1. In the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2. Son of man, set thy face against Pharao king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against the whole of Egypt:
3. and say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I am against Pharao, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, that says, The rivers are mine, and I made them.
4. And I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy river to stick to thy [Gr. wings] sides, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy river:
5. and I will quickly cast down thee and all the fish of thy river: thou shalt fall on the face of the plain, and shalt by no means be gathered, and shalt not be brought together: I have given thee for food to the wild beasts of the earth and to the fowls of the sky.
6. And all the dwellers in Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because thou hast been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7. When they took hold of thee with their hand, thou didst break: and when every hand was clapped against them, and when they leaned on thee, thou wast utterly broken, and didst crush the loins of them all.
8. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and will cut off from thee man and beast;
9. and the land of Egypt shall be ruined and desert; and they shall know that I am the Lord; because thou sayest, The rivers are mine, and I made them.
10. Therefore, behold, I am against thee, and against all thy rivers, and I will give up the land of Egypt to desolation, and the sword, and destruction, from Magdol and Syene even to the borders of the Ethiopians.
11. No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years.
12. And I will cause her land to be utterly destroyed in the midst of a land that is desolate, and her cities shall be desolate forty years in the midst of cities that are desolate: and I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and will [Gr. pulverise] utterly scatter them into the countries.
13. Thus saith the Lord; After forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations among whom they have been scattered;
14. and I will [See Eph 4:8. A. V. margin] turn the captivity of the Egyptians, and will cause them to dwell in the land of Phathore, in the land whence they were taken;
15. and it shall be a base kingdom beyond all other kingdoms; it shall not any more be exalted over the nations; and I will make them few in number, that they may not be great among the nations.
16. And they shall no more be to the house of Israel a confidence bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they follow after them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.
17. And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
18. Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre; every head was bald, and every shoulder [Heb. word in Greek letters] peeled; yet there was no reward to him or to his army serving against Tyre, nor for the service wherewith they served against it.
19. Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will give to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon the land of Egypt, [Heb. and Alex. +’and he shall take her multitude’] and he shall take the plunder thereof, and seize the spoils thereof; and it shall be a reward for his army.
20. In return for his service wherewith he served against Tyre, I have given him the land of Egypt; [Alex. +’for all they did for me’] thus saith the Lord God:
21. In that day shall a horn spring forth for all the house of Israel, and I will give thee an [Lit. opened] open mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.