Ezekiel 29:1-21
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the opena fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7 When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
9 And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.
10 Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterlyb waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
13 Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered:
14 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation;c and they shall be there a base kingdom.
15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil,d and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD.
21 In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 29:2. Set thy face against Pharaoh. Against the dragon, the alligator, for the Nile once had alligators. The figurative language here is very majestic, and calculated to impress the Egyptians with terror.
Ezekiel 29:10. I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate. “In all that time,” says Dr. Smith, “more than two thousand four hundred years, Egypt has produced nothing great or remarkable, either in learning, wisdom, or exploit; but has continued a base tributary kingdom, with out ever having a prince of its own, being always subject to slaves and foreigners. It became first subject to the Babylonians, then to the Persians, afterwards to the Macedonians, then to the Romans. From them it passed to the Saracens, from the Saracens to the Mamelouks, or slave usurpers, and from the Mamelouks to the Ottoman empire; of which it now forms a province, governed by a Turkish Bashaw, and twenty four Beys or chiefs, advanced from among the slaves to the administration of public affairs; (the Egyptians being possessed with a superstitious notion, that it is decreed by fate that slaves must always rule, and the natives be subject.) And who could foresee and foretel the events of such remote futurity, but that omniscient Spirit, who spoke by the prophets, and whose image and superscription all their writings bear?”
Ezekiel 29:11. No foot of man shall pass through it for forty years. This happened when Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land, took all the strong places, put the citizens to the sword for making resistance, and carried into captivity a remnant fit for servitude. The slaughter was so severe, and the captivity so great, that the land was depopulated.
Ezekiel 29:13. At the end of forty years I will bring again the captivity of Egypt. Xenophon, in his travels or march of Cyrus, Mentions a column of Egyptian soldiers, whom the Persians could not break. After the Babylonians were routed and slaughtered on the plains of Babylon, he sent a trumpeter to them with a flag of truce, to know what they wished to do. In a word, Cyrus gave those brave men emancipation and suitable rewards. They then returned to their own land with honour.
Ezekiel 29:15. Egypt shall be the basest of kingdoms. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, overran it, when like a fool he sent his army against Ethiopia and Libya, without guides and without provisions, to perish in the deserts. The Carthaginians burned and ruined many cities of Egypt. Alexander also conquered Egypt; and lastly, the Romans gained possession of it, and partially held it till it fell under the Mahommedan power. By consequence, it has remained with a limited commerce, without illustrious men, and almost without shipping.
Ezekiel 29:19. I will give Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar, whose army had besieged Tyre for thirteen years; and when about to be taken, the merchants fled with their riches to Carthage, and other places. The Lord therefore promised here to give them the riches of Egypt for their hire. These awful predictions are continued in the next chapter.