Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
Ezekiel 29:8 belongs to a prophecy of judgment against Egypt, Pharaoh, and his host, spoken by the Lord six hundred years before Christ while Egypt was struggling against Babylon for supremacy in world empire. Egypt in this prophecy is a former oppressor of God's people and a symbol of black infidelity. To bring a sword upon Egypt means God would send war upon it through invasion and conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, with its people slain and its land brought under foreign rule.
To cut off man and beast means to remove and destroy its people and the domesticated or useful animals associated with them, not every kind of wild creature. Like a prophecy of an invading army destroying a land, such wording need not mean all animal life is eliminated. The verse begins the judgment described in Ezekiel 29:8-12, given because Egypt claimed the Nile as its own creation, announcing the destruction of people and animals followed by making its land desolate for forty years.
The judgment leaves Egypt the basest of the kingdoms that would never again lift itself above the nations nor rule over the nations, brought low and abased never to rise again. Its foundations are broken down, its supporters fallen, the pride of its power brought down, its land desolate in the midst of desolate lands and its cities wasted in the midst of wasted cities. Its rivers are dried, its idols destroyed and its images made to cease from Memphis with no more prince from Egypt, and fire is set in Zoan and judgments executed upon No. The prophecy was literally fulfilled as Egypt declined from one of the greatest kingdoms to the basest, entering long subjection to successive conquerors under foreign rule. The prophecy concerning Egypt is applied to England taking complete control of Egypt, while Turkey's nominal sovereignty over Egypt passes away.
Ezekiel 29:8 belongs to a prophecy of judgment against Egypt, Pharaoh, and his host, spoken by the Lord six hundred years before Christ while Egypt was struggling against Babylon for supremacy in world empire. Egypt in this prophecy is a former oppressor of God's people and a symbol of black infidelity. To bring a sword upon Egypt means God would send war upon it through invasion and conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, with its people slain and its land brought under foreign rule.
To cut off man and beast means to remove and destroy its people and the domesticated or useful animals associated with them, not every kind of wild creature. Like a prophecy of an invading army destroying a land, such wording need not mean all animal life is eliminated. The verse begins the judgment described in Ezekiel 29:8-12, given because Egypt claimed the Nile as its own creation, announcing the destruction of people and animals followed by making its land desolate for forty years.
The judgment leaves Egypt the basest of the kingdoms that would never again lift itself above the nations nor rule over the nations, brought low and abased never to rise again. Its foundations are broken down, its supporters fallen, the pride of its power brought down, its land desolate in the midst of desolate lands and its cities wasted in the midst of wasted cities. Its rivers are dried, its idols destroyed and its images made to cease from Memphis with no more prince from Egypt, and fire is set in Zoan and judgments executed upon No. The prophecy was literally fulfilled as Egypt declined from one of the greatest kingdoms to the basest, entering long subjection to successive conquerors under foreign rule. The prophecy concerning Egypt is applied to England taking complete control of Egypt, while Turkey's nominal sovereignty over Egypt passes away.