No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.
Parallel translations
- WEB No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
- KJV No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
- NKJV Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor foot of beast pass through it, and it shall be uninhabited forty years.
- NASB A human foot will not pass through it, nor will the foot of an animal pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.
- NLT For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither people nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
For forty years no man or beast will pass through Egypt, and it will lie uninhabited. The land suffers a measured period of desolation.
Overview
The forty-year span signals a complete but bounded period of judgment, echoing other biblical uses of forty as a time of testing or chastening. Egypt's emptiness demonstrates the seriousness of God's sentence. The limited term also hints that judgment, though severe, is not God's final word, as the following verses of restoration show.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ezek 32:13I will slaughter all her cattle beside the abundant waters. No human foot will muddy them again, and no cattle hooves will disturb them.
- Jer 43:11–12He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.
- Ezek 31:12Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.
- Isa 23:17And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
- Isa 23:15At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
- Jer 29:10For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
- 2 Chr 36:21So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.
- Ezek 30:10–13This is what the Lord GOD says: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
- Ezek 36:28Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.
- Jer 25:11–12And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
- Dan 9:2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
- Ezek 33:28I will make the land a desolate waste, and the pride of her strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will become desolate, so that no one will pass through.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 29:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.