281 God's Message came to me, 2 "Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, 'This is what God, the Master, says: "'Your heart is proud, going around saying, "I'm a god. I sit on God's divine throne, ruling the sea" - You, a mere mortal, not even close to being a god, A mere mortal trying to be a god. 3 Look, you think you're smarter than Daniel. No enigmas can stump you. 4 Your sharp intelligence made you world-wealthy. You piled up gold and silver in your banks. 5 You used your head well, worked good deals, made a lot of money. But the money has gone to your head, swelled your head - what a big head! 6 "'Therefore, God, the Master, says: "'Because you're acting like a god, pretending to be a god, 7 I'm giving fair warning: I'm bringing strangers down on you, the most vicious of all nations. They'll pull their swords and make hash of your reputation for knowing it all. They'll puncture the balloon of your god-pretensions. 8 They'll bring you down from your self-made pedestal and bury you in the deep blue sea. 9 Will you protest to your assassins, "You can't do that! I'm a god"? To them you're a mere mortal. They're killing a man, not a god. 10 You'll die like a stray dog, killed by strangers -

11 Because I said so. Decree of God, the Master.'" 12 "Son of man, raise a funeral song over the king of Tyre. Tell him, A Message from God, the Master: "You had everything going for you. 13 You were in Eden, God's garden. You were dressed in splendor, your robe studded with jewels: Carnelian, peridot, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald, all in settings of engraved gold. A robe was prepared for you the same day you were created. 14 You were the anointed cherub. I placed you on the mountain of God. You strolled in magnificence among the stones of fire. 15 From the day of your creation you were sheer perfection... and then imperfection - evil! - was detected in you. 16 In much buying and selling you turned violent, you sinned! I threw you, disgraced, off the mountain of God. I threw you out - you, the anointed angel-cherub. No more strolling among the gems of fire for you! 17 Your beauty went to your head. You corrupted wisdom by using it to get worldly fame. I threw you to the ground, sent you sprawling before an audience of kings and let them gloat over your demise. 18 By sin after sin after sin, by your corrupt ways of doing business, you defiled your holy places of worship. So I set a fire around and within you. It burned you up. I reduced you to ashes. All anyone sees now when they look for you is ashes, a pitiful mound of ashes. 19 All who once knew you now throw up their hands: 'This can't have happened! This has happened!'"

The Prophecy against Zidon

20 God's Message came to me: 21 "Son of man, confront Sidon. Preach against it. 22 Say, 'Message from God, the Master: "'Look! I'm against you, Sidon. I intend to be known for who I truly am among you.' They'll know that I am God when I set things right and reveal my holy presence. 23 I'll order an epidemic of disease there, along with murder and mayhem in the streets. People will drop dead right and left, as war presses in from every side. Then they'll realize that I mean business, that I am God. 24 "No longer will Israel have to put up with their thistle-and-thorn neighbors Who have treated them so contemptuously. And they also will realize that I am God." 25 God, the Master, says, "When I gather Israel from the peoples among whom they've been scattered and put my holiness on display among them with all the nations looking on, then they'll live in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 They'll live there in safety. They'll build houses. They'll plant vineyards, living in safety. Meanwhile, I'll bring judgment on all the neighbors who have treated them with such contempt. And they'll realize that I am God."

Prophecies against Egypt

291 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day, God's Message came to me: 2 "Son of man, confront Pharaoh king of Egypt. Preach against him and all the Egyptians. 3 Tell him, 'God, the Master, says: "'Watch yourself, Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I'm dead set against you, You lumbering old dragon, lolling and flaccid in the Nile, Saying, "It's my Nile. I made it. It's mine." 4 I'll set hooks in your jaw; I'll make the fish of the Nile stick to your scales. I'll pull you out of the Nile, with all the fish stuck to your scales. 5 Then I'll drag you out into the desert, you and all the Nile fish sticking to your scales. You'll lie there in the open, rotting in the sun, meat to the wild animals and carrion birds. 6 Everybody living in Egypt will realize that I am God. 7 so that when they gripped you, you splintered and cut their hand, and when they leaned on you, you broke and sent them sprawling

8 - Message of God, the Master - I'll bring war against you, do away with people and animals alike, 9 and turn the country into an empty desert so they'll realize that I am God. 10 therefore I am against you and your rivers. I'll reduce Egypt to an empty, desolate wasteland all the way from Migdol in the north to Syene and the border of Ethiopia in the south. 11 Not a human will be seen in it, nor will an animal move through it. It'll be just empty desert, empty for forty years. 12 "'I'll make Egypt the most desolate of all desolations. For forty years I'll make her cities the most wasted of all wasted cities. I'll scatter Egyptians to the four winds, send them off every which way into exile. 13 "'But,' says God, the Master, 'that's not the end of it. After the forty years, I'll gather up the Egyptians from all the places where they've been scattered. 14 I'll put things back together again for Egypt. I'll bring her back to Pathros where she got her start long ago. There she'll start over again from scratch. 15 She'll take her place at the bottom of the ladder and there she'll stay, never to climb that ladder again, never to be a world power again. 16 Never again will Israel be tempted to rely on Egypt. All she'll be to Israel is a reminder of old sin. Then Egypt will realize that I am God, the Master.'"

17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, God's Message came to me: 18 "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has worn out his army against Tyre. They've worked their fingers to the bone and have nothing to show for it. 19 "Therefore, God, the Master, says, 'I'm giving Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He'll haul away its wealth, pick the place clean. He'll pay his army with Egyptian plunder. 20 He's been working for me all these years without pay. This is his pay: Egypt. Decree of God, the Master. 21 "'And then I'll stir up fresh hope in Israel - the dawn of deliverance! - and I'll give you, Ezekiel, bold and confident words to speak. And they'll realize that I am God.'"

301 God, the Master, spoke to me: 2 "Son of man, preach. Give them the Message of God, the Master. Wail: 3 "'Doomsday!' Time's up! God's big day of judgment is near. Thick clouds are rolling in. It's doomsday for the nations. 4 Death will rain down on Egypt. Terror will paralyze Ethiopia When they see the Egyptians killed, their wealth hauled off, their foundations demolished, 5 And Ethiopia, Put, Lud, Arabia, Libya - all of Egypt's old allies - killed right along with them. 6 "'God says: "'Egypt's allies will fall and her proud strength will collapse - From Migdol in the north to Syene in the south, a great slaughter in Egypt! Decree of God, the Master. 7 Egypt, most desolate of the desolate, her cities wasted beyond wasting, 8 Will realize that I am God when I burn her down and her helpers are knocked flat. 9 "'When that happens, I'll send out messengers by ship to sound the alarm among the easygoing Ethiopians. They'll be terrorized. Egypt's doomed! Judgment's coming! 10 "'God, the Master, says: "'I'll put a stop to Egypt's arrogance. I'll use Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to do it. 11 He and his army, the most brutal of nations, shall be used to destroy the country. They'll brandish their swords and fill Egypt with corpses. 12 I'll dry up the Nile and sell off the land to a bunch of crooks. I'll hire outsiders to come in and waste the country, strip it clean. I, God, have said so. 13 "'And now this is what God, the Master, says: "'I'll smash all the no-god idols; I'll topple all those huge statues in Memphis. The prince of Egypt will be gone for good, and in his place I'll put fear - fear throughout Egypt! 14 I'll demolish Pathros, burn Zoan to the ground, and punish Thebes, 15 Pour my wrath on Pelusium, Egypt's fort, and knock Thebes off its proud pedestal. 16 I'll set Egypt on fire: Pelusium will writhe in pain, Thebes blown away, Memphis raped. 17 The young warriors of On and Pi-beseth will be killed and the cities exiled. 18 A dark day for Tahpanhes when I shatter Egypt, When I break Egyptian power and put an end to her arrogant oppression! She'll disappear in a cloud of dust, her cities hauled off as exiles. 19 That's how I'll punish Egypt, and that's how she'll realize that I am God.'"

20 In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, God's Message came to me: 21 "Son of man, I've broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And look! It hasn't been set. No splint has been put on it so the bones can knit and heal, so he can use a sword again. 22 "Therefore, God, the Master, says, I am dead set against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will go ahead and break his other arm - both arms broken! There's no way he'll ever swing a sword again. 23 I'll scatter Egyptians all over the world. 24 I'll make the arms of the king of Babylon strong and put my sword in his hand, but I'll break the arms of Pharaoh and he'll groan like one who is mortally wounded. 25 I'll make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, but the arms of Pharaoh shall go limp. The Egyptians will realize that I am God when I place my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon. He'll wield it against Egypt 26 and I'll scatter Egyptians all over the world. Then they'll realize that I am God."

311 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, God's Message came to me: 2 "Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, that pompous old goat: "'Who do you, astride the world, think you really are? 3 Look! Assyria was a Big Tree, huge as a Lebanon cedar, beautiful limbs offering cool shade, Skyscraper high, piercing the clouds. 4 The waters gave it drink, the primordial deep lifted it high, Gushing out rivers around the place where it was planted, And then branching out in streams to all the trees in the forest. 5 It was immense, dwarfing all the trees in the forest - Thick boughs, long limbs, roots delving deep into earth's waters. 6 All the birds of the air nested in its boughs. All the wild animals gave birth under its branches. All the mighty nations lived in its shade. 7 It was stunning in its majesty - the reach of its branches! the depth of its water-seeking roots! 8 Not a cedar in God's garden came close to it. No pine tree was anything like it. Mighty oaks looked like bushes growing alongside it. Not a tree in God's garden was in the same class of beauty. 9 I made it beautiful, a work of art in limbs and leaves, The envy of every tree in Eden, every last tree in God's garden.'"

10 Therefore, God, the Master, says, "'Because it skyscrapered upwards, piercing the clouds, swaggering and proud of its stature, 11 I turned it over to a world-famous leader to call its evil to account. I'd had enough. 12 Outsiders, unbelievably brutal, felled it across the mountain ranges. Its branches were strewn through all the valleys, its leafy boughs clogging all the streams and rivers. Because its shade was gone, everybody walked off. No longer a tree - just a log. 13 On that dead log birds perch. Wild animals burrow under it. 14 "'That marks the end of the "big tree" nations. No more trees nourished from the great deep, no more cloud-piercing trees, no more earth- born trees taking over. They're all slated for death - back to earth, right along with men and women, for whom it's "dust to dust." 15 "'The Message of God, the Master: On the day of the funeral of the Big Tree, I threw the great deep into mourning. I stopped the flow of its rivers, held back great seas, and wrapped the Lebanon mountains in black. All the trees of the forest fainted and fell. 16 I made the whole world quake when it crashed, and threw it into the underworld to take its place with all else that gets buried. All the trees of Eden and the finest and best trees of Lebanon, well-watered, were relieved 17 - they had descended to the underworld with it - along with everyone who had lived in its shade and all who had been killed. 18 "'Which of the trees of Eden came anywhere close to you in splendor and size? But you're slated to be cut down to take your place in the underworld with the trees of Eden, to be a dead log stacked with all the other dead logs, among the other uncircumcised who are dead and buried. "'This means Pharaoh, the pompous old goat. "'Decree of God, the Master.'"