Yehezkiel 29:8-12

29:8 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will kill ¹  every person and every animal. 29:9 The land of Egypt will become a desolate ruin. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,” 29:10 I am against ²  you and your waterways. I will turn the land of Egypt into an utter desolate ruin from Migdol ³  to Syene, ⁴  as far as the border with Ethiopia. 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.

Yehezkiel 30:12

30:12 I will dry up the waterways

and hand the land over to ⁵  evil men.

I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners.

I, the Lord, have spoken!

Yehezkiel 32:15

32:15 When I turn the land of Egypt into desolation

and the land is destitute of everything that fills it,

when I strike all those who live in it,

then they will know that I am the Lord.’

[29:8]  ¹ tn Heb “I will cut off from you.”

[29:10]  ² tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[29:10]  ³ sn This may refer to a site in the Egyptian Delta which served as a refuge for Jews (Jer 44:1; 46:14).

[29:10]  ⁴ sn Syene is known today as Aswan.

[30:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I will sell the land into the hand of.”