Ezekiel 29:11

11 Not pass over into it doth a foot of man, Yea, the foot of beast doth not pass into it, Nor is it inhabited 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 hath been for a desolation and a waste, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah. Because he said: The flood [is] mine, and I made [it].

10 Therefore, lo, I [am] against thee, and against thy floods, And have given the land of Egypt for wastes, A waste, a desolation, from Migdol to Syene, And unto the border of Cush.

11 Not pass over into it doth a foot of man, Yea, the foot of beast doth not pass into it, Nor is it inhabited forty years.

12 And I have made the land of Egypt a desolation, In the midst of desolate lands, And its cities, in the midst of waste cities, Are a desolation forty years, And I have scattered the Egyptians among nations, And I have dispersed them through lands.

13 But thus said the Lord Jehovah: At the end of forty years I gather the Egyptians Out of the peoples whither they have been scattered,