1. IN 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,
2. Son 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].
3. Thus 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.
4. Then 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.
5. And I will scatter your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with your high heap of corpses and their worms.
6. I will also water with your flowing blood the land, even to the mountains, and the hollows and water channels shall be full of you.
7. And 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.
8. All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you and set darkness upon your land, says the Lord God.
9. I 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.