Study Desk

They put hooks on him and locked him up. They had him in their trap, so they took him to the king of Babylon. And now, you cannot hear his roar on the mountains of Israel.

The king of Babylon has come to where the two roads separate. He uses magic to learn which way to go: He shakes his arrows, he asks his family idols, and he looks at the liver from an animal he has killed.

"The signs tell him to take the road on his right, the road leading to Jerusalem, where he will use battering rams. The signs tell him to give the command for his soldiers to begin the killing. They will shout the battle cry and set the battering rams against the gates. They will build a wall of dirt around the city and a dirt road leading up to the walls. They will build wooden towers to attack the city.

This is what the Lord God says: "You have done many evil things. Your sins are very clear. You forced me to remember that you are guilty, so the enemy will catch you in his hand.

One man commits a terrible sin against his own neighbor's wife. Another man has sex with his daughter-in-law and makes her unclean. Another man rapes his father's daughter—his very own sister.

Besides that, she never stopped her love affair with Egypt. Egypt made love to her when she was a young girl. Egypt was the first lover to touch her young breasts. Egypt poured his untrue love on her.

There will be so many of his horses that the dust from them will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of horse soldiers, wagons, and chariots when the king of Babylon enters the city through your city gates. Yes, they will come into your city because its walls will be pulled down.

The king of Babylon will come riding through your city. His horses' hoofs will come pounding over your streets. He will kill your people with swords. The strong columns in your city will fall to the ground.

That person will kill you. Will you still say, "I am a god"? No, he will have you in his power! You will see that you are a man, not God!

"Son of man, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made his army fight hard against Tyre. They shaved every soldier's head. 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."

So this is what the Lord God says: "I will give Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will carry away the people. He will take the many valuable things in Egypt to pay his army.

Nebuchadnezzar and his people are the most terrible of the nations, and I will bring them to destroy Egypt. They will pull out their swords against Egypt. They will fill the land with dead bodies.

"Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. No one will wrap his arm with a bandage. It will not heal, so his arm will not be strong enough to hold a sword."

This is what the Lord God says: "I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I will break both his arms, the strong arm and the arm that is already broken. I will make the sword fall from his hand.

I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong. I will put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh will cry out in pain, the kind of cry that a dying man makes.

"Son of man, say this to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his people: "‘You are so great! Who can I compare you to?

I will make many people shocked about you. Their kings will be terrified of you, when I swing my sword before them. They will shake with fear on the day you fall. Each king will be afraid for his own life."

"Strong and powerful men were killed in battle. Those foreigners went down to the place of death. And from that place, those who were killed will speak to Egypt and his helpers.

"Assyria and all its army are there in the place of death. Their graves are deep down in that deep hole. All the Assyrian soldiers were killed in battle, and their graves are all around his grave. When they were alive, they made people afraid, but they were all killed in battle.

"Edom is there also. His kings and other leaders are there with him. They were powerful soldiers, but now they lie with the other men who were killed in battle. They are lying there with those foreigners. They are there with the other people who went down into that deep hole.