Ezekiel 29

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Against Pharaoh, the great monster

¹ In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 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 Adonai Yahweh: See, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, "My Nile is my own; I made it for myself." ⁴ But I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, and all the fish of your rivers shall stick to your scales. ⁵ And I will cast you into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; you shall fall on the open field; you shall not be gathered up or collected. To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens I have given you for food.

⁶ Then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. ⁷ When they took hold of you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins go rigid.

⁸ Therefore thus says Adonai Yahweh: See, I am bringing a sword upon you, and I will cut off from you man and beast. ⁹ And the land of Egypt shall become a desolation and a waste; and they will know that I am Yahweh. Because he said, "The Nile is mine, and I made it," ¹⁰ therefore, see, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and a desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. 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 I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation in the midst of ruined cities forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries.

¹³ For thus says Adonai Yahweh: 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, to the land of their origin; and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. ¹⁵ It shall be the lowliest of the kingdoms, and it shall never again exalt itself above the nations; and I will make them so few that they will not rule over the nations. ¹⁶ And it shall never again be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance when they turn to follow them; and they will know that I am Adonai Yahweh.

Egypt given to Nebuchadnezzar

¹⁷ And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ¹⁸ Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army had any wages from Tyre for the labor that he had performed against it. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says Adonai Yahweh: See, I am giving the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her wealth and take her spoil and seize her plunder; and it shall be the wages for his army. ²⁰ As his recompense for the labor with which he served against it, I have given him the land of Egypt, because they worked for Me, declares Adonai Yahweh.

²¹ In that day I will make a horn sprout for the house of Israel, and I will give you an opening of the mouth in their midst; and they will know that I am Yahweh.

Notes

• 29:1 The tenth year of Jehoiachin's exile (1:2), in the tenth month: about January 587 BC, a year after the siege of Jerusalem began (24:1), when hopes of rescue from Egypt had been raised and dashed (Jeremiah 37:5-7). The oracles against Egypt in chapters 29-32 are almost all dated; this is the earliest of them, and the word in verse 17 is the latest date in the book.
• 29:3 "Monster" is tannim, a form of tannin, the great creature of the waters (see the note at Exodus 7:9); the picture fits the crocodile of the Nile. The Pharaoh of this time was Hophra (Apries), named in Jeremiah 44:30. Egypt lived from its river, and the king claims the Nile as his own work; "rivers" are the Nile's channels and branches (ye'orim).
• 29:6 The Assyrian commander had mocked Hezekiah for trusting "in the staff of this broken reed, in Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it" (Isaiah 36:6; 2 Kings 18:21). Ezekiel takes up the same picture: whenever Israel leaned on Egypt, the reed broke and wounded the one who held it (verse 7), as Zedekiah had just learned (Jeremiah 37:5-7).
• 29:14 Pathros is Upper Egypt, the long southern valley of the Nile; Greek writers later reported that Egyptian kingship had first arisen there, which may be why it is called "the land of their origin." Egypt is restored, but only as "a lowly kingdom," never again to rule the nations (verse 15). Egypt did recover for a time, yet from the Persian conquest in 525 BC it was ruled for most of its history by foreign powers.
• 29:18 This word, about April 571 BC, is the latest dated oracle in the book. According to Josephus (first century), citing Phoenician records, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years; the island city at last came to terms but was not plundered as chapter 26 had pictured, so the long labor brought the army no spoil. Yahweh gives Egypt as their wages instead; a fragmentary Babylonian text tells of a campaign against Egypt about 568 BC (see the note at Jeremiah 43:10).
• 29:21 A horn is a picture of strength, and the words recall "There I will make a horn sprout for David" (Psalm 132:17); Zechariah's song praises Elohim for raising up a horn of salvation in the house of David (Luke 1:69). Ezekiel's muteness had already ended when news of Jerusalem's fall arrived (24:27; 33:21-22), so "an opening of the mouth" here probably means that when this word comes true he will speak among the exiles with confidence.

Ezekiel 28 · Ezekiel 30

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