition dated to 571 BC, the latest date in the book
Location
Egypt and the Nile valley, viewed from the exile community in Babylonia
Audience
Judean exiles, and by implication the Judeans still hoping Egyptian troops would break the siege of Jerusalem
Situation
The oracles turn to Egypt, portraying Pharaoh as a great crocodile lying in the Nile branches and boasting that he made the river himself. God announces that Egypt will be desolate for forty years, and in the appended later word gives Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as wages for his long and unprofitable siege of Tyre.
Key Background
Judah's kings repeatedly gambled on Egyptian military help against Babylon, and Pharaoh Hophra did march out during the siege of Jerusalem in 588 BC, causing the Babylonians to withdraw briefly before returning, which is the false hope these oracles attack. Egyptian royal ideology tied Pharaoh directly to the Nile flood that made the country fertile, so the boast about owning the river reflects genuine Egyptian claims. The image of Egypt as a reed staff that splinters and pierces the hand leaning on it was a stock way of describing an ally who collapses under weight.
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day, a from Yahweh came to me:
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and him and all of Egypt.
Speak and say: This is what Yahweh, the of all, declares — I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you sprawled in your rivers, who says, 'My belongs to me — I made it for myself.'
But I will set in and make the of cling to scales. I will haul you up out of — you and all the stuck to scales.
I will fling you into the — you and all the fish of your rivers. You will fall on the open ground, never gathered up, never collected. I have given you as food to the wild animals and the birds of the sky.
Then everyone living in Egypt will that I am Because you were a of for the people of Israel —
when they gripped you by the hand, you and tore open their whole shoulder; when they leaned on you, you snapped and made all their legs buckle.
So this is what Yahweh, the Lord of all, declares: Watch — I am bringing a against you, and I will cut off from you both people and animals.
The land of Egypt will become a and they will know that I am Yahweh. Because you said, 'The Nile is mine — I made it' —
so I am against you and against your rivers. I will turn the land of Egypt into ruins — a dried-up, desolate waste — from to all the way to the border of
No human foot will pass through it, no animal hoof will pass through it. It will be uninhabited for
I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated lands, and its cities will lie in ruins among ruined cities for forty years. I will the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them across foreign lands.
But this is what Yahweh, the Lord of all, declares: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered.
I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of the land of their origin, and there they will be a
It will be the lowest of kingdoms and never again rise above the other nations. I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations.
Egypt will never again be something the people of Israel trust in. Instead, it will be a of their in turning to Egypt for help. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, the Lord of all."
In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day, a message from Yahweh came to me:
"Son of man, king of Babylon drove his army in a grueling campaign against Every head was and every shoulder raw. But neither he nor his army got any reward from for the campaign he waged against it.
So this is what Yahweh, the Lord of all, declares: Watch — I am handing the land of Egypt over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off its wealth, seize its plunder, and strip its spoils — and that will be the for his army.
I have given him the land of Egypt as payment for his labor, because they were for me — this is the of Yahweh, the Lord of all.
On that day I will cause a to sprout for the people of Israel, and I will among them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh."