New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
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In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day, God's Message came to me:
2 Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt;
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"Son of man, confront Pharaoh king of Egypt. Preach against him and all the Egyptians.
3 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon sprawling in the midst of its channels, saying, "My Nile is my own; I made it for myself."
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Tell him, 'God, the Master, says: "'Watch yourself, Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I'm dead set against you, You lumbering old dragon, lolling and flaccid in the Nile, Saying, "It's my Nile. I made it. It's mine."
4 I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales. I will draw you up from your channels, with all the fish of your channels sticking to your scales.
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I'll set hooks in your jaw; I'll make the fish of the Nile stick to your scales. I'll pull you out of the Nile, with all the fish stuck to your scales.
5 I will fling you into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your channels; you shall fall in the open field, and not be gathered and buried. To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air I have given you as food.
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Then I'll drag you out into the desert, you and all the Nile fish sticking to your scales. You'll lie there in the open, rotting in the sun, meat to the wild animals and carrion birds.
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord because you were a staff of reed to the house of Israel;
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Everybody living in Egypt will realize that I am God.
7 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and made all their legs unsteady.
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so that when they gripped you, you splintered and cut their hand, and when they leaned on you, you broke and sent them sprawling
8 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you human being and animal;
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- Message of God, the Master - I'll bring war against you, do away with people and animals alike,
9 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. Because you said, "The Nile is mine, and I made it,"
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and turn the country into an empty desert so they'll realize that I am God.
10 therefore, I am against you, and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia.
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therefore I am against you and your rivers. I'll reduce Egypt to an empty, desolate wasteland all the way from Migdol in the north to Syene and the border of Ethiopia in the south.
11 No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years.
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Not a human will be seen in it, nor will an animal move through it. It'll be just empty desert, empty for forty years.
12 I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.
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"'I'll make Egypt the most desolate of all desolations. For forty years I'll make her cities the most wasted of all wasted cities. I'll scatter Egyptians to the four winds, send them off every which way into exile.
13 Further, thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered;
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"'But,' says God, the Master, 'that's not the end of it. After the forty years, I'll gather up the Egyptians from all the places where they've been scattered.
14 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin; and there they shall be a lowly kingdom.
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I'll put things back together again for Egypt. I'll bring her back to Pathros where she got her start long ago. There she'll start over again from scratch.
15 It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations; and I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations.
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She'll take her place at the bottom of the ladder and there she'll stay, never to climb that ladder again, never to be a world power again.
16 The Egyptians shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel; they will recall their iniquity, when they turned to them for aid. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.
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Never again will Israel be tempted to rely on Egypt. All she'll be to Israel is a reminder of old sin. Then Egypt will realize that I am God, the Master.'"
17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
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In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, God's Message came to me:
18 Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it.
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"Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has worn out his army against Tyre. They've worked their fingers to the bone and have nothing to show for it.
19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army.
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"Therefore, God, the Master, says, 'I'm giving Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He'll haul away its wealth, pick the place clean. He'll pay his army with Egyptian plunder.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord God.
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He's been working for me all these years without pay. This is his pay: Egypt. Decree of God, the Master.
21 On that day I will cause a horn to sprout up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
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"'And then I'll stir up fresh hope in Israel - the dawn of deliverance! - and I'll give you, Ezekiel, bold and confident words to speak. And they'll realize that I am God.'"
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.