3. Tell him, 'The Lord and King says, " ' "Pharaoh Hophra, I am against you. King of Egypt, you are like a huge monster lying among your streams. You say, 'The Nile River belongs to me. I made it for myself.'
4. But I will put hooks in your jaws. I will make the fish in your streams stick to your scales. I will pull you out from among your streams. All of the fish will stick to your scales.
5. I will leave you out in the desert. All of the fish in your streams will be there with you. You will fall down in an open field. You will not be picked up. I will feed you to the wild animals and to the birds of the air.
6. Then everyone who lives in Egypt will know that I am the Lord. " ' "You have been like a walking stick made out of a papyrus stem. The people of Israel tried to lean on you.
7. They took hold of you. But you broke under their weight. You tore their shoulders open. They leaned on you. But you snapped in two. And their backs were broken." ' "
8. So the Lord and King says, "I will send Nebuchadnezzar's sword against you. He will kill your people and their animals.
9. Egypt will become a dry and empty desert. Then your people will know that I am the Lord. "You said, 'The Nile River belongs to me. I made it for myself.'
10. So I am against you and your streams. I will destroy the land of Egypt. I will turn it into a dry and empty desert from Migdol all the way to Aswan. I will destroy everything as far as the border of Cush.
11. "No people or animals will travel through Egypt. No one will even live there for 40 years.
12. Egypt will be more empty than any other land. Its destroyed cities will lie empty for 40 years. I will scatter the people of Egypt among the nations. I will send them to other countries."
13. But the Lord and King says, "At the end of 40 years I will gather the Egyptians together from the nations where they were scattered.
14. I will bring them back from where they were taken as prisoners. I will return them to Upper Egypt. That is where they came from. There they will be an unimportant kingdom.