Chronological
28 Here is another message given to me from the Lord:
2-3 “Son of dust, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘The Lord God says: You are so proud you think you are God, sitting on the throne of a god on your island home in the midst of the seas. But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast yourself to be like God. You are wiser than Daniel, for no secret is hidden from you. 4 You have used your wisdom and understanding to get great wealth—gold and silver and many treasures. 5 Yes, your wisdom has made you very rich and very proud.’”
6 Therefore the Lord God says: “Because you claim that you are as wise as God, 7 an enemy army, the terror of the nations, shall suddenly draw their swords against your marvelous wisdom and defile your splendor! 8 They will bring you to the pit of hell, and you shall die as those pierced with many wounds, there on your island in the heart of the seas. 9 Then will you boast as a god? At least to these invaders you will be no god, but merely man! 10 You will die like an outcast at the hands of foreigners. For I have spoken it,” the Lord God says.
11 Then this further message came to me from the Lord:
12 “Son of dust, weep for the king of Tyre.[a] Tell him, ‘The Lord God says: You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; your clothing was bejeweled with every precious stone—ruby, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald—all in beautiful settings of finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. 14 I appointed you to be the anointed Guardian Angel. You had access to the holy mountain of God. You walked among the stones of fire.[b]
15 “‘You were perfect in all you did from the day you were created until that time when wrong was found in you. 16 Your great wealth filled you with internal turmoil, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out of the mountain of God like a common sinner. I destroyed you, O Guardian Angel, from the midst of the stones of fire.[c] 17 Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Therefore, I have cast you down to the ground and exposed you helpless before the curious gaze of kings. 18 You defiled your holiness with lust for gain;[d] therefore, I brought forth fire from your own actions and let it burn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those watching you. 19 All who know you are appalled at your fate; you are an example of horror; you are destroyed forever.’”
20 Then another message came to me from the Lord:
21 “Son of dust, look toward the city of Sidon and prophesy against it. Say to it, 22 ‘The Lord God says: I am your enemy, O Sidon, and I will reveal my power over you. When I destroy you and show forth my holiness upon you, then all who see shall know I am the Lord. 23 I will send an epidemic of disease and an army to destroy; the wounded shall be slain in your streets by troops on every side. Then you will know I am the Lord. 24 No longer shall you and Israel’s other neighbor nations prick and tear at Israel like thorns and briars, though they formerly despised her and treated her with great contempt.
25 “‘The people of Israel will once more live in their own land, the land I gave their father Jacob. For I will gather them back again from distant lands where I have scattered them, and I will show the nations of the world my holiness among my people. 26 They will live safely in Israel and build their homes and plant their vineyards. When I punish all the bordering nations that treated them with such contempt, then they shall know I am the Lord their God.’”
29 Late in December of the tenth year (of the imprisonment of King Jehoiachin), this message came to me from the Lord:
2 “Son of dust, face toward Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh her king and all her people. 3 Tell them that the Lord God says: ‘I am your enemy, Pharaoh, king of Egypt—mighty dragon lying in the middle of your rivers. For you have said, “The Nile is mine; I have made it for myself!” 4 I will put hooks into your jaws and drag you out onto the land with fish sticking to your scales. 5 And I will leave you and all the fish stranded in the desert to die, and you won’t be buried, for I have given you as food to the wild animals and birds.
6 “‘Because of the way your might collapsed when Israel called on you for aid instead of trusting me,[e] all of you shall know I am the Lord. 7 Israel leaned on you but, like a cracked staff, you snapped beneath her hand and wrenched her shoulder out of joint and made her stagger with the pain. 8 Therefore the Lord God says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt, and destroy both men and herds. 9 The land of Egypt shall become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I, the Lord, have done it.
10 “‘Because you said: “The Nile is mine! I made it!” therefore I am against you and your river, and I will utterly destroy the land of Egypt, from Migdol to Syene, as far south as the border of Ethiopia. 11 For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither men nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited. 12 I will make Egypt desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities will lie as wastelands for forty years. I will exile the Egyptians to other lands.
13 “‘But the Lord God says that at the end of the forty years he will bring the Egyptians home again from the nations to which they will be banished. 14 And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring her people back to the land of Pathros in southern Egypt where they were born, but she will be an unimportant, minor kingdom. 15 She will be the lowliest of all the nations; never again will she raise herself above the other nations; never again will Egypt be great enough for that.
16 “‘Israel will no longer expect any help from Egypt. Whenever she thinks of asking for it, then she will remember her sin in seeking it before. Then Israel will know that I alone am God.’”
17 In the twenty-seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,[f] around the middle of March, this message came to me from the Lord:
18 “Son of dust, the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought hard against Tyre. The soldiers’ heads were bald from carrying heavy basketfuls of earth; their shoulders were raw and blistered from burdens of stones for the siege. And Nebuchadnezzar received no compensation and could not pay the army for all this work.”[g] 19 Therefore, the Lord God says, “I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will carry off her wealth, plundering everything she has, for his army. 20 Yes, I have given him the land of Egypt for his salary because he was working for me during those thirteen years at Tyre,” says the Lord. 21 “And the day will come when I will cause the ancient glory of Israel to revive, and then at last her words will be respected, and Egypt shall know I am the Lord.”
30 Another message from the Lord!
2-3 “Son of dust, prophesy and say: The Lord God says, ‘Weep, for the terrible day is almost here; the day of the Lord; a day of clouds and gloom; a day of despair for the nations! 4 A sword shall fall on Egypt; the slain shall cover the ground. Her wealth is taken away, her foundations destroyed. The land of Cush has been ravished. 5 For Cush, Put, Lud, Arabia, and Libya, and all the countries leagued with them shall perish in that war.’”
6 For the Lord says: “All Egypt’s allies shall fall, and the pride of her power shall end. From Migdol to Syene they shall perish by the sword. 7 She shall be desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities shall be in ruins, surrounded by other ruined cities. 8 And they will know I am the Lord when I have set Egypt on fire and destroyed her allies. 9 At that time I will send swift messengers to bring panic to the Ethiopians; great terror shall befall them at that time of Egypt’s doom. This will all come true.”
10 For the Lord God says: “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, will destroy the multitudes of Egypt. 11 He and his armies—the terror of the nations—are sent to demolish the land. They shall war against Egypt and cover the ground with the slain. 12 I will dry up the Nile and sell the whole land to wicked men. I will destroy Egypt and everything in it, using foreigners to do it. I, the Lord, have spoken it.
13 “And I will smash the idols of Egypt and the images at Memphis, and there will be no king in Egypt; anarchy shall reign!
14 “The cities of Pathros along the upper Nile,[h] Zoan, and Thebes shall lie in ruins by my hand. 15 And I will pour out my fury upon Pelusium, the strongest fortress of Egypt, and I will stamp out the people of Thebes. 16 Yes, I will set fire to Egypt; Pelusium will be racked with pain. Thebes will be torn apart; Memphis will be in daily terror. 17 The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis shall die by the sword, and the women will be taken away as slaves. 18 When I come to break the power of Egypt, it will be a dark day for Tahpanhes too; a dark cloud will cover her, and her daughters will be taken away as captives. 19 And so I will greatly punish Egypt and they shall know I am the Lord.”
20 A year later,[i] around the middle of March of the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me:
21 “Son of dust, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh,[j] king of Egypt, and it has not been set nor put into a cast to make it strong enough to hold a sword again. 22 For the Lord God says, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and I will break both his arms—the strong one and the one that was broken before, and I will make his sword clatter to the ground. 23 And I will banish the Egyptians to many lands. 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and place my sword in his hand. But I will break the arms of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he shall groan before the king of Babylon as one who has been wounded unto death. 25 I will strengthen the hands of the king of Babylon, while the arms of Pharaoh fall useless to his sides. Yes, when I place my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he swings it over the land of Egypt, Egypt shall know I am the Lord. 26 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations; then they shall know I am the Lord.”
31 In mid-May of the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,[k] 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[l] 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.[m] 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.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.