Ezekiel 29:4

Verse

But I will put hooks in your jaws and cause the fish of your streams to cling to your scales. I will haul you up out of your rivers, and all the fish of your streams will cling to your scales.

American Standard Version (1901)

And I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales; and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, with all the fish of thy rivers which stick unto thy scales.

Bible in Basic English

And I will put hooks in your mouth, and the fish of your streams will be hanging from your skin; and I will make you come up out of your streams, with all the fish of your streams hanging from your skin.

Douay-Rheims 1899

But I will put a bridle in thy jaws: and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales: and I will draw thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all thy fish shall stick to thy scales.

Free Bible Version

I'm going to put hooks in your jaws and make the fish in your river stick to your scales. I will pull you up out of your river, and all the fish will stick to your scales.

King James (Authorized) Version

But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

Translation for Translators

But it will be as though I will put hooks in your jaws and drag you out from the river onto the land, with fish sticking to your scales.

Unlocked Literal Bible

For I will place hooks in your jaw, and the fish of your Nile will cling to your scales; I will lift you up from the middle of your river along with all the fish of the river that cling to your scales.

Noah Webster Bible

But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales, and I will bring thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick to thy scales.

World English Bible

I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales. I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales.

Young's Literal Translation

And I have put hooks in thy jaws, And I have caused the fish of thy floods to cleave to thy scales, And I have caused thee to come up from the midst of thy floods, And every fish of thy floods to thy scales doth cleave.

Context

A Prophecy against Pharaoh

³Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’ ⁴But I will put hooks in your jaws and cause the fish of your streams to cling to your scales. I will haul you up out of your rivers, and all the fish of your streams will cling to your scales. ⁵I will leave you in the desert, you and all the fish of your streams. You will fall on the open field and will not be taken away or gathered for burial. I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air.

Summary

In this verse, God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel to pronounce judgment on Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, for his pride and arrogance. The Lord declares that He will put hooks in Pharaoh's jaws and make the fish of the Nile River cling to his scales, symbolizing a humbling and humiliating defeat. This imagery conveys the idea that God is in control of all nations and rulers, and He will bring down those who exalt themselves above Him. The verse serves as a reminder of the consequences of pride and the importance of humility before God.

Commentary

Adam Clarke
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill
Tyndale

Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

I will put hooks in thy jaws - Amasis, one of this king's generals, being proclaimed king by an insurrection of the people, dethroned Apries, and seized upon the kingdom; and Apries was obliged to flee to Upper Egypt for safety. I will cause the fish - to stick unto thy scales - Most fish are sorely troubled with a species of insect which bury their heads in their flesh, under their scales, and suck out the vital juices. The allusion seems to be to this. Pharaoh was the crocodile; the fish, the common people; and the sticking to his scales, the insurrection by which he was wasted and despoiled of his kingdom.

John Gill Bible Commentary

But I will put hooks in thy jaws,.... The allusion is to fishhooks, which are taken by fishes with the bait into their mouths, and stick in their jaws, by which they are drawn out of the river, and taken. The king of Egypt being before compared to a fish, these hooks design some powerful princes and armies, which should be the ruin of Pharaoh; one of them, according to Junius and Grotius, was Amasis, at the head of the Cyreneans and Greeks; and another was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; see Job 41:1, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales; the people of his kingdom, especially his soldiers, generals, princes, and great men, to cleave to him, follow him, and go out with him in his expedition against Amasis. The Targum is, "I will kill the princes of thy strength with thy mighty ones:'' and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers: alluding to the crocodile, to which he is compared, which sometimes comes out of the river, and goes on dry land. The king of Egypt was brought out of his kingdom by the following means: Amasis, with the Cyreneans and Greeks, having seized upon Lybia, and drove the king of it from thence, he applied to Pharaoh for help, who gathered a large army of Egyptians, and led them out into the fields of Cyrene, where they were defeated by Amasis, and almost all perished, and the king saved himself by flight; upon which the Egyptians mutinied and rebelled against him, and Amasis became their king: and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales; the common people of Egypt; for the above numerous army consisted only of Egyptians, whom he gathered from all parts, drained his rivers of them, and almost exhausted his country hereby; he had indeed in an army, after this battle with Amasis, thirty thousand auxiliaries, Carians and Ionians; but these were not the fish of his rivers. The Targum is, "I will make thy kingdom to cease from thee, and all the princes of thy strength with thy mighty ones shall be killed;'' with which the history agrees. The allusion to the crocodile is here very just and pertinent, which is a fish full of scales. Monsieur Thevenot (a), who saw many of them, says, that "the body of this fish is large, and all of a size; the back is covered with high scales, like the heads of nails in a court gate, of a greenish colour, and so hard that they are proof against a halberd; and it has a long tail covered with scales like the body;'' and another traveller says (b) they have scales on their back musket proof, and therefore must be wounded in the belly; but another traveller (c) says, this is a vulgar report that a musket shot will not pierce the skins of the crocodiles, for upon trial it is found false; yet all writers, ancient and modern, allow it to have very firm scales on its back, which render it capable of bearing the heaviest strokes, and to be in a measure impenetrable and invincible; so Herodotus (d) says, it has a skin full of scales, on the back infrangible; or, as Pliny (e) expresses it, invincible against all blows and strokes it may be stricken with; and so says Aristotle (f), with which Aelian (g) agrees, who says that the crocodile has by nature a back and tail impenetrable; for it is covered with scales, as if it was armed as one might say, not unlike to hard shells. (a) Travels, par. 1. B. 2. c. 72. p. 245. (b) Mandelsloe in Harris's Voyages, &c. vol. 1. p. 759. (c) Tavernier in ib. p. 835. (d) Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 63. (e) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25. (f) Hist. Animal: l. 2. c. 10. (g) De Animal. l. 10. c. 24.