“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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  • WEB World English Bible

    “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.

  • KJV King James Version

    Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    'Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt;

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Cross-references (15)

Passages linked to Ezekiel 29:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Ezekiel 6:2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,
  • Jeremiah 44:30 Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy, and sought his life.’ ”
  • Jeremiah 46:2-16 Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. “Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle! Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand up with your helmets. Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail. Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back. Terror is on every side,” says Yahweh. “Don’t let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape. In the north by the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen. “Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers? Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers. He says, ‘I will rise up. I will cover the earth. I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.’ Go up, you horses! Rage, you chariots! Let the mighty men go out: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow. For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself of his adversaries. The sword will devour and be satiated, and will drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt. You use many medicines in vain. There is no healing for you. The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they both fall together.” The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt. “Declare in Egypt, publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, ‘Stand up, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you.’ Why are your strong ones swept away? They didn’t stand, because Yahweh pushed them. He made many to stumble. Yes, they fell on one another. They said, ‘Arise! Let’s go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.’
  • Isaiah 18:1–19:17 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!” All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen! For Yahweh said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter. In that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion. The burden of Egypt. “Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt within it. I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies. The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul. The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?” Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes. Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do. In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of Yahweh of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them. The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of Yahweh of Armies, which he determines against it.
  • Isaiah 20:1-6 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot. Yahweh said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’ ”
  • Jeremiah 9:25-26 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
  • Jeremiah 25:18-19 Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today; Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants, his princes, and all his people;
  • Jeremiah 43:8-13 Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, “Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and tell them, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his royal pavilion over them. He will come, and will strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death will be put to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword. I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them, and carry them away captive. He will array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he will go out from there in peace. He will also break the pillars of Beth Shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.’ ”
  • Ezekiel 20:46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south, and preach toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the South.
  • Ezekiel 21:2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and preach toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel.
  • Ezekiel 25:2 “Son of man, set your face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them.
  • Ezekiel 28:21-22 “Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Sidon. I will be glorified among you. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have executed judgments in her, and am sanctified in her.
  • Ezekiel 30:1–32:32 Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ For the day is near, even Yahweh’s day is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of the nations. A sword will come on Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt. They take away her multitude, and her foundations are broken down. “ ‘ “Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the mixed people, Cub, and the children of the land that is allied with them, will fall with them by the sword.” “ ‘Yahweh says: “They also who uphold Egypt will fall. The pride of her power will come down. They will fall by the sword in it from the tower of Seveneh,” says the Lord Yahweh. “They will be desolate in the middle of the countries that are desolate. Her cities will be among the cities that are wasted. They will know that I am Yahweh when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed. “ ‘ “In that day messengers will go out from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid. There will be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes.” “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men. I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.” “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis. There will be no more a prince from the land of Egypt. I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No. I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt. I will cut off the multitude of No. I will set a fire in Egypt Sin will be in great anguish. No will be broken up. Memphis will have adversaries in the daytime. The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth will fall by the sword. They will go into captivity. At Tehaphnehes also the day will withdraw itself, when I break the yokes of Egypt, there. The pride of her power will cease in her. As for her, a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity. Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ ” In the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it become strong to hold the sword. Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong arm, and that which was broken. I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before the king of Babylon with the groaning of a mortally wounded man. I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh will fall down. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretches it out on the land of Egypt. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ” In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, “Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, “You were likened to a young lion of the nations; yet you are as a monster in the seas. You broke out with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.” The Lord Yahweh says: “I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they will bring you up in my net. I will leave you on the land. I will cast you out on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you. I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you. I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. I will also water the land in which you swim with your blood, even to the mountains. The watercourses will be full of you. When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon won’t give its light. I will make all the bright lights of the sky dark over you, and set darkness on your land,” says the Lord Yahweh. “I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid for you, when I brandish my sword before them. They will tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.” For the Lord Yahweh says: “The sword of the king of Babylon will come on you. I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of the mighty. They are all the ruthless of the nations. They will bring the pride of Egypt to nothing, and all its multitude will be destroyed. I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters. The foot of man won’t trouble them any more, nor will the hoofs of animals trouble them. Then I will make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil,” says the Lord Yahweh. “When I make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I strike all those who dwell therein, then they will know that I am Yahweh. “ ‘ “This is the lamentation with which they will lament. The daughters of the nations will lament with this. They will lament with it over Egypt, and over all her multitude,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ” Also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised. They will fall among those who are slain by the sword. She is delivered to the sword. Draw her away with all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword. “Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them slain, fallen by the sword; whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living. “There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. They have set her a bed among the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is put among those who are slain. “There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude. Their graves are around them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. They will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. “But you will be broken among the uncircumcised, and will lie with those who are slain by the sword. “There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword. They will lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit. “There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain. They are put to shame in the terror which they caused by their might. They lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. “Pharaoh will see them, and will be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword,” says the Lord Yahweh. “For I have put his terror in the land of the living. He will be laid among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude,” says the Lord Yahweh.
  • Joel 3:19 Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
  • Zechariah 14:18-19 If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (6 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 29:2 Son of man, set thy face against…

Eze 29:2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:

Ver. 2. Set thy face against Pharaoh.] This was Pharaohhophra, whom Herodotus {a} calleth Apries, and saith that he gave out that no god, how great soever, could deprive him of his kingdom. Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, also was wont to say that his kingdom was tied unto him with chains of adamant; but it proved otherwise. Noli gloriari. Do not brag!

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And against all Egypt.] Which held itself able to hold out against all the world, and is therefore here threatened at large in this and the three next chapters.

{a} In Euterp.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Set thy face: see Eze 20:46; 21:2.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. Set thy face against Pharaoh king of…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 29:2-3. Set thy face against Pharaoh — Pharaoh…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Pharao, Ephree, Jeremias xliv 30. He came to assist…

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