What does Ezechiel Chapter 29 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A river dragon and reed staff describe Egypt. Forty-year desolation precedes diminished return. A later dated word awards army wages.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 29 first dates its word to year ten, month ten, day eleven. Pharao is a great dragon in his rivers, saying the river is his and he made himself; a later verse says he made it. A bridle in his jaws and fish attached to his scales accompany removal to the desert, where neither collected nor taken up he and the fish become food for beasts and birds. Egypt has been Israel's reed staff: grasping it tears the shoulder and leaning weakens the loins. Lacerated hands, a named Hophra and a definite Nile-delta campaign are not specified.

Sword removes man and beast and desolation extends from Syene's tower to Ethiopia's borders. No human or beast passes and the land and cities remain uninhabited forty years, with Egyptians scattered. At forty years' end they return to Phatures, their native land, as the lowest kingdom, no longer ruling nations or being Israel's confidence teaching iniquity. The forty years are not expressly called symbolic and Syene is not located at a northern frontier by this span.

Another word is dated year twenty-seven, month one, day one: seventeen numbered years after year ten, not sixteen. Nabuchodonosor's Tyre service leaves bald heads and peeled shoulders without reward. Egypt's multitude, booty and spoils become army wages for service to the Lord. Neither thirteen years of siege nor helmet and hauling causes for injuries are stated, and conquest remains announced rather than reported completed. A horn buds for Israel and the prophet receives an open mouth; an expressly messianic redemption interpretation is not supplied here.

The story inside

Opening: A river dragon and reed staff describe Egypt. Development: Forty-year desolation precedes diminished return. Conclusion: A later dated word awards army wages.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A river dragon and reed staff describe Egypt.
2
Forty-year desolation precedes diminished return.
3
A later dated word awards army wages.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 94435–94446
29:3. Speak, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, Pharao king of Egypt, thou great dragon that liest in the midst of thy rivers, and sayest: The river is mine, and I made myself. 29:4. But I will put a bridle in thy jaws: and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales: and I will draw thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all thy fish shall stick to thy scales. 29:5. And I will cast thee forth into the desert, and all the fish of thy river: thou shalt fall upon the face of the earth, thou shalt not be taken up, nor gathered together: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the earth, and to the fowls of the air.
Lines 94448–94453
29:6. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord: because thou hast been a staff of a reed to the house of Israel. 29:7. When they took hold of thee with the hand thou didst break, and rent all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brokest, and weakenest all their loins.
Lines 94462–94474
29:10. Therefore, behold I come against thee, and thy rivers: and I will make the land of Egypt utterly desolate, and wasted by the sword, from the tower of Syene, even to the borders of Ethiopia. 29:11. The foot of man shall not pass through it, neither shall the foot of beasts go through it: nor shall it be inhabited during forty years. 29:12. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the lands that are desolate, and the cities thereof in the midst of the cities that are destroyed, and they shall be desolate for forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
Lines 94480–94490
29:14. And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will place them in the land of Phatures, in the land of their nativity, and they shall be there a low kingdom: 29:15. It shall be the lowest among other kingdoms, and it shall no more be exalted over the nations, and I will diminish them that they shall rule no more over the nations. 29:16. And they shall be no more a confidence to the house of Israel, teaching iniquity, that they may flee, and follow them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God.
Lines 94496–94508
29:18. Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath made his army to undergo hard service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled and there hath been no reward given him, nor his army for Tyre, for the service that he rendered me against it. 29:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will set Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon in the land of Egypt: and he shall take her multitude, and take the booty thereof for a prey, and rifle the spoils thereof: and it shall be wages for his army. 29:20. And for the service that he hath done me against it: I have given him the land of Egypt, because he hath laboured for me, saith the Lord God.
Lines 94510–94512
29:21. In that day a horn shall bud forth to the house of Israel, and I will give thee an open mouth in the midst of them: and they shall know that I am the Lord.