Ezekiel 32:1-32

In the twelfth year of our captivity, on the first day of the twelfth month, YAHWEH spoke to me, saying, “Son of man, give a solemn warning to Pharaoh king of Egypt. Say to him: “ ‘You are like a young lion prowling among the nations, or like a sea monster lurking in your lagoons! You churn up the water with your trampling and muddy their streams. Lord YAHWEH says to you: I will throw my net over you using a large group of nations. They will drag you to shore in my net, and I will leave you high and dry. I will fling you onto the open field and abandon you on the ground. I will gather all the birds of the air to feast on your flesh, and all the beasts of the earth will gorge themselves on you. I will scatter bits and pieces of your flesh on the hills and fill the valleys with your rotting corpse. I will drench the land with your oozing blood until it fills the ravines and spreads to the base of the mountains. When I snuff you out, I will hide the skies and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with clouds and turn off the moonlight. Heaven’s bright lights above you I will darken and shroud your land in darkness. I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken. “ ‘I will trouble the hearts of many peoples when I spread the news of your destruction to nations and lands unknown to you. What I do to you will stun many nations. When I brandish my sword before them all, their kings will shudder with horror at your fate. On the day they see you fall, each will tremble in terror, fearing your fate might become theirs! “ ‘For Lord YAHWEH says to Egypt: The king of Babylon is coming to attack you! I will cause your great army to fall by the swords of mighty warriors. They are the most barbaric of nations. They will slice the pride of Egypt into pieces, and all your people will be destroyed. I will also slaughter your livestock grazing beside the plentiful waters. No person or animal will muddy the water in the watering places with their feet and hooves. Then I will settle their waters and make their rivers flow as smoothly as oil. I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken. “ ‘When I reduce Egypt to a desolate wasteland and strip the land of all it contains, when I annihilate all who live there, then they will acknowledge that I am YAHWEH. “ ‘This is the funeral song that people will sing in mourning for Egypt. Women of other nations will sing in lament for it. They will utter a lamentation for the land of Egypt and all its many people. I, Lord YAHWEH, decree it!’ ” In the twelfth year of our captivity, on the fifteenth day of the twelfth month, YAHWEH spoke to me, saying, “Son of man, weep and mourn for the vast population of Egypt, and for the other mighty nations. For I will send them down to the world below with all who sink into the pit. “Tell them, ‘Egypt, are you more favored than the other nations? Down with you! Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised dead, with those who have been slaughtered by the sword! I will hand you and all your people over to the sword, and they will drag you away. From the depths of Sheol, the mightiest heroes, your allies, will shout to you, “Now they have come down. They have joined us among the uncircumcised dead, slaughtered by the sword.” “ ‘Assyria is there with all her hordes, with the graves of her soldiers all around her. They fell on the battlefield, slaughtered by the sword. They made their graves in the deepest part of the pit. Her hordes surround her grave; they were all slaughtered! Those who once spread their terror throughout the world of the living now lie silent, slaughtered by the sword. “ ‘Elam is there, along with the graves of all her hordes. They were slaughtered—fallen by the sword. Those who once spread their terror throughout the land of the living have now joined the uncircumcised dead in the depths of the underworld. They have been disgraced and ashamed with those who sink into the pit. They have made a grave for her among her slaughtered multitudes, surrounded by all their tombs, all of them uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword for having spread terror throughout the land of the living. They have carried their shame with them, with all those who sink into the pit. They have been placed among the slaughtered. “ ‘Meshech and Tubal are in the graveyard with their hordes all around their graves. They are all the uncircumcised dead, slaughtered by the sword for having spread their terror throughout the land of the living. They were not buried with the great warriors of ancient times. When the mighty warriors died, they went into Sheol wearing all their armor. When people buried them, they placed their swords under their heads and their shields on top of their bodies because these valiant heroes once terrorized the land of the living. And you, Pharaoh, will be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those slaughtered by the sword. “ ‘Edom is there, her kings and all her rulers, who, despite their might, have been buried with those slaughtered by the sword. They lie with the uncircumcised, with those who sink into the pit. “ ‘All the princes of the north and all the Sidonians are there. They have gone down in disgrace with the slaughtered because their powerful armies once terrified their enemies. They lie among the uncircumcised dead, those slaughtered by the sword who bear their shame with those who sink into the pit. “ ‘When Pharaoh and all his army see them, it will bring him some consolation at the sight of all his hordes killed by the sword. I, YAHWEH, decree it! Although I made him spread terror throughout the land of the living, he and all his hordes will be buried with the uncircumcised dead who were slaughtered by the sword. I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken.’ ”