Yehezkiel 29:1-16

A Prophecy Against Egypt

29:1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, ¹  the word of the Lord came to me: 29:2 “Son of man, turn toward ²  Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 29:3 Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against ³  you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great monster ⁴  lying in the midst of its waterways,

who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.” ⁵ 

29:4 I will put hooks in your jaws

and stick the fish of your waterways to your scales.

I will haul you up from the midst of your waterways,

and all the fish of your waterways will stick to your scales.

29:5 I will leave you in the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your waterways;

you will fall in the open field and will not be gathered up or collected. ⁶ 

I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies.

29:6 Then all those living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord

because they were a reed staff ⁷  for the house of Israel;

29:7 when they grasped you with their hand, ⁸  you broke and tore ⁹  their shoulders,

and when they leaned on you, you splintered and caused their legs to be unsteady. ¹⁰ 

29:8 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will kill ¹¹  every person and every animal. 29:9 The land of Egypt will become a desolate ruin. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,” 29:10 I am against ¹²  you and your waterways. I will turn the land of Egypt into an utter desolate ruin from Migdol ¹³  to Syene, ¹⁴  as far as the border with Ethiopia. 29:11 No human foot will pass through it, and no animal’s foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years. 29:12 I will turn the land of Egypt into a desolation in the midst of desolate lands; for forty years her cities will lie desolate in the midst of ruined cities. I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries.

29:13 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years ¹⁵  I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they were scattered. 29:14 I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and will bring them back ¹⁶  to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin; there they will be an insignificant kingdom. 29:15 It will be the most insignificant of the kingdoms; it will never again exalt itself over the nations. I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. 29:16 It will never again be Israel’s source of confidence, but a reminder of how they sinned by turning to Egypt for help. ¹⁷  Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.’”

[29:1]  ¹ tn January 7, 587 b.c.

[29:2]  ² tn Heb “set your face against.”

[29:3]  ³ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[29:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “jackals,” but many medieval Hebrew mss read correctly “the serpent.” The Hebrew term appears to refer to a serpent in Exod 7:9-10, 12; Deut 32:33; and Ps 91:13. It also refers to large creatures that inhabit the sea (Gen 1:21; Ps 148:7). In several passages it is associated with the sea or with the multiheaded sea monster Leviathan (Job 7:12; Ps 74:13; Isa 27:1; 51:9). Because of the Egyptian setting of this prophecy and the reference to the creature’s scales (v. 4), many understand a crocodile to be the referent here (e.g., NCV “a great crocodile”; TEV “you monster crocodile”; CEV “a giant crocodile”).

[29:3]  ⁵ sn In Egyptian theology Pharaoh owned and controlled the Nile. See J. D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 240-44.

[29:5]  ⁶ tc Some Hebrew mss, the Targum, and the LXX read “buried.”

[29:6]  ⁷ sn Compare Isa 36:6.

[29:7]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has “by your hand,” but the marginal reading (Qere) has simply “by the hand.” The LXX reads “with their hand.”

[29:7]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “dislocated.”

[29:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you caused to stand for them all their hips.” An emendation which switches two letters but is supported by the LXX yields the reading “you caused all their hips to shake.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:103. In 2 Kgs 18:21 and Isa 36:6 trusting in the Pharaoh is compared to leaning on a staff. The oracle may reflect Hophra’s attempt to aid Jerusalem (Jer 37:5-8).

[29:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will cut off from you.”

[29:10]  ¹² tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[29:10]  ¹³ sn This may refer to a site in the Egyptian Delta which served as a refuge for Jews (Jer 44:1; 46:14).

[29:10]  ¹⁴ sn Syene is known today as Aswan.

[29:13]  ¹⁵ sn In Ezek 4:4-8 it was said that the house of Judah would suffer forty years.

[29:14]  ¹⁶ tc Thus the Masoretic Text. The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as though the Hebrew read “cause to inhabit.”

[29:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”