Add parallel Print Page Options

but the Chaldean army pursued them; they caught up with Zedekiah in the wilderness near Jericho and took him prisoner. They brought him to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in Riblah,[a] in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced sentence upon him.(A) The king of Babylon executed the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his very eyes; the king of Babylon also executed all the nobles of Judah.(B) He then blinded Zedekiah and bound him in chains to bring him to Babylon.(C)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 39:5 Riblah: Nebuchadnezzar’s headquarters north of Damascus; Pharaoh Neco had once used the town as a military post (2 Kgs 23:33).

25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, has said: See! I will punish Amon[a] of Thebes and Egypt, gods, kings, Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.(A) 26 I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and to his officers. But later, Egypt shall be inhabited again, as in days of old—oracle of the Lord.(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 46:25 Amon: the sun-god worshiped at Thebes in Upper Egypt.

Say to him: Thus says the Lord God:

Pay attention! I am against you,
    Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
Great dragon[a] crouching
    in the midst of the Nile,
Who says, “The Nile belongs to me;
    I made it myself!”(A)
[b]I will put hooks in your jaws
    and make all the fish of your Nile
Cling to your scales;
    I will drag you up from your Nile,
With all the fish of your Nile
    clinging to your scales.(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 29:3 Dragon: Hebrew reads tannim, usually translated “jackals,” here a byform of tannin, the mythical dragon, or sea monster, representing chaos (cf. Is 27:1; 51:9; Jer 51:34; Ps 91:13; Jb 7:12), and the crocodile native to the Nile. Nile: the many rivulets of the Nile that branch out into the Delta.
  2. 29:4–5 Ezekiel’s repetition of detail creates a vivid picture of Egypt’s destruction: God hauls the crocodile (Pharaoh) and the fish clinging to it for protection (the Egyptian populace) out of the Nile and lands them in an open field, where their corpses are torn apart by wildlife rather than being properly buried (cf. Dt 28:26; 2 Kgs 9:36–37; Jer 34:20; Ez 39:17–20).

21 [a]Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. See! It has not been immobilized for healing, nor set with a splint to make it strong enough to grasp a sword.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 30:21–26 This oracle was delivered more than a year into the siege of Jerusalem (24:1). When Pharaoh Hophra came to help Jerusalem, the Babylonians temporarily lifted the siege; cf. Jer 34:21; 37:6–7. In Ezekiel’s eyes, Hophra was interfering with the punishment God intended the Babylonians to inflict on Judah. The Babylonians routed the Egyptians, who could not offer Jerusalem any more help; cf. chap. 31.