Ezekiel 29

1-16 Proclamation against Egypt

1 In the 10th year, 10th month, 12th day of the month, Ezekiel is to prophesy against Pharaoh king of Egypt.

2 You are a great dragon who claims to own and have created the Nile.

3-5 I will hook you in the jaws, draw you up while other fish cling to you, fling you and your fish into the wilderness, where you will not be buried but will be eaten by the birds.

6-7 Then Egyptians will know that I am the LORD and that you were but a reed staff, breaking with their weight, making them unsteady.

8-9 I will bring a sword and cut you off from humans and animals, and your land will be desolate. And they will know that I am the LORD.

10-12 Because you said “the Nile is mine, and I made it,” I will make Egypt desolate and uninhabited for 40 years, and I will scatter your people. Commentators suggest that this 40 years begin with the overthrow of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar (in the 27th year of Jeconiah’s captivity) and end when Cyrus conquers Babylon, in the 70th year of captivity (43 years). The desolation and dearth of people are relative to the prosperity of Egypt before captivity.

13-15 After 40 years I will return the Egyptians to their land, but they will never again rule over other nations.

16 Israel will never rely on Egypt again; they will remember their sins, and they will know that I am the Lord GOD.

17-21 Babylonia’s Plunder of Egypt

17 In the 27th year, 1st month, 1st day, God tells Ezekiel,

18-20 King Nebuchadnezzar’s army worked hard for me against Tyre and received nothing from it, so I am giving Egypt and its wealth as wages for his army, as payment for their work for me.

21 I will cause a horn to sprout up and open your lips, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

I like what Jamieson Fausset and Brown say about this sprouting horn:

In the evil only, not in the good, was Egypt to be parallel to Israel. The very downfall of Egypt will be the signal for the rise of Israel, because of God's covenant with the latter.

I cause the horn of . . . Israel to bud--(Psalms 132:17). I will cause its ancient glory to revive: an earnest of Israel's full glory under Messiah, the son of David (Luke 1:69). Even in Babylon an earnest was given of this in Daniel (Daniel 6:2) and Jeconiah (Jeremiah 52:31).

I will give thee . . . opening of . . . mouth--When thy predictions shall have come to pass, thy words henceforth shall be more heeded (compare Ezekiel 24:27).