Lament for Egypt's Collapse and Descent into Sheol
Ezekiel 32:1-32
1In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,2Son of man, raise a dirge over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: You resembled a lion of the nations; you were like a dragon in the seas. You burst forth in your rivers and troubled the waters with your feet; you fouled their rivers.3Thus says the Lord GOD: I will spread my net over you with an assembly of many peoples, and they will haul you up in my net.4I will cast you on the land and throw you on the face of the field. I will cause all the birds of the heavens to dwell upon you, and I will satisfy the living things of all the earth from you.5I will put your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with your refuse.6I will water the land of your discharge with your blood toward the mountains, and the channels will be filled from you.7I will cover the heavens with your quenching and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.8All the lights of light in the heavens I will darken over you, and I will bring darkness over your land, declares the Lord GOD.9I will provoke the heart of many peoples when I bring your breaking among the nations upon lands that they have not known.10I will make many peoples desolate because of you, and their kings will shudder with shuddering over you when I cause my sword to fly over their faces. They will tremble at every moment, each man for his soul, on the day of your fall.11For thus says the Lord GOD: The sword of the king of Babylon will come against you.12By the swords of mighty men I will cause your crowd to fall, the ruthless of nations, all of them; they will ruin the pride of Egypt, and all its crowd will be destroyed.13I will destroy all its livestock from beside abundant waters; the foot of man will no longer trouble them, nor will the hoof of beast trouble them.14Then I will sink their waters and cause their rivers to go like oil, declares the Lord GOD.15When I give the land of Egypt to devastation and it is made desolate, a land from its fullness, when I strike all who dwell in it, then they will know that I am the LORD.16It is a dirge, and they will chant it; the daughters of the nations will chant it over Egypt and over all its crowd, declares the Lord GOD.17In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,18Son of man, wail over the crowd of Egypt and send it down, it and the daughters of the nations, the great ones, to the land below, with those who go down to the pit.19From whom were you pleasant? Go down and be laid with the uncircumcised.20They will fall in the midst of the slain of the sword; a sword is given; draw it and all its crowd.21They will speak to him from the midst of Sheol with his helpers, the mighty gods: they have gone down; they lie with the uncircumcised, slain of the sword.22Assyria is there with all her company; their graves surround her, all of them slain, fallen by the sword.23Whose graves were set in the flanks of the pit, and her assembly is around her tomb, all of them slain, falling by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.24There is Elam and all her crowd around her tomb; all of them slain, the falling ones by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the land below, who gave their terror in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.25In the midst of the slain they gave a bed to her, with all her crowd around it; their graves surround them, all of them uncircumcised, slain of the sword, for they gave their terror in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit in the midst of the slain.26There are Meshech and Tubal and all their crowd around their graves; all of them uncircumcised, pierced of the sword, for they gave their terror in the land of the living.27They do not lie with the mighty men, falling from the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with the vessels of their battle, and they placed their swords under their heads, and their iniquities were upon their bones, for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living.28You also will be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.29Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who were laid in their might with those slain by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and with those who go down to the pit.30There are all the princes of the north and all the Sidonians, who went down with the slain in the terror of their might, ashamed; they lie uncircumcised with the slain of the sword, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.31Pharaoh will see them and be comforted over all his crowd, the slain of the sword of Pharaoh and all his army, declares the Lord GOD.32For I gave my terror in the land of the living, and he will be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with the slain of the sword, Pharaoh and all his crowd, declares the Lord GOD.