Dual Panel1IN THE twelfth year [after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken into exile by the king of Babylon], in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, You have likened [yourself] to a young lion, leader of the nations, but you are like a [monster] dragon in the seas; you break forth in your rivers and trouble the waters with your feet, and you make foul their rivers [the sources of their prosperity].
3Thus says the Lord God: I will therefore throw out My net over you with a host of many peoples, and they shall bring you up in My dragnet.
4Then I will leave you [Egypt] upon the shore; I will cast you on the open field and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle upon you, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with you.
5And I will scatter your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with your high heap of corpses {and} their worms.
6I will also water with your flowing blood the land, even to the mountains, and the hollows {and} water channels shall be full of you.
7And when I have extinguished you, I will cover the heavens [of Egypt] and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud and the moon shall not give her light.
8All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you and set darkness upon your land, says the Lord God.
9I will also trouble {and} vex the hearts of many peoples when I bring your breaking {and} trembling {and} destruction {and} carry you captive among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.
10I will make many peoples amazed {and} appalled at you [Egypt], and their kings shall shudder {and} be horribly afraid because of you when I brandish My sword before them; they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your downfall.
11For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you.
12I will cause your multitude, your tumult, {and} your store [of wealth, strength, and glory] to fall by the swords of the mighty--the most terrible among the nations are they all. And they shall bring to nothing the pomp {and} pride of Egypt, and all its multitude [with its activity and its wealth in every sphere] shall be destroyed.
13I will destroy also all its beasts from beside many {and} great waters, and no foot of man shall trouble them any more, nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14Then will I make their waters sink down (subside, be quiet, and become clear); their rivers I will cause to run [slowly and smoothly] like oil, says the Lord God.
15When I make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country is stripped {and} destitute of all that of which it was full when I smite all those who dwell in it, then will they know, understand, {and} realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who requires and calls forth loyalty and obedient service].
16This is the lamentation with which they shall intone {or} chant the lament for her; the daughters of the nations shall chant their lament with it; over Egypt and over all her multitude, her tumult, {and} her wealth in every sphere shall they chant it, says the Lord God.
17In the twelfth year [after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken into exile], on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
18Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt and cast them down, even her and the daughters of the famous {and} majestic nations, to the netherworld, with those who go down to the pit;
19Whom [among them] do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid with the uncircumcised (the heathen).
20They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword; she [Egypt] is delivered to the sword; they draw her down [to her judgment], and all her multitudes [with their noise and stores].
21The strong among the mighty shall speak of [Pharaoh] out of the midst of Sheol (the place of the dead, the netherworld) with those who helped him; they are gone down; they lie still, even the uncircumcised (the heathen) slain by the sword.
22Assyria is there and all her company; their graves are round about her, all of them slain, fallen by the sword,
23Whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit and whose company is round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror to spread in the land of the living.
24Elam [an auxiliary of Assyria] is there and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the netherworld, who caused their terror to spread in the land of the living and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.
25They have set her a bed (a sepulcher) among the slain with all her multitude--their graves round about her, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for their terror had spread in the land of the living, and they henceforth bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are laid in the midst of the slain.
26Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude are there; their graves are round about [Pharaoh], all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for they caused their terror to be spread in the land of the living.
27And they shall not lie with the mighty who have fallen of the uncircumcised [and] who have gone down to Sheol (the place of the dead, the netherworld) with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid [with honors] under their heads and whose iniquities are upon their bones, for they caused their terror to spread in the land of the living.
28But you [Meshech and Tubal] shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised and shall lie [without honors] with those who are slain with the sword.
29Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who were slain by the sword; they shall lie with the uncircumcised (the heathen) and with those who go down to the pit.
30The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain; for all the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame, and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword and henceforth bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
31When Pharaoh sees them, he will comfort himself for all his multitude--even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, says the Lord God.
32For I have put his {and} My terror in the land of the living, and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised (the heathen) with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God.