Ezekiel 30:20-26

content/bible_journal/ezekiel_30:20-26.md

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