Ezekiel 29:11

11 A foot of a human will not pass over it, and a foot of an animal will not pass over it, and so it will not be inhabited [for] forty years.

Ezekiel 29:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 29:11

No foot of man shall pass through it
This must be understood not strictly, but with some limitation; it cannot be thought that Egypt was so depopulated as that there should not be a single passenger in it; but that there should be few inhabitants in it, or that there should be scarce any that should come into it for traffic; it should not be frequented as it had been at least there should be very few that travelled in it, in comparison of what had: no foot of beast shall pass through it:
no droves of sheep and oxen, and such like useful cattle, only beasts of prey should dwell in it: neither shall it be inhabited forty years:
afterwards, ( Ezekiel 29:17 ) , a prophecy is given out concerning the destruction of it by Nebuchadnezzar, which was in the twenty seventh year, that is, of Jeconiah's captivity; now allowing three years for the fulfilment of that prophecy, or forty years, a round number put for forty three years, they will end about the time that Cyrus conquered Babylon, at which time the seventy years' captivity of the Jews ended; and very likely the captivity of the Egyptians also. The Jews pretend to give a reason why Egypt lay waste just forty years, because the famine, signified in Pharaoh's dream, was to have lasted, as they make it out, forty two years; whereas, according to them, it continued only two years; and, instead of the other forty years of famine, Egypt must be forty years uninhabited: this is mentioned both by Jarchi and Kimchi.

Ezekiel 29:11 In-Context

9 And the land of Egypt will become [a] desolation and ruins, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh because he said, 'The Nile [is] {mine}! And I, I made [it]!'

10 Therefore look! I [am] against you and against your Nile streams, and I will make the land of Egypt into ruins, [a] pile of rubble, [a] desolation from Migdol [to] Syene and up to the boundary of Cush.

11 A foot of a human will not pass over it, and a foot of an animal will not pass over it, and so it will not be inhabited [for] forty years.

12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and its cities [to be] in the midst of ruined cities. They will be [a] desolation [for] forty years, and I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and I will disperse them among the countries."

13 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples [among] whom they were scattered.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "year"