Ezekiel 29:11-21

29:11 No human foot will pass through it, and no animal’s foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years. 29:12 I will turn the land of Egypt into a desolation in the midst of desolate lands; for forty years her cities will lie desolate in the midst of ruined cities. I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries.

29:13 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years ¹  I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they were scattered. 29:14 I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and will bring them back ²  to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin; there they will be an insignificant kingdom. 29:15 It will be the most insignificant of the kingdoms; it will never again exalt itself over the nations. I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. 29:16 It will never again be Israel’s source of confidence, but a reminder of how they sinned by turning to Egypt for help. ³  Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.’”

29:17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, ⁴  the word of the Lord came to me: 29:18 “Son of man, King Nebuchadrezzar ⁵  of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. ⁶  Every head was rubbed bald and every shoulder rubbed bare; yet he and his army received no wages from Tyre for the work he carried out against it. 29:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. He will carry off her wealth, capture her loot, and seize her plunder; it will be his army’s wages. 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre ⁷ , because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord. 29:21 On that day I will make Israel powerful, ⁸  and I will give you the right to be heard ⁹  among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹ sn In Ezek 4:4-8 it was said that the house of Judah would suffer forty years.

² tc Thus the Masoretic Text. The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as though the Hebrew read “cause to inhabit.”

³ tn Heb “reminding of iniquity when they turned after them.”

⁴ sn April 26, 571 b.c.

⁵ tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “r” rather than an “n” (so also in v. 19).

⁶ sn Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre from 585 to 571 b.c.

⁷ tn Heb “for which he worked,” referring to the assault on Tyre (v. 18).

⁸ tn Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT (Ps 92:10). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17.

⁹ tn Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”