24 lines
942 B
Markdown
24 lines
942 B
Markdown
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title = "Ezekiel 30:20–26"
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date = "2023-05-30"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel30.20-26)
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This oracle uses the "arm" metaphor to represent military might. It describes
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how one of Egypt's arms had been broken before, but now Babylon will come and
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break both of Egypt's arms again. Egypt's arm was first broken at the battle of
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Carchemish, an Assyrian city north of Israel and west of Babylon.
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This arm was broken again at the siege of Jerusalem when Pharaoh sent an army
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to assist Judah, but turned back before there was a major confrontation with
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the Babylonians. Egypt's status as a major power thus began to wane and Babylon
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took its place as the most powerful nation in the Near East. The final defeat
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of Egypt would come later from the Persian empire, but it was as inevitable as
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the Lord had said.
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* * *
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It is not by their own strength and weakness that empires rise and fall, but by
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Your will.
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