A Prophecy against Pharaoh
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
Speak and say: Thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster lying in the midst of his channels, who said: My Nile is my own, and I made myself.
And I will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your channels cling to your scales; and I will bring you up from the midst of your channels, and all the fish of your channels will cling to your scales.
And I will fling you into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your channels. On the face of the field you will fall; you will not be gathered and you will not be collected. To the beast of the earth and to the bird of the heavens I have given you for food.
And all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD, because they were a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
When they grasped you by the hand you splintered, and you tore open every shoulder of theirs; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and you made every waist of theirs stand still.
The Desolation of Egypt
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am bringing a sword against you, and I will cut off from you man and beast.
And the land of Egypt will become a desolation and a ruin; and they will know that I am the LORD, because he said: The Nile is mine, and I made it.
Therefore see, I am against you and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt ruins of dryness, a desolation, from Migdol to Syene and to the border of Cush.
No foot of man will pass through it, and no foot of beast will pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.
And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolate lands, and her cities in the midst of ruined cities will be a desolation for forty years. And I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them through the lands.
For thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they were scattered.
And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin; and there they will be a lowly kingdom.
Of the kingdoms it will be the lowliest, and it will not lift itself up over the nations again; and I will make them few, so as not to rule over the nations.
And it will no longer be a confidence for the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance when they turn after them; and they will know that I am the Lord GOD.
Egypt the Reward of Nebuchadnezzar
And it was in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made his force labor a great labor against Tyre: every head was made bald and every shoulder rubbed raw. But wages he had none, nor his force, from Tyre, for the labor he had labored against her.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am giving to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon the land of Egypt; and he will carry off her multitude and plunder her plunder and take her spoil as spoil, and it will be wages for his force.
As his wage for which he labored I have given him the land of Egypt, because they acted for me, the utterance of the Lord GOD.
On that day I will make a horn sprout for the house of Israel, and to you I will give an opening of the mouth in their midst; and they will know that I am the LORD.