Ezekiel 30-31

New King James Version

Egypt and Her Allies Will Fall

30 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, ²“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

^(A)“Wail, ‘Woe to the day!’
³For ^(B)the day is near,
Even the day of the Lord is near;
It will be a day of clouds, the time of the Gentiles.
⁴The sword shall come upon Egypt,
And great anguish shall be in ^[a]Ethiopia,
When the slain fall in Egypt,
And they ^(C)take away her wealth,
And ^(D)her foundations are broken down.

⁵“Ethiopia, ^[b]Libya, ^[c]Lydia, ^(E)all the mingled people, Chub, and the men of the lands who are allied, shall fall with them by the sword.”

⁶‘Thus says the Lord:

“Those who uphold Egypt shall fall,
And the pride of her power shall come down.
^(F)From ^[d]Migdol to Syene
Those within her shall fall by the sword,”
Says the Lord God.

⁷“They^(G) shall be desolate in the midst of the desolate countries,
And her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are laid waste.
⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord,
When I have set a fire in Egypt
And all her helpers are destroyed.
⁹On that day ^(H)messengers shall go forth from Me in ships
To make the ^[e]careless Ethiopians afraid,
And great anguish shall come upon them,
As on the day of Egypt;
For indeed it is coming!”

¹⁰‘Thus says the Lord God:

^(I)“I will also make a multitude of Egypt to cease
By the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
¹¹He and his people with him, ^(J)the most terrible of the nations,
Shall be brought to destroy the land;
They shall draw their swords against Egypt,
And fill the land with the slain.
¹²^(K)I will make the rivers dry,
And ^(L)sell the land into the hand of the wicked;
I will make the land waste, and all that is in it,
By the hand of aliens.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹³‘Thus says the Lord God:

“I will also ^(M)destroy the idols,
And cause the images to cease from ^[f]Noph;
^(N)There shall no longer be princes from the land of Egypt;
^(O)I will put fear in the land of Egypt.
¹⁴I will make ^(P)Pathros desolate,
Set fire to ^(Q)Zoan,
^(R)And execute judgments in ^[g]No.
¹⁵I will pour My fury on ^[h]Sin, the strength of Egypt;
^(S)I will cut off the multitude of ^[i]No,
¹⁶And ^(T)set a fire in Egypt;
Sin shall have great pain,
No shall be split open,
And Noph shall be in distress daily.
¹⁷The young men of ^[j]Aven and Pi Beseth shall fall by the sword,
And these cities shall go into captivity.
¹⁸^(U)At ^[k]Tehaphnehes the day shall also be ^[l]darkened,
When I break the yokes of Egypt there.
And her arrogant strength shall cease in her;
As for her, a cloud shall cover her,
And her daughters shall go into captivity.
¹⁹Thus I will ^(V)execute judgments on Egypt,
Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

Proclamation Against Pharaoh

²⁰And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²¹“Son of man, I have ^(W)broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and see, ^(X)it has not been bandaged for healing, nor a ^[m]splint put on to bind it, to make it strong enough to hold a sword. ²²Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I am ^(Y)against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will ^(Z)break his arms, both the strong one and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall out of his hand. ²³^(AA)I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the countries. ²⁴I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he will groan before him with the groanings of a mortally wounded man. ²⁵Thus I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; ^(AB)they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. ²⁶^(AC)I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Egypt Cut Down Like a Great Tree^(AD)

31 Now it came to pass in the ^(AE)eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

^(AF)‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
³^(AG)Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
With fine branches that shaded the forest,
And of high stature;
And its top was among the thick boughs.
⁴^(AH)The waters made it grow;
Underground waters gave it height,
With their rivers running around the place where it was planted,
And sent out ^[n]rivulets to all the trees of the field.

⁵‘Therefore ^(AI)its height was exalted above all the trees of the field;
Its boughs were multiplied,
And its branches became long because of the abundance of water,
As it sent them out.
⁶All the ^(AJ)birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs;
Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young;
And in its shadow all great nations ^[o]made their home.

⁷‘Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches,
Because its roots reached to abundant waters.
⁸The cedars in the ^(AK)garden of God could not hide it;
The fir trees were not like its boughs,
And the ^[p]chestnut trees were not like its branches;
No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.
⁹I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches,
So that all the trees of Eden envied it,
That were in the garden of God.’

¹⁰“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and ^(AL)its heart was ^[q]lifted up in its height, ¹¹therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the ^(AM)mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness. ¹²And aliens, ^(AN)the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen ^(AO)on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs lie ^(AP)broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it.

¹³‘On ^(AQ)its ruin will remain all the birds of the heavens,
And all the beasts of the field will come to its branches—

¹⁴So that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor set their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drinks water may ever be high enough to reach up to them.

‘For ^(AR)they have all been delivered to death,
^(AS)To the depths of the earth,
Among the children of men who go down to the Pit.’

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord God: ‘In the day when it ^(AT)went down to ^[r]hell, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it. I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were held back. I caused Lebanon to ^[s]mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. ¹⁶I made the nations ^(AU)shake at the sound of its fall, when I ^(AV)cast it down to ^[t]hell together with those who descend into the Pit; and ^(AW)all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, ^(AX)were comforted in the depths of the earth. ¹⁷They also went down to hell with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its strong arm ^(AY)dwelt in its shadows among the nations.

¹⁸^(AZ)‘To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth; ^(BA)you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord God.”