The Great Monster in the Nile
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 3 Speak and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’ 4 I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales. I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales. 5 I’ll cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You’ll fall on the open field. You won’t be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky. 6 “‘“All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 7 When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke and paralyzed all of their thighs.” 8 “‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you. 9 The land of Egypt will be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. “‘“Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it,’ 10 therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers. I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia. 11 No foot of man will pass through it, nor will any animal foot pass through it. It won’t be inhabited for forty years. 12 I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the middle of the countries that are desolate. Her cities among the cities that are laid waste will be a desolation forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.” 13 “‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered. 14 I will reverse the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth. There they will be a lowly kingdom. 15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms. It won’t lift itself up above the nations any more. I will diminish them so that they will no longer rule over the nations. 16 It will no longer be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them. Then they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”’” 17 It came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet he had no wages, nor did his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it. 19 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off her multitude, take her plunder, and take her prey. That will be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he served, because they worked for me,’ says the Lord Yahweh. 21 “In that day I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”
Egypt is a crocodile who claims to have made his own river, and a reed that splinters in the hand of anyone who leans on it.
The image is precise natural history. Pharaoh is the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers — a crocodile in the Nile, secure in its own element, unapproachable. And the boast put in its mouth is the largest claim in the book of the nations: My river is my own, and I have made it for myself. Egypt lived by the annual flood, which no king caused and none could withhold. The one thing a Pharaoh could not have made is the thing he claims to have made.
The judgment fits the boast exactly. Hooks in the jaws, the fish of the rivers sticking to the scales, and the whole creature hauled out of the water and thrown into the open field. A crocodile out of its river is helpless, and the passage leaves it there for the birds and the beasts. What made him invulnerable is simply removed.
The second image is the one that concerns Judah, and it is the reason Egypt is judged at length. Egypt has been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. A reed looks like a walking stick and behaves like one until weight is put on it. Then it snaps, and the splinters go into the hand and the shoulder of the man leaning. The detail about the injury is the point: an ally who fails does more damage than no ally, because of what was risked on him. Judah's whole final policy had rested on that staff.
The chapter closes with a piece of accounting that shows the book's own honesty about its predictions. The latest dated oracle in the book is placed here, out of sequence, in the twenty-seventh year: Nebuchadnezzar's army had labored hard against Tyre, yet he had no wages, nor did his army, from Tyre. The thirteen-year siege had not paid. So Egypt is given to him instead, as compensation — I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he served. A prophet who had announced Tyre's fall records that the campaign against it did not enrich the man who conducted it, and records it in Scripture rather than quietly dropping the matter.
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