3. Give them this message from the Sovereign lord:“I am your enemy, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt—you great monster, lurking in the streams of the Nile.For you have said, ‘The Nile River is mine;I made it for myself.’
4. I will put hooks in your jawsand drag you out on the landwith fish sticking to your scales.
5. I will leave you and all your fishstranded in the wilderness to die.You will lie unburied on the open ground,for I have given you as food to the wild animals and birds.
6. All the people of Egypt will know that I am the lord,for to Israel you were just a staff made of reeds.
7. When Israel leaned on you,you splintered and brokeand stabbed her in the armpit.When she put her weight on you,you collapsed, and her legs gave way.
8. “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign lord says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt, and destroy both people and animals.
9. The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I am the lord.“Because you said, ‘The Nile River is mine; I made it,’
10. I am now the enemy of both you and your river. I will make the land of Egypt a totally desolate wasteland, from Migdol to Aswan, as far south as the border of Ethiopia.
11. For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither people nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited.
12. I will make Egypt desolate, and it will be surrounded by other desolate nations. Its cities will be empty and desolate for forty years, surrounded by other ruined cities. I will scatter the Egyptians to distant lands.