Ezekiel

Chapter 30

A Lament for Egypt and Pharaoh’s Power Broken

Ezekiel 30 expands the judgment on Egypt into a full lament over the coming 'day of the LORD' against that empire and its allies. The chapter pictures sword, anguish, desolation, and the collapse of Egypt's pride from one end of the land to the other, reaching even the peoples who depended on her. Nebuchadnezzar becomes the named instrument through whom God will devastate the land, shatter idols, and strike its major cities. The chapter then closes with a separate dated oracle in which Pharaoh's arm is declared broken beyond healing while Babylon's arms are strengthened, signaling that Egypt's military power has decisively failed under God's hand.

This chapter continues the Egyptian oracles by placing Egypt's downfall inside the wider biblical theme of the day of the LORD. Egypt is not merely suffering a regional setback; its pride, gods, alliances, and military might are all being dismantled as part of divine judgment on the nations. The final image of broken and strengthened arms also reinforces Ezekiel's consistent message that imperial fortunes rise and fall only under God's sovereign direction, a truth that ultimately serves Israel's recognition of the LORD.

2 sections·365 words·~2 min read

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Ezekiel 30

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vv. 1-19

A Lament for Egypt

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A¹gain the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ³For the day is near, ⁴A sword will come against Egypt, ⁵Cush, Put, and Lud, ⁶For this is what the LORD says: ⁷They will be desolate among desolate lands, ⁸Then they will know that I am the LORD ⁹On that day messengers will go out from Me in ships to frighten Cush out of complacency. Anguish will come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom. For it is indeed coming.

¹⁰This is what the Lord GOD says: ¹¹He and his people with him, ¹²I will make the streams dry up ¹³This is what the Lord GOD says: ¹⁴I will lay waste Pathros, ¹⁵I will pour out My wrath on Pelusium, ¹⁶I will set fire to Egypt, ¹⁷The young men of On and Pi-beseth ¹⁸The day will be darkened in Tahpanhes ¹⁹So I will execute judgment on Egypt,

vv. 20-26

Pharaoh’s Power Broken

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I²⁰n the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²¹“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. See, it has not been bound up for healing, or splinted for strength to hold the sword. ²²Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt. I will break his arms, both the strong one and the one already broken, and will make the sword fall from his hand. ²³I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. ²⁴I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king and place My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, who will groan before him like a mortally wounded man. ²⁵I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king, but Pharaoh’s arms will fall limp. ²⁶Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I place My sword in the hand of Babylon’s king, and he wields it against the land of Egypt. I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

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