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29 ‎[1] **In the tenth year **of the reign of Tzidkiyahu and the exile of Yehoyakhin, perhaps also the tenth year since the start of Ezekiel’s prophetic career,** in the tenth month, **Tevet, **on the twelfth **day** of the month, the word of the Lord was with me, saying: **
‎[2] **Son of man, direct your attention to Pharaoh, **a general name for Egyptian rulers, meaning “Great House,”** king of Egypt, and prophesy concerning him and concerning all Egypt. **
‎[3] **Speak and say: So said the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great crocodile; **this translation of a crocodile is supported by the mention of scales in the next verse; **that lies in the midst of his rivers, **the Nile and its tributaries. This predatory reptile that lives in the Nile and feeds on its fish symbolizes the cruel and complacent ruler of Egypt, who is identified with and is dependent upon his river. This is the crocodile **who has said**,** **proclaiming publicly his self-perception: **My river is **exclusively **mine, **it belongs to me, the great ruler, **and I made myself. **I have created myself and my kingdom. This arrogant claim is not merely a political or legal declaration; it is also a theological statement: Pharaoh considered himself a god, and was even officially recognized as such. He therefore maintained that he would live forever, that he was not created by some other being, and that he was even responsible for natural phenomena, such as the Nile.
‎[4] **I will **shatter this illusion and **put **barbed **hooks into your cheeks, **thereby catching you like a fish. **And I will stick the fish of your rivers to your scales, and **in this state **I will take you up out of the midst of your rivers, and all the fish of your rivers will stick to your scales. **When you will be caught, all the fish will stick to you. The prophet is warning Pharaoh that when he falls, his entire kingdom will fall with him.
‎[5] **I will cast you into the wilderness **and abandon you there; alternatively, I will spread you out in the wilderness, **you and all the fish of your rivers, upon the open field you will fall **to your death; **you will not be gathered, and you will not be collected **for burial; **I have given you to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens to devour. **
‎[6] Through this punishment **all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord, **and that their king is not a god. The severity of the punishment is due not only to Egypt’s conceit and distorted perceptions, but **because they were a reed crutch, **a crutch made of reed which has given insufficient support** for the house of Israel. **This prophecy might be referring to the period when the Egyptian commitment to aid the Kingdom of Judah was still in effect.
‎[7] **When they, **the people of Israel,** grasped you in the palm **to lean upon you, **you would splinter **their hands,** and you, **the sharp edges of your broken reed, **would wound their every shoulder, and when they leaned upon you, you would snap, and you would cause all their waists to collapse [*****veha’amadta*****]. **Alternatively, *veha’amadta *is similar to *ham’adta*, you cause them to stumble. Over the generations the Egyptians offered Israel support, but consistently disappointed, making promises to Israel that were never kept. Moreover, the promise of assistance itself negatively impacted those who had relied on it; the trust Israel had placed in Egypt came back to haunt them when the Babylonians dealt harshly with their rebels.
‎[8] **Therefore, so said the Lord God: Behold, I am bringing a sword against you, and I will eliminate from you man and animal. **
‎[9] **The land of Egypt will become desolation and ruin, and they will know that I am the Lord, because he, **Pharaoh,** said: The Nile is mine, and I made **it.** **Ultimately, Pharaoh himself will be held responsible for Egypt’s destruction, since he considered himself a god who created the Nile and all of Egypt. Instead of his claim of eternal life there will be destruction, and the saturation and blessing brought by the Nile will be replaced by dryness and desolation.
‎[10] **Therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will render the land of Egypt ruins, **wholly desiccated and** desolate ruins, from Migdol to Sevene,**** until the border of Kush,**** **Egypt’s southern frontier.
‎[11] **The foot of man will not pass through it, **the land of Egypt,** and the foot of animals will not pass through it, and it will not be **an **inhabited **land **for** **forty years. **
‎[12] **I will render the land of Egypt desolation among, **that is, together with,** desolate lands, and its cities will be desolation among ruined cities for forty years, and I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the lands. **
‎[13] After specifying the calamities that will befall Egypt, Ezekiel describes its ultimate fate. **For so said the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were dispersed. **Unlike the absolute defeats of some of the other nations, Egypt will not be rendered desolate forever.
‎[14] **I will restore the returnees of Egypt, and I will return them, **the exiles,** to the land of Patros, **Upper Egypt, **to the land of their origins**; **and there they will be a lowly kingdom.** Egypt will return, but its arrogance will have disappeared.
‎[15] **It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and it will no longer exalt itself over the nations, and I will diminish them so that they will not rule over the nations. **
‎[16] **And **so **it, **the Egyptian nation and its king,** will no longer be a support**,** **a prop, **for the house of Israel, evoking iniquity when they, **the house of Israel,** turn after them, and they will know that I am the Lord God. **
‎[17] The chapter continues with another prophecy, from a later date, but also connected to Egypt:** It was in the twenty-seventh year **of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,** in the first month, **Nisan, **on the first of the month, the word of the Lord was with me, saying: **
‎[18] **Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon commissioned his army for a great undertaking**,** **constructing a siege** against Tyre**.** **The siege of Tyre lasted for a long period, for thirteen years, according to some. **Every head **of his soldiers **had been made bald**,** and every shoulder peeled**.** **The soldiers suffered head and shoulder injuries from carrying all the heavy materials for the earthworks built around the city. **But** despite the injuries,** he and his army had no reward from Tyre for the undertaking that he performed against it**;** **Nebuchadrezzar’s men, who ended the siege weary and hurt, did not reap any rewards from their exhausting toil. Nebuchadrezzar destroyed the mainland portion of Tyre, but failed to conquer the off-shore island.
‎[19] **Therefore, so said the Lord God: Behold, I am giving the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry its multitude **of** **Egyptian captives to be sold into slavery, and** take its spoils and loot its loot, and it will be reward **and compensation **for** the effort** his army **invested in their Sisyphean labor in Tyre.** **
‎[20] **For the action that he performed against it, **Tyre,** I have given him the land of Egypt, for that which they, **the Babylonians,** did for Me, **acting as My agents in Tyre **– the utterance of the Lord God.** The prophet is stressing that the mighty ruler Nebuchadrezzar, with all his grand conquests, was merely executing the missions imposed upon him by his Master, God.
‎[21] **On that day**,** **after Nebuchadrezzar has conquered Egypt, **I will cause glory to flourish for the house of Israel, and I will enable you**,** **Ezekiel,** to open your mouth **and speak **in their midst**.** **Since Ezekiel’s earlier prophecy in the tenth year (verse 1), people had spoken against him, claiming that although much time had passed since he prophesied the fall of Egypt, nothing had yet happened to it. On the contrary, it was the Kingdom of Judah that had been destroyed. God therefore informs Ezekiel that ultimately another war will break out, in which Nebuchadrezzar and his army will conquer Egypt. **And **then **they**,** **the people of Israel, **will know that I am the Lord**,** **who keeps His word. They will begin to believe in Ezekiel and his God (see also 33:30–33).
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center