Ezekiel 29:17
And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
The verse dates the word of the Lord to Ezekiel to the first day of the first month in the twenty-seventh year. That dating places it six hundred years before Christ, when Egypt was struggling against Babylon for supremacy in world empire. In the structure of the book, the chapter belongs to the prophecies against foreign nations in Ezekiel 25 to 31 concerning Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and Egypt.
More specifically, it belongs to the prophecies of judgment against Egypt, a great kingdom, in Ezekiel 29 to 32 concerning Pharaoh and his host. The prophecy announces the certain fate to come upon Pharaoh and his host, foretelling Egypt's decline.
Its predictions include the drying of Egypt's rivers, the abolition of its idols, and its becoming the basest of kingdoms. Those predictions were literally fulfilled, leaving Egypt among the basest of kingdoms, a fulfillment evident today. The prophecy concerning Egypt is identified with a prediction that England would take complete control of Egypt.