3. Say: ‘This is what the Lord God says:I am against you, king of Egypt.You are like a great crocodile that lies in the Nile River.You say, “The Nile is mine;I made it for myself.”
4. But I will put hooks in your jaws,and I will make the fish of the Nile stick to your sides.I will pull you up out of your rivers,with all the fish sticking to your sides.
5. I will leave you in the desert,you and all the fish from your rivers.You will fall onto the ground;you will not be picked up or buried.I have given you to the wild animalsand to the birds of the sky for food.
6. Then all the people who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.“ ‘Israel tried to lean on you for help, but you were like a crutch made out of a weak stalk of grass.
7. When their hands grabbed you, you splintered and tore open their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke and made all their backs twist.
8. “ ‘So this is what the Lord God says: I will cause an enemy to attack you and kill your people and animals.
9. Egypt will become an empty desert. Then they will know that I am the Lord.“ ‘Because you said, “The Nile River is mine, and I have made it,”
10. I am against you and your rivers. I will destroy the land of Egypt and make it an empty desert from Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south, all the way to the border of Cush.
11. No person or animal will walk through it, and no one will live in Egypt for forty years.
12. I will make the land of Egypt the most deserted country of all. Her cities will be the most deserted of all ruined cities for forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, spreading them among the countries.