Beginning
31 In mid-May of the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,[a] this message came to me from the Lord:
2-3 “Son of dust, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his people: ‘You are as Assyria was—a great and mighty nation—like a cedar of Lebanon, full of thick branches and forest shade, with its head high up among the clouds. 4 Its roots went deep into the moist earth. It grew luxuriantly and gave streamlets of water to all the trees around. 5 It towered above all the other trees. It prospered and grew long thick branches because of all the water at its roots. 6 The birds nested in its branches, and in its shade the flocks and herds gave birth to young. All the great nations of the world lived beneath its shadow. 7 It was strong and beautiful, for its roots went deep to water. 8 This tree was taller than any other in the garden of God; no cypress had branches equal to it; none had boughs to compare; none equaled it in beauty. 9 Because of the magnificence that I gave it, it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden.’
10 “But Egypt[b] has become proud and arrogant,” the Lord God says. “Therefore because she has set herself so high above the others, reaching to the clouds, 11 I will deliver her into the hands of a mighty nation, to destroy her as her wickedness deserves. I, myself, will cut her down. 12 A foreign army (from Babylon)—the terror of the nations—will invade her land and cut her down and leave her fallen on the ground. Her branches will be scattered across the mountains and valleys and rivers of the land. All those who live beneath her shade will go away and leave her lying there. 13 The birds will pluck off her twigs, and the wild animals will lie among her branches; 14 let no other nation exult with pride for its own prosperity, though it be higher than the clouds, for all are doomed, and they will land in hell along with all the proud men of the world.”
15 The Lord God says: “When she fell, I made the oceans mourn for her and restrained their tides.[c] I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of Lebanon to weep. 16 I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of her fall, for I threw her down to hell with all the others like her. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, are comforted to find her there with them in hell. 17 Her allies, too, are all destroyed and perish with her. They went down with her to the netherworld—those nations that had lived beneath her shade.
18 “O Egypt, you are great and glorious among the trees of Eden—the nations of the world. And you will be brought down to the pit of hell with all these other nations. You will be among the nations you despise, killed by the sword. This is the fate of Pharaoh and all his teeming masses,” says the Lord.
32 In mid-February of the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord:
2 “Son of dust, mourn for Pharaoh, king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You think of yourself as a strong young lion among the nations, but you are merely a crocodile[d] along the banks of the Nile, making bubbles and muddying the stream.’”
3 The Lord God says: “I will send a great army to catch you with my net. I will haul you out 4 and leave you stranded on the land to die. And all the birds of the heavens will light upon you, and the wild animals of the whole earth will devour you until they are glutted and full. 5 And I will cover the hills with your flesh and fill the valleys with your bones. 6 And I will drench the earth with your gushing blood, filling the ravines to the tops of the mountains. 7 I will blot you out, and I will veil the heavens and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give you her light. 8 Yes, darkness will be everywhere across your land—even the bright stars will be dark above you.
9 “And when I destroy you,[e] grief will be in many hearts among the distant nations you have never seen. 10 Yes, terror shall strike in many lands, and their kings shall be terribly afraid because of all I do to you. They shall shudder with terror when I brandish my sword before them. They shall greatly tremble for their lives on the day of your fall.”
11 For the Lord God says: “The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. 12 I will destroy you with Babylon’s mighty army—the terror of the nations. It will smash the pride of Egypt and all her people; all will perish. 13 I will destroy all your flocks and herds that graze beside the streams, and neither man nor animal will disturb those waters anymore. 14 Therefore, the waters of Egypt will be as clear and flow as smoothly as olive oil,” the Lord God says. 15 “And when I destroy Egypt and wipe out everything she has, then she shall know that I, the Lord, have done it. 16 Yes, cry for the sorrows of Egypt. Let all the nations weep for her and for her people,” says the Lord.
17 Two weeks later,[f] another message came to me from the Lord. He said:
18 “Son of dust, weep for the people of Egypt and for the other mighty nations. Send them down to the netherworld among the denizens of death. 19 What nation is as beautiful as you, O Egypt? Yet your doom is the pit; you will be laid beside the people you despise. 20 The Egyptians will die with the multitudes slain by the sword, for the sword is drawn against the land of Egypt. She will be drawn down to judgment. 21 The mighty warriors in the netherworld will welcome her as she arrives with all her friends, to lie there beside the nations she despised, all victims of the sword.
22 “The princes of Assyria lie there surrounded by the graves of all her people, those the sword has slain. 23 Their graves are in the depths of hell, surrounded by their allies. All these mighty men who once struck terror into the hearts of everyone are now dead at the hands of their foes.
24 “Great kings of Elam lie there with their people. They scourged the nations while they lived, and now they lie undone in hell; their fate is the same as that of ordinary men. 25 They have a resting place among the slain, surrounded by the graves of all their people. Yes, they terrorized the nations while they lived, but now they lie in shame in the pit, slain by the sword.
26 “The princes of Meshech and Tubal are there, surrounded by the graves of all their armies—all of them idolaters—who once struck terror to the hearts of all; now they lie dead. 27 They are buried in a common grave and not as the fallen lords who are buried in great honor with their weapons beside them, with their shields covering them and their swords beneath their heads.[g] They were a terror to all while they lived. 28 Now you will lie crushed and broken among the idolaters, among those who are slain by the sword.
29 “Edom is there with her kings and her princes; mighty as they were, they too lie among the others whom the sword has slain, with the idolaters who have gone down to the pit. 30 All the princes of the north are there and the Sidonians, all slain. Once a terror, now they lie in shame; they lie in ignominy with all the other slain who go down to the pit.
31 “When Pharaoh arrives, he will be comforted to find that he is not alone in having all his army slain,” says the Lord God. 32 “For I have caused my terror to fall upon all the living. And Pharaoh and his army shall lie among the idolaters who are slain by the sword.”
33 Once again a message came to me from the Lord. He said:
2 “Son of dust, tell your people: ‘When I bring an army against a country, and the people of that land choose a watchman, 3 and when he sees the army coming and blows the alarm to warn them, 4 then anyone who hears the alarm but refuses to heed it—well, if he dies, the fault is his own. 5 For he heard the warning and wouldn’t listen; the fault is his. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t sound the alarm and warn the people, he is responsible for their deaths. They will die in their sins, but I will charge the watchman with their deaths.’
7 “So with you, son of dust. I have appointed you as a watchman for the people of Israel; therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will die!’ and you don’t tell him what I say, so that he does not repent—that wicked person will die in his sins, but I will hold you responsible for his death. 9 But if you warn him to repent and he doesn’t, he will die in his sins, and you will not be responsible.
10 “O people of Israel, you are saying: ‘Our sins are heavy upon us; we pine away with guilt. How can we live?’ 11 Tell them: ‘As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; I desire that the wicked turn from his evil ways and live. Turn, turn from your wickedness, for why will you die, O Israel? 12 For the good works of a righteous man will not save him if he turns to sin; and the sins of an evil man will not destroy him if he repents and turns from his sins.’
13 “I have said the good man will live. But if he sins, expecting his past goodness to save him, then none of his good deeds will be remembered. I will destroy him for his sins. 14 And when I tell the wicked he will die, and then he turns from his sins and does what is fair and right— 15 if he gives back the borrower’s pledge, returns what he has stolen, and walks along the paths of right, not doing evil—he shall surely live. He shall not die. 16 None of his past sins shall be brought up against him, for he has turned to the good and shall surely live.
17 “And yet your people are saying the Lord isn’t fair. The trouble is they aren’t fair. 18 For again I say, when the good man turns to evil, he shall die. 19 But if the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what’s fair and just, he shall live. 20 Yet you are saying the Lord isn’t fair. But I will judge each of you in accordance with his deeds.”
21 In the eleventh year[h] of our exile, late in December, one of those who escaped from Jerusalem arrived to tell me, “The city has fallen!” 22 Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me the previous evening, and he had healed me so that I could speak again by the time the man arrived.
23 Then this message came to me:
24 “Son of dust, the scattered remnants of Judah living among the ruined cities keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one man and yet he got possession of the whole country! We are many, so we should certainly be able to get it back!’ 25 But the Lord God says: ‘You are powerless, for you do evil! You eat meat with the blood, you worship idols, and murder. Do you suppose I’ll let you have the land? 26 Murderers! Idolators! Adulterers! Should you possess the land?’
27 “Tell them, ‘The Lord God says: As I live, surely those living in the ruins shall die by the sword. Those living in the open fields shall be eaten by wild animals, and those in the forts and caves shall die of disease. 28 I will desolate the land and her pride, and her power shall come to an end. And the mountain villages of Israel shall be so ruined that no one will even travel through them. 29 When I have ruined the land because of their sins, then they shall know I am the Lord.’
30 “Son of dust, your people are whispering behind your back. They talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors, saying, ‘Come on, let’s have some fun! Let’s go hear him tell us what the Lord is saying!’[i] 31 So they come as though they are sincere and sit before you listening. But they have no intention of doing what I tell them to; they talk very sweetly about loving the Lord, but with their hearts they are loving their money. 32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings lovely songs with a beautiful voice or plays well on an instrument. They hear what you say but don’t pay any attention to it! 33 But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they will—then they will know a prophet has been among them.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.