Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageEgypt rises like the flooding Nile, like swollen rivers rolling over their banks. She declares: "I will rise and overwhelm the earth; I will sweep away cities and everyone in them."
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GMitzrayim surges like the Nile, like rivers whose waters churn and heave. She boasts: "I will surge and cover the earth; I will destroy cities and all who dwell in them."
KJV
King James VersionEgypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleEgypt rises like the Nile, and its waters churn like rivers, boasting, ‘I will rise and cover the earth; I will destroy the cities and their people.’
Footnotes
The Nile comparison is loaded with irony. Egypt's entire civilisation — its agriculture, its kingship, its identity — was built on the Nile's annual inundation. By comparing Egypt's imperial ambitions to the Nile's surge, the prophet co-opts Egypt's own self-mythology (Pharaoh as embodiment of the flood's life-giving power) only to expose it as hubris. The true flood will come not from the south but from the north — Babylon's armies.