A reading from the book of Ezekiel.

In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, 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 and say, thus says the Lord God.

Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon

that lies in the midst of its streams, that says my Nile is my own. I made it for myself. I will put

hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales, and I will draw you up

out of the midst of your streams with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales. And I will cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your

streams, you shall fall on the open field and not be brought together or gathered, to the beasts

of the earth, and to the birds of the heavens, I give you as food. Then all the inhabitants of

Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because you have

been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they grasped you with a hand, you broke and tore all

their shoulders, and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. Therefore,

thus says the Lord God, behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast.

And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Because you said, the Nile is mine, and I made it. Therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt in utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the

border of Cush. No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beasts shall pass through it.

It shall be uninhabited forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst

of desolated countries, and our cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste.

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

For thus, says the Lord God, at the end of 40 years, I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples

among whom they were scattered. And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the

land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom.

...