Ezekiel 30-31

Ezekiel 30

¹The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

²Son of man, be a prophet, and say, These are the words of the Lord: Give a cry, Aha, for the day!

³For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near, a day of cloud; it will be the time of the nations.

⁴And a sword will come on Egypt, and cruel pain will be in Ethiopia, when they are falling by the sword in Egypt; and they will take away her wealth and her bases will be broken down.

⁵Ethiopia and Put and Lud and all the mixed people and Libya and the children of the land of the Cherethites will all be put to death with them by the sword.

⁶This is what the Lord has said: The supporters of Egypt will have a fall, and the pride of her power will come down: from Migdol to Syene they will be put to the sword in it, says the Lord.

⁷And she will be made waste among the countries which have been made waste, and her towns will be among the towns which are unpeopled.

⁸And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have put a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken.

⁹In that day men will go out quickly to take the news, causing fear in untroubled Ethiopia; and bitter pain will come on them as in the day of Egypt; for see, it is coming.

¹⁰This is what the Lord has said: I will put an end to great numbers of the people of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.

¹¹He and the people with him, causing fear among the nations, will be sent for the destruction of the land; their swords will be let loose against Egypt and the land will be full of dead.

¹²And I will make the Nile streams dry, and will give the land into the hands of evil men, causing the land and everything in it to be wasted by the hands of men from a strange country: I the Lord have said it.

¹³This is what the Lord has said: In addition to this, I will give up the images to destruction and put an end to the false gods in Noph; never again will there be a ruler in the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

¹⁴And I will make Pathros a waste, and put a fire in Zoan, and send my punishments on No.

¹⁵I will let loose my wrath on Sin, the strong place of Egypt, cutting off the mass of the people of No.

¹⁶And I will put a fire in Egypt; Syene will be twisting in pain, and No will be broken into, as by the onrush of waters.

¹⁷The young men of On and Pi-beseth will be put to the sword: and these towns will be taken away prisoners.

¹⁸And at Tehaphnehes the day will become dark, when the yoke of Egypt is broken there, and the pride of her power comes to an end: as for her, she will be covered with a cloud, and her daughters will be taken away prisoners.

¹⁹And I will send my punishments on Egypt: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

²⁰Now in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has been broken by me, and no band has been put round it to make it well, no band has been twisted round it to make it strong for gripping the sword.

²²For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and by me his strong arm will be broken; and I will make the sword go out of his hand.

²³And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries.

²⁴And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and will put my sword in his hand: but Pharaoh's arms will be broken, and he will give cries of pain before him like the cries of a man wounded to death.

²⁵And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and the arms of Pharaoh will be hanging down; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and it is stretched out against the land of Egypt.

²⁶And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 31

¹Now in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his people; Whom are you like in your great power?

³See, a pine-tree with beautiful branches and thick growth, giving shade and very tall; and its top was among the clouds.

⁴It got strength from the waters and the deep made it tall: its streams went round about its planted land and it sent out its waterways to all the trees of the field.

⁵In this way it became taller than all the trees of the field; and its branches were increased and its arms became long because of the great waters.

⁶In its branches all the birds of heaven came to rest, and under its arms all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and great nations were living in its shade.

⁷So it was beautiful, being so tall and its branches so long, for its root was by great waters.

⁸No cedars were equal to it in the garden of God; the fir-trees were not like its branches, and plane-trees were as nothing in comparison with its arms; no tree in the garden of God was so beautiful.

⁹I made it beautiful with its mass of branches: so that all the trees in the garden of God were full of envy of it.

¹⁰For this cause the Lord has said: Because he is tall, and has put his top among the clouds, and his heart is full of pride because he is so high,

¹¹I have given him up into the hands of a strong one of the nations; he will certainly give him the reward of his sin, driving him out.

¹²And men from strange lands, who are to be feared among the nations, after cutting him off, have let him be: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have come down; his arms are broken by all the waterways of the land; all the peoples of the earth have gone from his shade, and have let him be.

¹³All the birds of heaven have come to rest on his broken stem where it is stretched on the earth, and all the beasts of the field will be on his branches:

¹⁴In order that no trees by the waters may be lifted up in their growth, putting their tops among the clouds; and that no trees which are watered may take their place on high: for they are all given up to death, to the lowest parts of the earth among the children of men, with those who go down to the underworld.

¹⁵This is what the Lord has said: The day when he goes down to the underworld, I will make the deep full of grief for him; I will keep back her streams and the great waters will be stopped: I will make Lebanon dark for him, and all the trees of the field will be feeble because of him.

¹⁶I will send shaking on the nations at the sound of his fall, when I send him down to the underworld with those who go down into the deep: and on earth they will be comforting themselves, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, even all the watered ones.

¹⁷And they will go down with him to the underworld, to those who have been put to the sword; even those who were his helpers, living under his shade among the nations

¹⁸Whom then are you like? for you will be sent down with the trees of Eden into the lowest parts of the earth: there you will be stretched out among those without circumcision, with those who were put to the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his people, says the Lord.