Proclamation against Egypt
29 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:
I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon sprawling
in the midst of its channels,
saying, “My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.”
4
I will put hooks in your jaws,
and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales.
I will draw you up from your channels,
with all the fish of your channels
sticking to your scales.
5
I will fling you into the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your channels;
you shall fall in the open field,
and not be gathered and buried.
To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air
I have given you as food.
6
Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know
that I am the Lord
because you[a] were a staff of reed
to the house of Israel;
7
when they grasped you with the hand, you broke,
and tore all their shoulders;
and when they leaned on you, you broke,
and made all their legs unsteady.[b]
8 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you human being and animal; 9 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Because you[c] said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,” 10 therefore, I am against you, and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia.[d] 11 No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12 I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.
13 Further, thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered; 14 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin; and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15 It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations; and I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 16 The Egyptians[e] shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel; they will recall their iniquity, when they turned to them for aid. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.
Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt
17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 18 Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord God.
21 On that day I will cause a horn to sprout up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Lamentation for Egypt
30 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 Mortal, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God:
Wail, “Alas for the day!”
3
For a day is near,
the day of the Lord is near;
it will be a day of clouds,
a time of doom[f] for the nations.
4
A sword shall come upon Egypt,
and anguish shall be in Ethiopia,[g]
when the slain fall in Egypt,
and its wealth is carried away,
and its foundations are torn down.
5 Ethiopia,[h] and Put, and Lud, and all Arabia, and Libya,[i] and the people of the allied land[j] shall fall with them by the sword.
6
Thus says the Lord:
Those who support Egypt shall fall,
and its proud might shall come down;
from Migdol to Syene
they shall fall within it by the sword,
says the Lord God.
7
They shall be desolated among other desolated countries,
and their cities shall lie among cities laid waste.
8
Then they shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have set fire to Egypt,
and all who help it are broken.
9 On that day, messengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the unsuspecting Ethiopians;[k] and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom;[l] for it is coming!
10 Thus says the Lord God:
I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,
by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.
11
He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations,
shall be brought in to destroy the land;
and they shall draw their swords against Egypt,
and fill the land with the slain.
12
I will dry up the channels,
and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers;
I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it
by the hand of foreigners;
I the Lord have spoken.
13 Thus says the Lord God:
I will destroy the idols
and put an end to the images in Memphis;
there shall no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt;
so I will put fear in the land of Egypt.
14
I will make Pathros a desolation,
and will set fire to Zoan,
and will execute acts of judgment on Thebes.
15
I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium,
the stronghold of Egypt,
and cut off the hordes of Thebes.
16
I will set fire to Egypt;
Pelusium shall be in great agony;
Thebes shall be breached,
and Memphis face adversaries by day.
17
The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword;
and the cities themselves[m] shall go into captivity.
18
At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark,
when I break there the dominion of Egypt,
and its proud might shall come to an end;
the city[n] shall be covered by a cloud,
and its daughter-towns shall go into captivity.
19
Thus I will execute acts of judgment on Egypt.
Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Proclamation against Pharaoh
20 In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 21 Mortal, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; it has not been bound up for healing or wrapped with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. 22 Therefore thus says the Lord God: I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall from his hand. 23 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the lands. 24 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him with the groans of one mortally wounded. 25 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall stretch it out against the land of Egypt, 26 and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
33 No evil will befall the one who fears the Lord,
but in trials such a one will be rescued again and again.
2
The wise will not hate the law,
but the one who is hypocritical about it is like a boat in a storm.
3
The sensible person will trust in the law;
for such a one the law is as dependable as a divine oracle.
4
Prepare what to say, and then you will be listened to;
draw upon your training, and give your answer.
5
The heart of a fool is like a cart wheel,
and his thoughts like a turning axle.
6
A mocking friend is like a stallion
that neighs no matter who the rider is.
Differences in Nature and in Humankind
7
Why is one day more important than another,
when all the daylight in the year is from the sun?
8
By the Lord’s wisdom they were distinguished,
and he appointed the different seasons and festivals.
9
Some days he exalted and hallowed,
and some he made ordinary days.
10
All human beings come from the ground,
and humankind[a] was created out of the dust.
11
In the fullness of his knowledge the Lord distinguished them
and appointed their different ways.
12
Some he blessed and exalted,
and some he made holy and brought near to himself;
but some he cursed and brought low,
and turned them out of their place.
13
Like clay in the hand of the potter,
to be molded as he pleases,
so all are in the hand of their Maker,
to be given whatever he decides.
14
Good is the opposite of evil,
and life the opposite of death;
so the sinner is the opposite of the godly.
15
Look at all the works of the Most High;
they come in pairs, one the opposite of the other.
Salutation
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
Gaius Commended for His Hospitality
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. 3 I was overjoyed when some of the friends[a] arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends,[b] even though they are strangers to you; 6 they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; 7 for they began their journey for the sake of Christ,[c] accepting no support from non-believers.[d] 8 Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.
Diotrephes and Demetrius
9 I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends,[e] and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him,[f] and you know that our testimony is true.
Final Greetings
13 I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; 14 instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.
15 Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.