Yahweh’s Judgment upon Egypt
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth [month], on the {twelfth} [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying},
2
"Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against Egypt, all of it.
3
Speak, and you must say, 'thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great sea monster, the [one] lying down in the midst of his Nile streams, who says to me, "[It is] my Nile, and I made [it] [for] myself."
4
And so I will put hooks in your jawbones, and I will make the fish of your Nile streams stick to your scales, and I will bring you up from the midst of your Nile streams, and all of the fish of your Nile streams [which] cling to your scales.
5
And I will fling you [to] the desert, you and all the fish of your Nile streams. On the surface of the field you will fall; you will not be gathered, and you will not be assembled. To the animals of the field and to the birds of the heavens I will give you as food.
6
And all of the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I [am] Yahweh, because of their being a staff of reed for the house of Israel.
7
When they took hold of you with the hand, you snapped, and you split their every shoulder. And when they leaned on you, you broke, and you caused all of their loins to wobble."
8
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] bringing on you [a] sword, and I will cut off from you human and animal.
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.
14
And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and I will bring them back [to] the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and they will be a lowly kingdom there.
15
Of [all] the kingdoms it will be [the most] lowly, and it will not exalt itself again over the nations, and I will make them small [so as] not to rule over the nations.
16
And it will not be again for the house of Israel an object of trust, bringing to remembrance [their] guilt {when they turned back to them}, and they will know that I [am] the Lord Yahweh."