Study Desk

Speak, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt! The great dragon that is crouching in the midst of his floods, Who hath said, My flood [is] my own, And I -- I have made it [for] myself.

`Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Hath caused his force to serve a great service against Tyre, Every head [is] bald -- every shoulder peeled, And reward he had none, nor his force, out of Tyre, For the service that he served against it.

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah, Lo, I am giving to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon the land of Egypt, And he hath taken away its store, And hath taken its spoil, and taken its prey, And it hath been a reward to his force.

His wage for which he laboured I have given to him, The land of Egypt -- in that they wrought for Me, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

He and his people with him -- the terrible of nations, Are brought in to destroy the land, And they have drawn their swords against Egypt, And have filled the land [with] the wounded.

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, And I have broken his arms, The strong one and the broken one, And have caused the sword to fall out of his hand,

And strengthened the arms of the king of Babylon, And I have given My sword into his hand, And I have broken the arms of Pharaoh, And he hath groaned the groans of a pierced one -- before him.

`Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and unto his multitude: To whom hast thou been like in thy greatness?

Therefore higher hath been his stature than all trees of the field, And multiplied are his boughs, and long are his branches, Because of many waters in his shooting forth,

In his boughs made a nest hath every fowl of the heavens, And under his branches brought forth hath every beast of the field, And in his shade dwell do all great nations.

And he is fair in his greatness, In the length of his thin shoots, For his root hath been by great waters.

Cedars have not hid him in the garden of God, Firs have not been like unto his boughs, And chesnut-trees have not been as his branches, No tree in the garden of God hath been like unto him in his beauty,

Fair I have made him in the multitude of his thin shoots, And envy him do all trees of Eden that [are] in the garden of God.

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because that thou hast been high in stature, And he yieldeth his foliage between thickets, And high is his heart in his haughtiness,

I give him into the hand of a god of nations, He dealeth sorely with him, In his wickedness I have cast him out.

And cut him off do strangers, The terrible of nations, and they leave him, On the mountains and in all valleys have his thin shoots fallen, And broken are his boughs at all streams of the land, And go down from his shade do all peoples of the land, and they leave him.

On his ruin dwell do all fowls of the heavens, And on his boughs have been all the beasts of the field,

Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the day of his going down to sheol I have caused mourning, I have covered for him the deep, and diminish its flowings, And restrained are many waters, And I make Lebanon black for him, And all trees of the field have been covered for him.

From the sound of his fall I have caused nations to shake, In My causing him to go down to sheol, With those going down to the pit, And comforted in the earth -- the lower part, are all trees of Eden, The choice and the good of Lebanon, All drinking waters.

Also they with him have gone down to sheol, Unto the pierced of the sword, And -- his arm -- they dwelt in his shade in the midst of nations.