13. The Sovereign Lord says, “After forty years I will bring the Egyptians back from the nations where I have scattered them,
14. and I will let them live in southern Egypt, their original home. There they will be a weak kingdom,
15. the weakest kingdom of all, and they will never again rule over other nations. I will make them so unimportant that they will not be able to bend any other nation to their will.
16. Israel will never again depend on them for help. Egypt's fate will remind Israel how wrong it was to rely on them. Then Israel will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”
17. On the first day of the first month of the 27th year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me.
18. “Mortal man,” he said, “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia launched an attack on Tyre. He made his soldiers carry such heavy loads that their heads were rubbed bald and their shoulders were worn raw, but neither the king nor his army got anything for all their trouble.
19. So now this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: I am giving the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar. He will loot and plunder it and carry off all the wealth of Egypt as his army's pay.
20. I am giving him Egypt in payment for his services, because his army was working for me. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.
21. “When that happens, I will make the people of Israel strong and let you, Ezekiel, speak out where everyone can hear you, so that they will know that I am the Lord.”