Yehezkiel 29:10-21

29:10 I am against ¹  you and your waterways. I will turn the land of Egypt into an utter desolate ruin from Migdol ²  to Syene, ³  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 ⁴  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 ⁵  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. ⁶  Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.’”

29:17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, ⁷  the word of the Lord came to me: 29:18 “Son of man, King Nebuchadrezzar ⁸  of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. ⁹  Every head was rubbed bald and every shoulder rubbed bare; yet he and his army received no wages from Tyre for the work he carried out against it. 29:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. He will carry off her wealth, capture her loot, and seize her plunder; it will be his army’s wages. 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre ¹⁰ , because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord. 29:21 On that day I will make Israel powerful, ¹¹  and I will give you the right to be heard ¹²  among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

[29:10]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ sn Syene is known today as Aswan.

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

[29:14]  ⁵ tc Thus the Masoretic Text. The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as though the Hebrew read “cause to inhabit.”

[29:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”

[29:17]  ⁷ sn April 26, 571 b.c.

[29:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “r” rather than an “n” (so also in v. 19).

[29:18]  ⁹ sn Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre from 585 to 571 b.c.

[29:18]  map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[29:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for which he worked,” referring to the assault on Tyre (v. 18).

[29:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT (Ps 92:10). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17.

[29:21]  ¹² tn Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”