Bible Strands
Ezekiel 29:19
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will carry off its wealth, seize its spoil, and remove its plunder. This will be the wages for his army.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD addresses Ezekiel, delivering a declaration immediately after noting Nebuchadnezzar’s exhausted siege of Tyre. This pronouncement functions as a divine settlement for the Babylonian army’s unpaid labor.
The words — לָ/כֵ֗ן (la./Khen) translates literally as "therefore," anchoring the verse as a consequential decree. נֹתֵ֛ן (no.Ten) means "[am] about to give," emphasizing God’s immediate intention to transfer Egypt’s territory to Nebuchadnezzar.
The thread — This transfer of Egypt to Babylon recurs in Jeremiah 43:10 and Ezekiel 30:10, 30:24, where God actively empowers Nebuchadnezzar to break Pharaoh’s strength and execute judgment. The same theme of divine recompense links back to Ezekiel 29:20, which explicitly frames Egypt as the wage for the king’s labor.
Why it lands — The text states that God will seize Egypt’s wealth and hand it over to Babylon as payment, without moral qualification. It asks the reader to recognize that historical conquests and military exhaustion operate under direct divine accounting.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 43:10 Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.
- Ezekiel 30:24 I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king and place My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, who will groan before him like a mortally wounded man.
- Ezekiel 30:10 This is what the Lord GOD says: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
- Ezekiel 32:11 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘The sword of the king of Babylon will come against you!
- Ezekiel 30:4 A sword will come against Egypt, and there will be anguish in Cush when the slain fall in Egypt, its wealth is taken away, and its foundations are torn down.
- Ezekiel 29:8 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will bring a sword against you and cut off from you man and beast.