1-2. In the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, sing a funeral lament over Pharaoh king of Egypt. Tell him:“‘You think you’re a young lionprowling through the nations.You’re more like a dragon in the ocean,snorting and thrashing about.
3-10. “‘God, the Master, says:“‘I’m going to throw my net over you—many nations will get in on this operation—and haul you out with my dragnet.I’ll dump you on the groundout in an open fieldAnd bring in all the crows and vulturesfor a sumptuous carrion lunch.I’ll invite wild animals from all over the worldto gorge on your guts.I’ll scatter hunks of your meat in the mountainsand strew your bones in the valleys.The country, right up to the mountains,will be drenched with your blood,your blood filling every ditch and channel.When I blot you out,I’ll pull the curtain on the skiesand shut out the stars.I’ll throw a cloud across the sunand turn off the moonlight.I’ll turn out every light in the sky above youand put your land in the dark.Decree of God, the Master.I’ll shake up everyone worldwidewhen I take you off captive to strange and far-off countries.I’ll shock people with you.Kings will take one look and shudder.I’ll shake my swordand they’ll shake in their boots.On the day you crash, they’ll tremble,thinking, “That could be me!”
11-15. “‘God, the Master, says:“‘The sword of the king of Babylonis coming against you.I’ll use the swords of championsto lay your pride low,Use the most brutal of nationsto knock Egypt off her high horse,to puncture that hot-air pomposity.I’ll destroy all their livestockthat graze along the river.Neither human foot nor animal hoofwill muddy those waters anymore.I’ll clear their springs and streams,make their rivers flow clean and smooth.Decree of God, the Master.When I turn Egypt back to the wildand strip her clean of all her abundant produce,When I strike dead all who live there,then they’ll realize that I am God.’
16. “This is a funeral song. Chant it.Daughters of the nations, chant it.Chant it over Egypt for the death of its pomp.”Decree of God, the Master.
17-19. In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, God’s Message came to me:“Son of man, lament over Egypt’s pompous ways.Send her on her way.Dispatch Egyptand her proud daughter nationsTo the underworld,down to the country of the dead and buried.Say, ‘You think you’re so high and mighty?Down! Take your place with the heathen in that unhallowed grave!’
20-21. “She’ll be dumped in with those killed in battle. The sword is bared. Drag her off in all her proud pomp! All the big men and their helpers down among the dead and buried will greet them: ‘Welcome to the grave of the heathen! Join the ranks of the victims of war!’
22-23. “Assyria is there and its congregation, the whole nation a cemetery. Their graves are in the deepest part of the underworld, a congregation of graves, all killed in battle, these people who terrorized the land of the living.