Ezekiel 29:1-16
When Egypt boasts as if its life-source belongs to Pharaoh and tempts Israel to lean on false security, the Lord answers by judging Egypt, breaking its pretensions, and leaving it diminished rather than dominant.
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
3 Speak and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’
4 I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales. I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales.
5 I’ll cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You’ll fall on the open field. You won’t be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky.
6 “ ‘ “All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7 When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.”
8 “ ‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you.
9 The land of Egypt will be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. “ ‘ “Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it;’
10 therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your rivers. I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.
11 No foot of man will pass through it, nor will any animal foot pass through it. It won’t be inhabited for forty years.
12 I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the middle of the countries that are desolate. Her cities among the cities that are laid waste will be a desolation forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.”
13 “ ‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered.
14 I will reverse the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth. They will be a lowly kingdom, there.
15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms. It won’t lift itself up above the nations any more. I will diminish them, so that they will no longer rule over the nations.
16 It will no longer be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them. Then they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.” ’ ”
When Egypt boasts as if its life-source belongs to Pharaoh and tempts Israel to lean on false security, the LORD answers by judging Egypt, breaking its pretensions, and leaving it diminished rather than dominant.
To confront Pharaoh and Egypt for self-exalting claims over the Nile and for functioning as a false support to Israel, announcing that the LORD will drag Egypt from its apparent source of strength, desolate the land, scatter and later regather its people, and reduce Egypt so it will never again become Israel's misplaced confidence.
The passage speaks from Ezekiel's exilic prophetic context and includes its own date marker: the tenth year, tenth month, twelfth day. Judah's final crisis involved temptation to seek help from Egypt against Babylon, and Ezekiel's earlier material had already condemned such political dependence. This artifact keeps the focus on the textual claims rather than external reconstruction: Pharaoh boasts, Egypt fails as support, the LORD judges, scatters, later gathers, and permanently lowers Egypt's status.