1 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2“Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:
“You consider yourself a lion of the nations,
but you are like a dragon in the seas;
you burst forth in your rivers,
trouble the waters with your feet,
and foul their rivers.
3Thus says the Lord God:
I will throw my net over you
with a host of many peoples,
and they will haul you up in my dragnet.
4And I will cast you on the ground;
on the open field I will fling you,
and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you,
and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.
5I will strew your flesh upon the mountains
and fill the valleys with your carcass.
6I will drench the land even to the mountains
with your flowing blood,
and the ravines will be full of you.
7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens
and make their stars dark;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
and the moon shall not give its light.
8All the bright lights of heaven
will I make dark over you,
and put darkness on your land,
declares the Lord God.
9“I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries that you have not known. 10I will make many peoples appalled at you, and the hair of their kings shall bristle with horror because of you, when I brandish my sword before them. They shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall.
11“For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. 12I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most ruthless of nations.
“They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt,
and all its multitude shall perish.
13I will destroy all its beasts
from beside many waters;
and no foot of man shall trouble them anymore,
nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14Then I will make their waters clear,
and cause their rivers to run like oil,
declares the Lord God.
15When I make the land of Egypt desolate,
and when the land is desolate of all that fills it,
when I strike down all who dwell in it,
then they will know that I am the Lord.
16 This is a lamentation that shall be chanted; the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they chant it, declares the Lord God.”
17 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 18“Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit:
19 ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?
Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised.’
20They shall fall amid those who are slain by the sword. Egypt is delivered to the sword; drag her away, and all her multitudes. 21The mighty chiefs shall speak of them, with their helpers, out of the midst of Sheol: ‘They have come down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’
22 “Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, 23whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.
24 “Elam is there, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into the world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 25They have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain.
26 “Meshech-Tubal is there, and all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living. 27And they do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living. 28But as for you, you shall be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.
29 “Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.
30“The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
31“When Pharaoh sees them, he will be comforted for all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord God. 32For I spread terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.”
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One final word may be usefully added, as an epilogue to these eight chapters of judgments upon the nations. We pointed out that these oracles were uttered between the time when Ezekiel announced that the siege of Jerusalem had begun and the time when word came that the walls of the city had fallen and the temple was desolate, a period of two years. This was all the word that God gave through Ezekiel during that period, and this means that, within the context of the structure of this prophecy, the whole message is heightened in tension. Ezekiel has been uttering these messages, one by one, against the heathen nations, while the exiles in Babylon are waiting for a word from the Lord and all that they hear is this monotonous pronouncement of doom against them. And, as it were, they keep on saying, 'When is He going to speak a word to us?' And it was when word came that the city was broken and fallen (33:1ff) that God could speak through the prophet's words of promise and hope and restoration, of a new covenant, a new temple, and a new people. But this word could not come until they were brought to a complete end of themselves. This is God's pattern with His people in every age. We sometimes ask, 'Why doesn't God speak to us the kind of word that we want and need?' but it may well be that He cannot speak that word until we reach the very lowest point of despair and nothingness. 'God made the world out of nothing', said Martin Luther, 'and not until we are nothing can He do anything with us'. The exiles by the river Chebar had to have the news of Jerusalem's fall first, because there was still in them a residual belief that this could not happen to their Jerusalem. But happen it did, and only when the bottom thus fell out of their world was God able to speak the new word of hope to them. To this word we now come, in the next reading.