Ezekiel 29:9-16

New International Reader's Version

⁹ Egypt will become a dry and empty desert. Then your people will know that I am the Lord.

“You said, ‘The Nile River belongs to me. I made it for myself.’ ¹⁰ So I am against you and your streams. I will destroy the land of Egypt. I will turn it into a dry and empty desert from Migdol all the way to Aswan. I will destroy everything as far as the border of Cush. ¹¹ No people or animals will travel through Egypt. No one will even live there for 40 years. ¹² Egypt will be more empty than any other land. Its destroyed cities will lie empty for 40 years. I will scatter the people of Egypt among the nations. I will send them to other countries.”

¹³ But here is what the Lord and King says. “At the end of 40 years I will gather the Egyptians together. I will bring them back from the nations where they were scattered. ¹⁴ I will bring them back from where they were taken as prisoners. I will return them to Upper Egypt. That is where their families came from. There they will be an unimportant kingdom. ¹⁵ Egypt will be the least important kingdom of all. It will never place itself above the other nations again. I will make it very weak. Then it will never again rule over the nations. ¹⁶ The people of Israel will no longer trust in Egypt. Instead, Egypt will remind them of how they sinned when they turned to it for help. Then they will know that I am the Lord and King.”