Ezekiel 29

CHAPTER 29

A Prophecy Against Egypt (29:1–21)

1–16 In the tenth year of Ezekiel’s exile, a year before the fall of Jerusalem, the Lord told him to prophesy against Egypt.⁶⁶ This prophecy coincided with an unsuccessful attempt by Egypt to lift Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 37:5–8). Egypt proved to be a staff of reed (verse 6)—an unreliable ally in time of need. Judah should have trusted in God, not in Egypt.

Because of Egypt’s pride and its failure to support God’s people, God would punish the Egyptians and their Pharaoh; God would pull Pharaoh, the great monster, out of his place in the Nile, with all the fish (his mercenary soldiers) sticking to him (verses 3–4). Then the Lord would bring a sword against him (verse 8)—the sword of Nebuchadnezzar⁶⁷ (see verse 19). The Lord would make all of Egypt a desolate waste for forty years (verses 1012). Then He would bring the exiled Egyptians back to Upper (southern) Egypt (verse 14), but they would never become a powerful nation again.

17–21 Here begins a second message against Egypt, this one given in the twenty–seventh year of Ezekiel’s exile (verse 17)—seventeen years after the first one⁶⁸ (verse 1). The Lord informs Ezekiel that He has decided to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as a reward for attacking Tyre; apparently Nebuchadnezzar had obtained no plunder from Tyre, and so the plunder from Egypt would make up for it (verses 18–19).

On that day (the day Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt) the Lord will make a horn grow for the Jewish exiles in Babylonia (verse 21)—that is, He will strengthen and encourage them with the news that Israel’s ancient enemy has fallen.⁶⁹