16. I will set fire to your nation of Egypt! The city of Pelusium will be in anguish. Thebes will fall, and the people of Memphis will live in constant fear.
17. The young soldiers in the cities of Heliopolis and Bubastis will die in battle, and the rest of the people will be taken prisoner.
18. You were so proud of your nation's power, but when I crush that power and kill that pride, darkness will fall over the city of Tahpanhes. A dark, gloomy cloud will cover the land as you are being led away into captivity.
19. When I've finished punishing Egypt, you will know that I am the Lord.
20. Eleven years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, the Lord spoke to me on the seventh day of the first month. He said:
21. Ezekiel, son of man, I, the Lord, have defeated the king of Egypt! I broke his arm, and no one has wrapped it or put it in a sling, so that it could heal and get strong enough to hold a sword.
22. So tell him that I am now his worst enemy. I will break both his arms—the good one and the broken one! His sword will drop from his hand for ever,
23. and I will scatter the Egyptians all over the world.
24-25. I will strengthen the power of Babylonia's king and give him my sword to use against Egypt. I will also make the wounded king of Egypt powerless, and he will moan in pain and die in front of the Babylonian king. Then everyone on earth will know that I am the Lord.
26. I will force the Egyptians to live as prisoners in foreign nations, and they will know that I, the Lord, have punished them.