Ezekiel 44

1 And the land of Egypt shall become a desert, and a wilderness: and they shall know that I am the Lord, because thou hast said: The river is mine, and I made it. 2 Therefore, behold I come against thee, and thy rivers: and I will make the land of Egypt utterly desolate, and wasted by the sword, from the tower of Syene, even to the borders of Ethiopia. 3 The foot of man shall not pass through it, neither shall the foot of beasts go through it: nor shall it be inhabited during forty years. 4 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the lands that are desolate, and the cities thereof in the midst of the cites that are destroyed, and they shall be desolate for forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 5 For thus saith the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the people among whom they had been scattered. 6 And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will place them in the land of Phatures, in the land of their nativity, and they shall be there a low kingdom: 7 It shall be the lowest among other kingdoms, and it shall no more be exalted over the nations, and I will diminish them that they shall rule no more over the nations. 8 And they shall be no more a confidence to the house of Israel, teaching iniquity, that they may flee, and follow them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God. 9 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year in the first month, in the first of the month: that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 10 Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath made his army to undergo hard service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled and there hath been no reward given him, nor his army for Tyre, for the service that he rendered me against it. 11 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will set Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon in the land of Egypt: and he shall take her multitude, and take the booty thereof for a prey, and rifle the spoils thereof: and it shall be wages for his army. 12 And for the service that he hath done me against it: I have given him the land of Egypt, because he hath laboured for me, saith the Lord God. 13 In that day a horn shall bud forth to the house of Israel, and I will give thee an open mouth in the midst of them: and they shall know that I am the Lord. 15 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 16 Son of man prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Howl ye, Woe, woe to the day: 17 For the day is near, yea the day of the Lord is near: a cloudy day, it shall be the time of the nations. 18 And the sword shall come upon Egypt: and there shall be dread in Ethiopia, when the wounded shall fall in Egypt, and the multitude thereof shall be taken away, and the foundations thereof shall be destroyed. 19 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the rest of the crowd, and Chub, and the children of the land of the covenant, shall fall with them by the sword. 20 Thus saith the Lord God: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall, and the pride of her empire shall be brought down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord the God of hosts. 21 And they shall be desolate in the midst of the lands that are desolate, and the cities thereof shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. 22 And they shall know that I am the Lord: when I shall have set a fire in Egypt, and all the helpers thereof shall be destroyed. 23 In that day shall messengers go forth from my face in ships to destroy the confidence of Ethiopia, and there shall be dread among them in the day of Egypt: because it shall certainly come. 24 Thus saith the Lord God: I will make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon. 25 He and his people with him, the strongest of nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords upon Egypt: and shall fill the land with the slain. 26 And I will make the channels of the rivers dry, and will deliver the land into the hand of the wicked: and will lay waste the land and all that is therein by the hands of strangers, I the Lord have spoken it. 27 Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols, and I will make an end of the idols of Memphis: and there shall: be no more a prince of the land of Egypt and I will cause a terror in the land of Egypt. 28 And I will destroy the land of Phatures, and will make a fire in Taphnis, and will execute judgments in Alexandria. 29 And I will pour out my indignation upon Pelusium the strength of Egypt, and will cut off the multitude of Alexandria. 30 And I will make a fire in Egypt: Pelusium shall be in pain like a woman in labour, and Alexandria shall be laid waste, and in Memphis there shall be daily distresses. 31 The young men of Heliopolis, and of Bubastus shall fall by the sword, and they themselves shall go into captivity.