I will hand it over to a ruler of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. In accordance with its wickedness I have driven it out.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.
- KJV I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
- BSB I delivered it into the hand of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with it according to its wickedness. I have banished it.
- NKJV therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness.
- NLT I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it.
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
God will hand Egypt over to 'the mighty one of the nations'—Babylon—to deal with it as its wickedness deserves. The judgment is just and divinely directed.
Overview
The Lord declares He will deliver Pharaoh into the hand of Babylon, the dominant world power, driving him out 'for his wickedness.' Significantly, God is the true actor; Babylon is only His instrument of judgment, as Ezekiel 30 also shows. Human empires rise and fall at the command of the sovereign God who rules history.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Nah 3:18Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
- Ezek 32:11–12For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you.
- Deut 18:12For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you.
- Dan 5:18–19You, king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty:
- 1 Tim 1:20of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.
- Jas 2:13For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Judg 16:23The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.”
- Lev 18:24–28“‘Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.
- Jer 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Judg 1:7Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table. As I have done, so God has done to me.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
- Ezek 11:9“I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.
- Lam 1:21“They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it: You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me.
- Matt 7:1–2“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
- Ezek 21:31I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.
- Ezek 23:28“For thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated.
- Lev 20:22–23“‘You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them; that the land, where I am bringing you to dwell, may not vomit you out.
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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 31:11 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
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