The Living Bible (267 page)

Ezekiel
30

Another message from the Lord!

    
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 “Son of dust, prophesy and say: The Lord God says, ‘Weep, for the terrible day is almost here; the day of the Lord; a day of clouds and gloom; a day of despair for the nations!
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 A sword shall fall on Egypt; the slain shall cover the ground. Her wealth is taken away, her foundations destroyed. The land of Cush has been ravished.
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 For Cush, Put, Lud, Arabia, and Libya, and all the countries leagued with them shall perish in that war.’”

    
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 For the Lord says: “All Egypt’s allies shall fall, and the pride of her power shall end. From Migdol to Syene they shall perish by the sword.
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 She shall be desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities shall be in ruins, surrounded by other ruined cities.
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 And they will know I am the Lord when I have set Egypt on fire and destroyed her allies.
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 At that time I will send swift messengers to bring panic to the Ethiopians; great terror shall befall them at that time of Egypt’s doom. This will all come true.”

    
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 For the Lord God says: “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, will destroy the multitudes of Egypt.
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 He and his armies—the terror of the nations—are sent to demolish the land. They shall war against Egypt and cover the ground with the slain.
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 I will dry up the Nile and sell the whole land to wicked men. I will destroy Egypt and everything in it, using foreigners to do it. I, the Lord, have spoken it.

    
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 “And I will smash the idols of Egypt and the images at Memphis, and there will be no king in Egypt; anarchy shall reign!

    
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 “The cities of Pathros along the upper Nile,
*
Zoan, and Thebes shall lie in ruins by my hand.
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 And I will pour out my fury upon Pelusium, the strongest fortress of Egypt, and I will stamp out the people of Thebes.
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 Yes, I will set fire to Egypt; Pelusium will be racked with pain. Thebes will be torn apart; Memphis will be in daily terror.
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 The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis shall die by the sword, and the women will be taken away as slaves.
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 When I come to break the power of Egypt, it will be a dark day for Tahpanhes too; a dark cloud will cover her, and her daughters will be taken away as captives.
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 And so I will greatly punish Egypt and they shall know I am the Lord.”

    
²⁰
 A year later,
*
around the middle of March of the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,
*
this message came to me:

    
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 “Son of dust, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh,
*
king of Egypt, and it has not been set nor put into a cast to make it strong enough to hold a sword again.
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 For the Lord God says, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and I will break both his arms—the strong one and the one that was broken before, and I will make his sword clatter to the ground.
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 And I will banish the Egyptians to many lands.
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 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and place my sword in his hand. But I will break the arms of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he shall groan before the king of Babylon as one who has been wounded unto death.
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 I will strengthen the hands of the king of Babylon, while the arms of Pharaoh fall useless to his sides. Yes, when I place my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he swings it over the land of Egypt, Egypt shall know I am the Lord.
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 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations; then they shall know I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel
31

In mid-May of the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,
*
this message came to me from the Lord:

    
^2-3
 “Son of dust, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his people: ‘You are as Assyria was—a great and mighty nation—like a cedar of Lebanon, full of thick branches and forest shade, with its head high up among the clouds.
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 Its roots went deep into the moist earth. It grew luxuriantly and gave streamlets of water to all the trees around.
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 It towered above all the other trees. It prospered and grew long thick branches because of all the water at its roots.
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 The birds nested in its branches, and in its shade the flocks and herds gave birth to young. All the great nations of the world lived beneath its shadow.
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 It was strong and beautiful, for its roots went deep to water.
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 This tree was taller than any other in the garden of God; no cypress had branches equal to it; none had boughs to compare; none equaled it in beauty.
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 Because of the magnificence that I gave it, it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden.’

    
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 “But Egypt
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has become proud and arrogant,” the Lord God says. “Therefore because she has set herself so high above the others, reaching to the clouds,
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 I will deliver her into the hands of a mighty nation, to destroy her as her wickedness deserves. I, myself, will cut her down.
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 A foreign army (from Babylon)—the terror of the nations—will invade her land and cut her down and leave her fallen on the ground. Her branches will be scattered across the mountains and valleys and rivers of the land. All those who live beneath her shade will go away and leave her lying there.
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 The birds will pluck off her twigs, and the wild animals will lie among her branches;
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 let no other nation exult with pride for its own prosperity, though it be higher than the clouds, for all are doomed, and they will land in hell along with all the proud men of the world.”

    
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 The Lord God says: “When she fell, I made the oceans mourn for her and restrained their tides.
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I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of Lebanon to weep.
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 I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of her fall, for I threw her down to hell with all the others like her. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, are comforted to find her there with them in hell.
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 Her allies, too, are all destroyed and perish with her. They went down with her to the netherworld—those nations that had lived beneath her shade.

    
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 “O Egypt, you are great and glorious among the trees of Eden—the nations of the world. And you will be brought down to the pit of hell with all these other nations. You will be among the nations you despise, killed by the sword. This is the fate of Pharaoh and all his teeming masses,” says the Lord.

Ezekiel
32

In mid-February of the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord:

    
²
 “Son of dust, mourn for Pharaoh, king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You think of yourself as a strong young lion among the nations, but you are merely a crocodile
*
along the banks of the Nile, making bubbles and muddying the stream.’”

    
³
 The Lord God says: “I will send a great army to catch you with my net. I will haul you out
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 and leave you stranded on the land to die. And all the birds of the heavens will light upon you, and the wild animals of the whole earth will devour you until they are glutted and full.
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 And I will cover the hills with your flesh and fill the valleys with your bones.
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 And I will drench the earth with your gushing blood, filling the ravines to the tops of the mountains.
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 I will blot you out, and I will veil the heavens and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give you her light.
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 Yes, darkness will be everywhere across your land—even the bright stars will be dark above you.

    
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 “And when I destroy you,
*
grief will be in many hearts among the distant nations you have never seen.
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 Yes, terror shall strike in many lands, and their kings shall be terribly afraid because of all I do to you. They shall shudder with terror when I brandish my sword before them. They shall greatly tremble for their lives on the day of your fall.”

    
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 For the Lord God says: “The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you.
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 I will destroy you with Babylon’s mighty army—the terror of the nations. It will smash the pride of Egypt and all her people; all will perish.
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 I will destroy all your flocks and herds that graze beside the streams, and neither man nor animal will disturb those waters anymore.
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 Therefore, the waters of Egypt will be as clear and flow as smoothly as olive oil,” the Lord God says.
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 “And when I destroy Egypt and wipe out everything she has, then she shall know that I, the Lord, have done it.
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 Yes, cry for the sorrows of Egypt. Let all the nations weep for her and for her people,” says the Lord.

    
¹⁷
 Two weeks later,
*
another message came to me from the Lord. He said:

    
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 “Son of dust, weep for the people of Egypt and for the other mighty nations. Send them down to the netherworld among the denizens of death.
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 What nation is as beautiful as you, O Egypt? Yet your doom is the pit; you will be laid beside the people you despise.
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 The Egyptians will die with the multitudes slain by the sword, for the sword is drawn against the land of Egypt. She will be drawn down to judgment.
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 The mighty warriors in the netherworld will welcome her as she arrives with all her friends, to lie there beside the nations she despised, all victims of the sword.

    
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 “The princes of Assyria lie there surrounded by the graves of all her people, those the sword has slain.
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 Their graves are in the depths of hell, surrounded by their allies. All these mighty men who once struck terror into the hearts of everyone are now dead at the hands of their foes.

    
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 “Great kings of Elam lie there with their people. They scourged the nations while they lived, and now they lie undone in hell; their fate is the same as that of ordinary men.
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 They have a resting place among the slain, surrounded by the graves of all their people. Yes, they terrorized the nations while they lived, but now they lie in shame in the pit, slain by the sword.

    
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 “The princes of Meshech and Tubal are there, surrounded by the graves of all their armies—all of them idolaters—who once struck terror to the hearts of all; now they lie dead.
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 They are buried in a common grave and not as the fallen lords who are buried in great honor with their weapons beside them, with their shields covering them and their swords beneath their heads.
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They were a terror to all while they lived.
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 Now you will lie crushed and broken among the idolaters, among those who are slain by the sword.

    
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 “Edom is there with her kings and her princes; mighty as they were, they too lie among the others whom the sword has slain, with the idolaters who have gone down to the pit.
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 All the princes of the north are there and the Sidonians, all slain. Once a terror, now they lie in shame; they lie in ignominy with all the other slain who go down to the pit.

    
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 “When Pharaoh arrives, he will be comforted to find that he is not alone in having all his army slain,” says the Lord God.
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 “For I have caused my terror to fall upon all the living. And Pharaoh and his army shall lie among the idolaters who are slain by the sword.”