1. In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2. “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
3. Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’
4. I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales.
5. I’ll cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You’ll fall on the open field. You won’t be brought together, nor gathered. I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky.
6. All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7. When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.”
8. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you.
9. The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it;’
10. therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.
11. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12. I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the middle of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.”
13. For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered;