A Lament over Pharaoh and Egypt

¹eIn the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ²f“Son of man, graise a lamentation over hPharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:

“You consider yourself ia lion of the nations,

but you are like ja dragon kin the seas;

lyou burst forth in your rivers,

trouble the waters with your feet,

and foul their rivers.

³Thus says the Lord God:

mI will throw my net over you

with a host of nmany peoples,

and othey will haul you up in my dragnet.

⁴And pI will cast you on the ground;

on the open field I will fling you,

and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you,

and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.

⁵I will strew your flesh qupon the mountains

and fill the valleys with your carcass.1

⁶I will drench the land even to the mountains

with your flowing blood,

and the ravines will be full of you.

⁷rWhen I blot you out, sI will cover the heavens

and make their stars dark;

I will cover the sun with a cloud,

and the moon shall not give its light.

⁸All the bright lights of heaven

will I make dark over you,

and tput darkness on your land,

declares the Lord God.

⁹“I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries that you have not known. ¹⁰uI will make many peoples appalled at you, and the hair of their kings shall bristle with horror because of you, when vI brandish my sword before them. wThey shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall.

¹¹“For thus says the Lord God: xThe sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. ¹²I will cause yyour multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them zmost ruthless of nations.

a“They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt,

and all its multitude2 shall perish.

¹³I will destroy all its beasts

from beside many waters;

band no foot of man shall trouble them anymore,

nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them.

¹⁴Then cI will make their waters clear,

and cause their rivers to run like oil,

declares the Lord God.

¹⁵When I make the land of Egypt desolate,

and when the land dis desolate of all that fills it,

when I strike down all who dwell in it,

then ethey will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁶fThis is a lamentation that shall be chanted; the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt, and over gall her multitude, shall they chant it, declares the Lord God.”

¹⁷hIn the twelfth year, in the twelfth month,3 on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸i“Son of man, jwail over gthe multitude of Egypt, and ksend them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, lto the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit:

¹⁹m‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?

Go down and nbe laid to rest with the uncircumcised.’

²⁰They shall fall amid those owho are slain by the sword. Egypt4 is delivered to the sword; drag her away, and pall her multitudes. ²¹The mighty chiefs qshall speak of them, rwith their helpers, out of the midst of Sheol: ‘They have come down, they lie still, sthe uncircumcised, oslain by the sword.’

²²t“Assyria is there, and all her company, uits graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, ²³whose graves are set in vthe uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, wwho spread terror xin the land of the living.

²⁴y“Elam is zthere, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them aslain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into bthe world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and cthey bear their shame bwith those who go down to the pit. ²⁵dThey have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, eher graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain.

²⁶f“Meshech-Tubal is ethere, and all her multitude, eher graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living. ²⁷And gthey do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living. ²⁸But as for you, you shall be broken hand lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.

²⁹i“Edom is jthere, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.

³⁰“The princes kof the north are there, all of them, and all the lSidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, mfor all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and nbear their shame with those who go down to the pit.

³¹“When Pharaoh sees them, he owill be comforted for pall his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord God. ³²qFor I spread terror rin the land of the living; and he shall be laid to rest among sthe uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.”