Unfaithful Israel

¹The Lord says, “If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, he cannot take her back again. This would completely defile the land. But, Israel, you have had many lovers, and now you want to return to me!

²Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution.

³That is why the rains were held back, and the spring showers did not come. You even look like a prostitute; you have no shame.

⁴“And now you say to me, ‘You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.

⁵You won't always be angry; you won't be mad at me forever.’ Israel, that is what you said, but you did all the evil you could.”

Israel and Judah Must Repent

⁶When Josiah was king, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute.

⁷I thought that after she had done all this, she would surely return to me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it all.

⁸Judah also saw that I divorced Israel and sent her away because she had turned from me and had become a prostitute. But Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, was not afraid. She too became a prostitute

⁹and was not at all ashamed. She defiled the land, and she committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees.

¹⁰And after all this, Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, only pretended to return to me; she was not sincere. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹¹Then the Lord told me that, even though Israel had turned away from him, she had proved to be better than unfaithful Judah.

¹²He told me to go and say to Israel, “Unfaithful Israel, come back to me. I am merciful and will not be angry; I will not be angry with you forever.

¹³Only admit that you are guilty and that you have rebelled against the Lord, your God. Confess that under every green tree you have given your love to foreign gods and that you have not obeyed my commands. I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹⁴“Unfaithful people, come back; you belong to me. I will take one of you from each town and two from each clan, and I will bring you back to Mount Zion.

¹⁵I will give you rulers who obey me, and they will rule you with wisdom and understanding.

¹⁶Then when you have become numerous in that land, people will no longer talk about my Covenant Box. They will no longer think about it or remember it; they will not even need it, nor will they make another one.

¹⁷When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all nations will gather there to worship me. They will no longer do what their stubborn and evil hearts tell them.

¹⁸Israel will join with Judah, and together they will come from exile in the country in the north and will return to the land that I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession.”

The Idolatry of God's People

¹⁹The Lord says, “Israel, I wanted to accept you as my child and give you a delightful land, the most beautiful land in all the world. I wanted you to call me father and never again turn away from me.

²⁰But like an unfaithful wife, you have not been faithful to me. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

²¹A noise is heard on the hilltops: it is the people of Israel crying and pleading because they have lived sinful lives and have forgotten the Lord their God.

²²Return, all of you who have turned away from the Lord; he will heal you and make you faithful. You say, “Yes, we are coming to the Lord because he is our God.

²³We were not helped at all by our pagan worship on the hilltops. Help for Israel comes only from the Lord our God.

²⁴But the worship of Baal, the god of shame, has made us lose flocks and herds, sons and daughters—everything that our ancestors have worked for since ancient times.

²⁵We should lie down in shame and let our disgrace cover us. We and our ancestors have always sinned against the Lord our God; we have never obeyed his commands.”

Prophecy against Egypt

¹On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “denounce the king of Egypt. Tell him how he and all the land of Egypt will be punished.

³Say that this is what the Sovereign Lord is telling the king of Egypt: I am your enemy, you monster crocodile, lying in the river. You say that the Nile is yours and that you made it.

⁴I am going to put a hook through your jaw and make the fish in your river stick fast to you. Then I will pull you up out of the Nile, with all the fish sticking to you.

⁵I will throw you and all those fish into the desert. Your body will fall on the ground and be left unburied. I will give it to the birds and animals for food.

⁶Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the Lord.” The Lord says, “The Israelites relied on you Egyptians for support, but you were no better than a weak stick.

⁷When they leaned on you, you broke, pierced their armpits, and made them wrench their backs.

⁸Now then, I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling you that I will have troops attack you with swords, and they will kill your people and your animals.

⁹Egypt will become an empty wasteland. Then you will know that I am the Lord. “Because you said that the Nile is yours and you made it,

¹⁰I am your enemy and the enemy of your Nile. I will make all of Egypt an empty wasteland, from the city of Migdol in the north to the city of Aswan in the south, all the way to the Ethiopian border.

¹¹No human being or animal will walk through it. For forty years nothing will live there.

¹²I will make Egypt the most desolate country in the world. For forty years the cities of Egypt will lie in ruins, ruins worse than those of any other city. I will make the Egyptians refugees. They will flee to every country and live among other peoples.”

¹³The Sovereign Lord says, “After forty years I will bring the Egyptians back from the nations where I have scattered them,

¹⁴and I will let them live in southern Egypt, their original home. There they will be a weak kingdom,

¹⁵the weakest kingdom of all, and they will never again rule other nations. I will make them so unimportant that they will not be able to bend any other nation to their will.

¹⁶Israel will never again depend on them for help. Egypt's fate will remind Israel how wrong it was to rely on them. Then Israel will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

King Nebuchadnezzar Will Conquer Egypt

¹⁷On the first day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me.

¹⁸“Mortal man,” he said, “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia launched an attack on Tyre. He made his soldiers carry such heavy loads that their heads were rubbed bald and their shoulders were worn raw, but neither the king nor his army got anything for all their trouble.

¹⁹So now this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: I am giving the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar. He will loot and plunder it and carry off all the wealth of Egypt as his army's pay.

²⁰I am giving him Egypt in payment for his services, because his army was working for me. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.

²¹“When that happens, I will make the people of Israel strong and let you, Ezekiel, speak out where everyone can hear you, so that they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Lord Will Punish Egypt

¹The Lord spoke to me again.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “prophesy and announce what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying. You are to shout these words: A day of terror is coming!

³The day is near, the day when the Lord will act, A day of clouds and trouble for the nations.

⁴There will be war in Egypt And great distress in Ethiopia. Many in Egypt will be killed; The country will be plundered And left in ruins.

⁵“That war will also kill the soldiers hired from Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, Arabia, Kub, and even from among my own people.”

⁶The Lord says, “From Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south, all Egypt's defenders will be killed in battle. Egypt's proud army will be destroyed. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.

⁷The land will be the most desolate in the world, and its cities will be left totally in ruins.

⁸When I set fire to Egypt and all her defenders are killed, then they will know that I am the Lord.

⁹“When that day comes and Egypt is destroyed, I will send messengers in ships to arouse the unsuspecting people of Ethiopia, and they will be terrified. That day is coming!”

¹⁰The Sovereign Lord says, “I will use King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to put an end to Egypt's wealth.

¹¹He and his ruthless army will come to devastate the land. They will attack Egypt with swords, and the land will be full of corpses.

¹²I will dry up the Nile and put Egypt under the power of evil people. Foreigners will devastate the whole country. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹³The Sovereign Lord says, “I will destroy the idols and the false gods in Memphis. There will be no one to rule Egypt, and I will terrify all the people.

¹⁴I will make southern Egypt desolate and set fire to the city of Zoan in the north. I will punish the capital city of Thebes.

¹⁵I will let the city of Pelusium, Egypt's great fortress, feel my fury. I will destroy the wealth of Thebes.

¹⁶I will set fire to Egypt, and Pelusium will be in agony. The walls of Thebes will be broken down, and the city will be flooded.

¹⁷The young men of the cities of Heliopolis and Bubastis will die in the war, and the other people will be taken prisoner.

¹⁸Darkness will fall on Tahpanhes when I break the power of Egypt and put an end to the strength they were so proud of. A cloud will cover Egypt, and the people of all her cities will be taken prisoner.

¹⁹When I punish Egypt in this way, they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Broken Power of the King of Egypt

²⁰On the seventh day of the first month of the eleventh year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me.

²¹“Mortal man,” he said, “I have broken the arm of the king of Egypt. No one has bandaged it or put it in a sling so that it could heal and be strong enough to hold a sword again.

²²Now then, this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, say: I am the enemy of the king of Egypt. I am going to break both his arms—the good one and the one already broken—and the sword will fall from his hand.

²³I am going to scatter the Egyptians throughout the world.

²⁴Then I will make the arms of the king of Babylonia strong and put my sword in his hands. But I will break the arms of the king of Egypt, and he will groan and die in front of his enemy.

²⁵Yes, I will weaken him and strengthen the king of Babylonia. When I give him my sword and he points it toward Egypt, everyone will know that I am the Lord.

²⁶I will scatter the Egyptians throughout the world. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹³Laughter may hide sadness. When happiness is gone, sorrow is always there.

¹⁴Bad people will get what they deserve. Good people will be rewarded for their deeds.

¹⁵A fool will believe anything; smart people watch their step.

¹⁶Sensible people are careful to stay out of trouble, but stupid people are careless and act too quickly.