Beginning

Because you are haughty of heart,
    you say, “I am a god!
I sit on a god’s throne
    in the heart of the sea!”
But you are a man, not a god;
    yet you pretend
    you are a god at heart!
³ Oh yes, you are wiser than Daniel,^[b]
    nothing secret is too obscure for you!^(A)
4 By your wisdom and intelligence
    you made yourself rich,
    filling your treasuries with gold and silver.
⁵ Through your great wisdom in trading
    you heaped up riches for yourself—
    your heart is haughty because of your riches.
⁶     Therefore thus says the Lord God:
Because you pretend you are a god at heart,
⁷ Therefore, I will bring against you
    strangers, the most bloodthirsty of nations.
They shall draw their swords
    against your splendid wisdom,
    and violate your radiance.^(B)
8 They shall thrust you down into the pit:
    you shall die a violent death
    in the heart of the sea.
⁹ Then, face to face with your killers,
    will you still say, “I am a god”?
No, you are a man, not a god,
    handed over to those who slay you.
¹⁰ You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
    handed over to strangers,
    for I have spoken—oracle of the Lord God.^(C)

^[c] You were a seal of perfection,
    full of wisdom, perfect in beauty.^(D)
13 In Eden, the garden of God, you lived;
    precious stones of every kind were your covering:
Carnelian, topaz, and beryl,
    chrysolite, onyx, and jasper,
    sapphire, garnet, and emerald.
Their mounts and settings
    were wrought in gold,
    fashioned for you the day you were created.^(E)
14 With a cherub I placed you;
    I put you on the holy mountain of God,^[d]
    where you walked among fiery stones.
¹⁵ Blameless were you in your ways
    from the day you were created,
Until evil was found in you.
¹⁶     Your commerce was full of lawlessness, and you sinned.
Therefore I banished you from the mountain of God;
    the cherub drove you out
    from among the fiery stones.^(F)
17 Your heart had grown haughty
    because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom
    because of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground,
    I made you a spectacle
    in the sight of kings.^(G)
18 Because of the enormity of your guilt,
    and the perversity of your trade,
    you defiled your sanctuary.
I brought fire out of you;
    it devoured you;
I made you ashes on the ground
    in the eyes of all who see you.^(H)
19 All the nations who knew you
    are appalled on account of you;
You have become a horror,
    never to be again.^(I)

Watch out! I am against you, Sidon;
    I will win glory for myself in your midst.
They shall know that I am the Lord,
    when I deliver judgment upon it
    and manifest my holiness in it.
²³ I will send disease into it;
    blood will fill its streets,
Within it shall fall
    those slain by the sword
    raised against it on every side.
Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
²⁴ No longer will there be a thorn that tears
    or a brier that scratches for the house of Israel
From the surrounding neighbors
    who despise them;
    thus they shall know that I am the Lord.^(J)

Pay attention! I am against you,
    Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
Great dragon^[g] crouching
    in the midst of the Nile,
Who says, “The Nile belongs to me;
    I made it myself!”^(N)
4 [h]I will put hooks in your jaws
    and make all the fish of your Nile
Cling to your scales;
    I will drag you up from your Nile,
With all the fish of your Nile
    clinging to your scales.^(O)
5 I will hurl you into the wilderness,
    you and all the fish of your Nile.
You will fall into an open field,
    you will not be picked up or gathered together.
To the beasts of the earth
    and the birds of the sky
    I give you as food.^(P)
6 (Q)Then all the inhabitants of Egypt
    will know that I am the Lord.
Because you were a staff of reeds^[i]
    for the house of Israel:
⁷ When they took hold of you, you would splinter,
    throwing shoulders out of joint.
When they leaned on you, you would break,
    pitching them down headlong.
⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord God:
Look! I am bringing the sword against you
    to cut off from you people and animals.
⁹ The land of Egypt shall become a desolate waste;
    then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Because you said, “The Nile belongs to me;
    I made it!”
¹⁰ Beware! I am against you
    and against your Nile.
I will turn the land of Egypt into ruins,
    into a dry, desolate waste,
From Migdol to Syene,^[j]
    up to the border of Ethiopia.^(R)
11 No foot shall pass through it,
    no human being or beast cross it;
    it will remain uninhabited for forty years.
¹² I will make the land of Egypt the most desolate
    among desolate lands;
Its cities, the most deserted
    among deserted cities for forty years;
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations
    and disperse them throughout other lands.^(S)
13 But thus says the Lord God:
    At the end of forty years
I will gather the Egyptians
    from among the peoples
    where they are scattered;
¹⁴ I will restore Egypt’s fortunes,
    bringing them back to the land of Pathros,^[k]
    the land of their origin.
But there it will be a lowly kingdom,
¹⁵     lower than any other kingdom,
    no longer able to set itself above the nations.
I will make them few in number,
    so they cannot rule other nations.
¹⁶ No longer shall they be security
    for the house of Israel,
But a reminder of its iniquity
    in turning away to follow them.
Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.^(T)

Wail: “Alas the day!”
³ Yes, a day approaches,
    a day of the Lord approaches:
A day of dark cloud,
    a time appointed for the nations.^(X)
4 A sword will come against Egypt,
    there will be anguish in Ethiopia,
When the slain fall in Egypt
    when its hordes are seized,
    its foundations razed.^(Y)
5 Ethiopia, Put, and Lud,
    all the mixed rabble^[o] and Kub,
and the people of allied lands
    shall fall by the sword with them.
⁶ Thus says the Lord:
The pillars of Egypt shall fall,
    and its proud strength sink;
From Migdol to Syene,
    its people will fall by the sword—
    oracle of the Lord God.^(Z)
7 It shall be the most desolate
    among desolate lands,
Its cities the most ruined
    among ruined cities.
⁸ They shall know that I am the Lord,
    when I set fire to Egypt,
    and all its allies are shattered.^(AA)
9 On that day, messengers from me
    will go forth in ships
    to terrorize confident Ethiopia.
Anguish will be among them
    on Egypt’s day—it is certainly coming!^[p]
10 Thus says the Lord God:
I will put an end to Egypt’s hordes
    by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon:
¹¹ He and his army with him,
    the most ruthless of nations,
    will be brought in to devastate the land.
They will draw their swords against Egypt
    and fill the land with the slain.
¹² Then I will dry up the streams of the Nile,
    and sell the land into evil hands;
By the hand of foreigners I will devastate
    the land and everything in it.
    I, the Lord, have spoken.^(AB)
13 [q]Thus says the Lord God:
I will destroy idols,
    and put an end to images in Memphis.
There will never again be a prince
    over the land of Egypt.
Instead, I will spread fear
    throughout the land of Egypt.^(AC)
14 I will devastate Pathros,
    set fire to Zoan,
    and execute judgment against Thebes.^(AD)
15 I will pour out my wrath on Pelusium,
    the fortress of Egypt,
    and cut off the troops of Thebes.
¹⁶ I will set fire to Egypt;
    Pelusium will writhe in anguish,
Thebes will be breached,
    and Memphis besieged in daylight.
¹⁷ The warriors of On and Pi-beseth
    will fall by the sword,
    the cities taken captive.
¹⁸ In Tahpanhes, the day will turn dark
    when I break the scepter of Egypt there
    and put an end to its proud strength.
Dark clouds will cover it,
    and its women will go into captivity.^(AE)
19 I will execute judgment against Egypt
    that they may know that I am the Lord.