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"He and his people with him, The most violent and ruthless of the nations, Will be brought in to destroy the land, And they will draw their swords against Egypt And fill the land with the slain.

"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong one and the broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand.

'I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; but I will break Pharaoh's arms and he will groan before him (Nebuchadnezzar) with the groanings of a [mortally] wounded man.

"Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes, 'Whom are you like in your greatness?

"Which among the trees of Eden do you equal in glory and in greatness [O Egypt]? Yet you [also] will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath (nether world). You will lie among the uncircumcised (the barbaric, the boorish, the crude) with those who were slain by the sword. This is how it shall be with Pharaoh and all his hordes!"' says the Lord GOD."

"I will make many peoples appalled at you [at your judgment and your defeat], and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword [of judgment] before them; they will tremble and shudder every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your downfall."

"The strong among the mighty rulers will say of him (Pharaoh) and his allies from the midst of Sheol, 'They have gone down [defeated]; they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.'

"Pharaoh will see them, and he will be comforted for all his hordes slain by the sword—Pharaoh and all his army," says the Lord GOD.

"Though I instilled a terror of him in the land of the living, yet he will be made to lie down among the uncircumcised along with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his hordes," says the Lord GOD.

then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his [own] head.

'He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood shall be on himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life.

'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, he is taken away because of his corruption and sin; but I will require his blood from the watchman's hand.'

"When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will certainly die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man will die because of his sin; but I will require his blood from your hand.

"But if you on your part warn the wicked man to turn from his [evil] way and he does not turn from his [evil] way, he will die in his sin; but you have saved your life.

"Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back (change your way of thinking), turn back [in repentance] from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'

"And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people, 'The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stagger because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness, whereas a righteous man will not be able to live because of his [previous acts of] righteousness on the day when he commits sin.'

"When I say to the righteous that he will most certainly live, and he trusts in his [previous acts of] righteousness [to save him] and commits injustice, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but he will die for his injustice that he committed.

"But when I say to the wicked, 'You will certainly die,' and he turns from his sin and practices that which is just (fair) and right—

"None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced that which is just (fair) and right; he will most certainly live.

"When the righteous turns back from his righteousness and commits injustice, he will also die because of it.