Study Desk

You did many wrong things. You were a very crooked merchant. In this way you made the holy places unclean. So I brought fire from inside you. It burned you! You burned to ashes on the ground. Now everyone can see your shame.

So this is what the Lord God says: "I will bring a sword against you. I will destroy all your people and animals.

So I 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.

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 will not rule over the nations.

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.

"On that day I will make the family of Israel strong. So Ezekiel, I will let you speak to them. Then they will know that I am the Lord ."

So I will punish Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord !"

"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."

So I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall. Then they will know that I am the Lord . "I will put my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon. Then he will stretch the sword out against the land of Egypt.

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

So that tree was taller than all the other trees of the field, and it grew many branches. There was plenty of water, so the tree branches spread out.

The tree was very beautiful. It was so large! It had such long branches. Its roots had plenty of water.

So this is what the Lord God says: "That tree grew tall. Its top reached up to the clouds. It grew so big that it became proud!

So I let a powerful king have that tree. That ruler punished the tree for the bad things it did. I took that tree out of my garden.

Strangers—the most terrible people in the world—cut it down and scattered its branches on the mountains and in the valleys. Its broken limbs drifted down the rivers flowing through that land. There was no more shadow under that tree, so all the people left.

So I will make the water in Egypt calm. I will cause their rivers to run slowly—they will be slick like oil." This is what the Lord God said.

They heard the trumpet, but they ignored the warning. So they are responsible for their own deaths. If they had paid attention to the warning, they could have saved their own lives.

"So, son of man, speak to the family of Israel for me. They might say, ‘We have sinned and broken the law. Our sins are too heavy to bear. We rot away because of them. What can we do to live?'

"You must say to them, ‘The Lord God says: By my life, I swear that I don't enjoy seeing people die—not even evil people! I don't want them to die. I want them to come back to me. I want them to change their lives so that they can really live. So come back to me! Stop doing bad things! Why must you die, family of Israel?'

"Son of man, tell your people: ‘The good things people did in the past will not save them if they become bad and begin to sin. In the same way the bad things people did in the past will not destroy them if they turn from their evil. So remember, the good things people did in the past will not save them if they begin to sin.'