Today is the 14th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we approach the center of another one of our months together.

And we reach the beginning of a month or the middle of a month or the end of the month the same way, step by step, day by day together. And so our next step forward leads us back into the book of Ezekiel.

This week we're reading from the new international version and today Ezekiel chapters 29 and 30.

In the 10th year, in the 10th month on the 12th day, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, King of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.

Speak to him and say, this is what the sovereign Lord says. I am against you, Pharaoh, King of Egypt. You great monster lying among your streams.

You say, the Nile belongs to me. I made it for myself, but I will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales.

I will pull you out from among your streams with all the fish sticking to your scales. I will leave you in the desert, you in all the fish of your streams.

You will fall on the open field and not be gathered or picked up. I will give you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky.

Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord. You have been a staff of read for the people of Israel.

When they grasped you with their hands, you splintered and you tore open their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched.

Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says. I will bring a sword against you and kill both man and beast.

Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Because you said the Nile is mine, I made it. Therefore I am against you and against your streams.

And I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate waste from migdol to Aswan as far as the border of Kush.

The foot of neither man nor beast will pass through it. No one will live there for 40 years.

I will make the land of Egypt desolate among devastated lands and our cities will lie desolate 40 years among ruined cities.

And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries.

Yet this is what the sovereign Lord says. At the end of 40 years, I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they were scattered.

I will bring them back from captivity and return them to upper Egypt, the land of their ancestry.

There they will be a lowly kingdom. It will be the loliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the other nations.

I will make it so weak that it will never again rule over the nations.

Egypt will no longer be a source of confidence for the people of Israel, but will be a reminder of their sin and turning to her for help.

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