A message about Egypt

1Almost ten yearsafter we had been taken to Babylonia, on the twelfth day of the tenth monthof that year, Yahweh gave me another message. He said to me,

2“You human, turn toward Egypt and proclaim the terrible things that will happen to the king of Egypt and all his people.

3Give the king this message from me, Yahweh the Lord: ‘You king of Egypt, I am your enemy; you are like [MET] a great monster/crocodile that lies in the streamsalong the Nile River. You say, “The Nile River is mine; I made it for myself.”

4But it will be as though I will put hooks in your jaws
and drag you out from the river onto the land, with fish sticking to your scales.

5I will leave you and all those fish to die in the desert; you will fall onto the ground, and your corpse will not be picked up and buried, because I have declared that your flesh will be food for the wild animals and birds.

6When that happens, all the people of Egypt will know that it is I, Yahweh, who have the power to do what I say that I will do. The Israeli people trusted that you would help them. But you have been like [MET] a reed pole in their hands.

7And when they leaned on that pole, it splintered and tore open their shoulders. When they leaned on you, it was as though you were a pole that broke, and as a result you wrenched their backs.

8Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: “I will bring your enemies to attack you with their swords, and they will kill your people and your animals.

9Egypt will become an empty desert. Then the people of Egypt will know that I, Yahweh, have the power to do what I say that I will do.” You proudly said, “The Nile River is mine; I made it!”

10Therefore I am opposed to you and your streams, and I will cause Egypt to be ruined, and cause it to be an empty desert, from Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south, as far south as the border of Ethiopia.

11For 40 years no one will walk through that area, and no one will live there.

12Egypt will be barren/empty, and it will be surrounded by other desolate nations. The cities in Egypt will be empty and deserted for 40 years, surrounded by ruined cities in nearby nations. I will cause the people of Egypt to be scattered to countries far away.

13But this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, also say: “At the end of 40 years, I will enable the people of Egypt to return home again from the nations to which they were scattered.

14I will bring back the people of Egypt who had been captured, and I will enable them to live again in the Pathros area in the south, where they lived previously. But Egypt will be a very unimportant [DOU] kingdom.

15It will be the least important of all the nations; it will never again be greater than the nearby countries. I will cause Egypt to be very weak, with the result that it will never again rule over other nations.

16When that happens, the leaders of Israel will no longer be tempted to ask Egypt to help them. Egypt will be punished, and that will cause the Israeli people to not forget that they previously sinned by trusting that Egypt could help them. And the people of Israel will know that I, Yahweh the Lord, have the power to do what I say that I will do.” ' ”

Yahweh promises that the Babylonians will conquer Egypt

17Almost twenty-seven years after we had been taken to Babylonia, on the first day of the new year, Yahweh gave me this message:

18“You human, the army of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought very hard against Tyre, with the result that their heads were rubbed bare and their shoulders became ◄raw/full of blisters►. But Nebuchadnezzar and his army did not get any valuable things from Tyre to reward them for their hard work to destroy Tyre.

19Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: 'I will enable King Nebuchadnezzar’s army to conquer Egypt. They will carry away from there all the valuable things, in order that the king can give them to his soldiers.

20I will enable them to conquer Egypt as a reward for what they did to Tyre, because I, Yahweh say that it was as though his army was working for me, doing what I wanted them to do, when they destroyed Tyre.

21And some day Israel will become a glorious nation [MET] again. When that happens, I will cause the Israeli people to respect what you say [MTY]. And then they will know that it has happened because I, Yahweh, have the power to do what I say that I will do.' ”