Ezekiel 29 - Easy To Read Version

¹ On the twelfth day of the tenth month (January) of the tenth year \{of exile\}, {\cf2\super [239]} the word of the Lord my Master came to me. He said,

² “Son of man, {\cf2\super [240]} look toward Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Speak for me against him and Egypt.

^3-5 Say, ‘The Lord my Master says these things:

⁶ Then all the people living in Egypt\par will know that I am the Lord!\par

⁷ The people of Israel leaned on Egypt\par for support.\par But Egypt only pierced their hands\par and shoulder.\par They leaned on you for support,\par but you broke and twisted their back.’”\par

⁸ So the Lord my Master says these things:\par “I will bring a sword against you.\par I will destroy all your people and animals.\par

⁹ Egypt will be empty and destroyed.\par Then they will know that I am the Lord.”\par

¹⁰ So, I (God) am against you. I am against the many branches of your Nile River. I will destroy Egypt completely. The cities will be empty from Migdol to Aswan, and as far as the border of Ethiopia.

¹¹ No person or animal will pass through Egypt. Nothing will pass through or settle there for 40 years.

¹² I will destroy Egypt. The cities will be in ruins for 40 years! I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations. I will make them strangers {\cf2\super [242]} in foreign lands.”

¹³ The Lord my Master says these things, “I will scatter the people of Egypt among many nations. But at the end of 40 years, I will gather those people together again.

¹⁴ I will bring back the Egyptian captives. I will bring back the Egyptians to the land of Pathros, to the land where they were born. But their kingdom won’t be important.

¹⁵ It will be the least important kingdom. It will never again lift itself above the other nations. I will make them so small that they won’t rule over the nations.

¹⁶ And the family of Israel will never again depend on Egypt. The Israelites will remember their sin—they will remember that they turned to Egypt \{for help and not to God\}. And they will know that I am the Lord and Master.”

¹⁷ On the first day of the first month (April) in the twenty-seventh year \{of exile\}, {\cf2\super [243]} the word of the Lord came to me. He said,

¹⁸ “Son of man, {\cf2\super [244]} Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made his army fight hard against Tyre. They shaved every soldiers’ hair. Every shoulder was rubbed bare \{from carrying heavy loads\}. Nebuchadnezzar and his army worked hard to defeat Tyre. But they got nothing from all that hard work.”

¹⁹ So the Lord my Master says these things, “I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar will carry away Egypt’s people. Nebuchadnezzar will take the many valuable things in Egypt. This will be the pay for Nebuchadnezzar’s army.

²⁰ I have given Nebuchadnezzar the land of Egypt as a reward for the hard work he did. Why? Because they worked for me!” The Lord my Master said these things!

²¹ “On that day I will make the family of Israel strong. Then \{Ezekiel,\} I will let you speak to them so they will know that I am the Lord.”