Ezekiel 29:11
New International Version
The foot of neither man nor beast will pass through it; no one will live there for forty years.

New Living Translation
For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither people nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited.

English Standard Version
No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years.

Berean Standard Bible
No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.

King James Bible
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

New King James Version
Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor foot of beast pass through it, and it shall be uninhabited forty years.

New American Standard Bible
A human foot will not pass through it, nor will the foot of an animal pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.

NASB 1995
“A man’s foot will not pass through it, and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.

NASB 1977
“A man’s foot will not pass through it, and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.

Legacy Standard Bible
A man’s foot will not pass through it, and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.

Amplified Bible
No man’s foot will pass through it, no animal’s foot will pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years.

Christian Standard Bible
No human foot will pass through it, and no animal foot will pass through it. It will be uninhabited for forty years.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
No human foot will pass through it, and no animal foot will pass through it. It will be uninhabited for 40 years.

American Standard Version
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Contemporary English Version
No human or animal will even dare travel through Egypt, because no sign of life will be found there for 40 years.

English Revised Version
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
No human or animal will walk through it, and no one will live there for 40 years.

Good News Translation
No human being or animal will walk through it. For forty years nothing will live there.

International Standard Version
Neither man nor beast will walk through that area. It won't even be inhabited for 40 years.

Majority Standard Bible
No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.

NET Bible
No human foot will pass through it, and no animal's foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years.

New Heart English Bible
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Webster's Bible Translation
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

World English Bible
No foot of man will pass through it, nor will any animal foot pass through it. It won’t be inhabited for forty years.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
A foot of man does not pass over into it, "" Indeed, the foot of beast does not pass into it, "" Nor is it inhabited forty years.

Young's Literal Translation
Not pass over into it doth a foot of man, Yea, the foot of beast doth not pass into it, Nor is it inhabited forty years.

Smith's Literal Translation
The foot of man shall not pass through it, and the foot of cattle shall not pass through it, and it shall not be inhabited forty years.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
The foot of man shall not pass through it, neither shall the foot of beasts go through it: nor shall it be inhabited during forty years.

Catholic Public Domain Version
The foot of man will not pass through it, and the foot of cattle will not walk in it. And it will be uninhabited for forty years.

New American Bible
No foot shall pass through it, no human being or beast cross it; it will remain uninhabited for forty years.

New Revised Standard Version
No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
No foot of man shall pass through it, neither foot of beast, nor shall it be inhabited forty years.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
A foot of a son of man shall not cross in it, neither a hoof of cattle, and you shall not inhabit it for forty years
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Desolation of Egypt
10therefore I am against you and against your rivers. I will turn the land of Egypt into a ruin, a desolate wasteland from Migdol to Syene, and as far as the border of Cush. 11No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years. 12I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolate lands, and her cities will lie desolate for forty years among the ruined cities. And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the countries.…

Cross References
Isaiah 19:5-10
The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty. / The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither. / The bulrushes by the Nile, by the mouth of the river, and all the fields sown along the Nile, will wither, blow away, and be no more. ...

Jeremiah 46:19
Pack your bags for exile, O daughter dwelling in Egypt! For Memphis will be laid waste, destroyed and uninhabited.

Isaiah 11:15
The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals.

Zechariah 10:11
They will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves of the sea; all the depths of the Nile will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart.

Isaiah 19:1-4
This is the burden against Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud; He is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them. / “So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. / Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists. ...

Isaiah 37:25
I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

Isaiah 19:16-17
In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them. / The land of Judah will bring terror to Egypt; whenever Judah is mentioned, Egypt will tremble over what the LORD of Hosts has planned against it.

Isaiah 19:23
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

Isaiah 19:6
The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

Isaiah 19:8
Then the fishermen will mourn, all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.

Revelation 16:12
And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.

Isaiah 19:15
There is nothing Egypt can do—head or tail, palm or reed.

Isaiah 19:11-13
The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”? / Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you and reveal what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt. / The princes of Zoan have become fools; the princes of Memphis are deceived. The cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

Isaiah 19:18
In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of Hosts. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

Isaiah 19:22
And the LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; He will strike them but heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and He will hear their prayers and heal them.


Treasury of Scripture

No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

foot of man

Ezekiel 20:10-13
Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness…

Ezekiel 31:12
And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

Ezekiel 32:13
I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.

forty

2 Chronicles 36:21
To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

Isaiah 23:15,17
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot…

Jeremiah 25:11,12
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years…

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Ezekiel 29
1. The judgment of Pharaoh for his treachery to Israel
8. The desolation of Egypt
13. The restoration thereof after forty years
17. Egypt the reward of Nebuchadnezzar
21. Israel shall be restored














The foot of man
This phrase signifies human presence and activity. In the Hebrew context, "foot" often symbolizes dominion or possession. The absence of man's foot indicates a complete cessation of human life and influence. Historically, this reflects the desolation that God prophesied over Egypt, emphasizing His sovereignty over nations and His ability to humble the proud.

will not pass through it
The phrase underscores total desolation. In ancient times, travel and trade routes were vital for a nation's prosperity. The absence of travelers or traders passing through signifies economic and social collapse. This prophecy serves as a warning of divine judgment, reminding believers of the consequences of turning away from God.

and the foot of beast
The mention of beasts highlights the extent of desolation. In a thriving land, animals are abundant, contributing to agriculture and daily life. Their absence indicates a barren, lifeless land. This imagery reinforces the severity of God's judgment, as even the natural order is disrupted.

will not pass through it
Reiterating the earlier phrase, this repetition emphasizes the totality of the desolation. It serves as a literary device to stress the certainty and completeness of the prophecy. For believers, it is a call to recognize the seriousness of God's warnings and the reality of His judgments.

It will be uninhabited
This phrase confirms the complete abandonment of the land. In biblical times, land was a sign of blessing and provision. An uninhabited land signifies the withdrawal of God's favor and protection. This serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of sin and the importance of remaining faithful to God.

for forty years
The number forty in the Bible often symbolizes a period of testing, trial, or judgment. Examples include the Israelites' forty years in the wilderness and Jesus' forty days of fasting. Here, it indicates a divinely appointed period of judgment for Egypt. This timeframe offers hope for eventual restoration, reflecting God's mercy and the possibility of redemption after repentance.

(11) Neither shall it be inhabited forty years.--In Ezekiel 29:9-12 a state of desolation is predicted for Egypt, which, if understood in the literal sense of the words, has certainly never been fulfilled. In Ezekiel 29:9 it is said that it "shall be desolate and waste," and this is repeated with emphasis in Ezekiel 29:10; while in Ezekiel 29:11 it is declared that neither foot of man nor foot of beast shall pass through it. There is also a difficulty in regard to the time of "forty years," mentioned in Ezekiel 29:11-13. No such definite period can be made out from history. The two difficulties go together, and the former is explained by the latter. It has already been seen in Ezekiel 4:6 that the prophet represents the calamity of Judah in the historic terms of their former suffering in the wilderness, without thereby intending either any specific time or any precise repetition of the same troubles they had then experienced. He does the same thing here in regard to Egypt. The people are to pass into a condition like that of the Israelites in the wilderness, in which they were to endure the judgment of God upon their sins. This is expressed, after the manner of Ezekiel, in strong concrete terms, the literal fulfilment of which was neither intended nor expected. . . . Verse 11. - Neither shall it be inhabited forty years. It need hardly be said that history reveals no such period of devastation. Nor, indeed, would anything but the most prosaic literalism justify us in looking for it. We are dealing with the language of a poet-prophet, which is naturally that of hyperbole, and so the "forty years" stand, as, perhaps, elsewhere (Judges 3:11; Judges 5:31, etc.), for a period of undefined duration, and the picture of a land on which no man or beast sets foot for that of a time of desolation, and consequent cessation of all the customary traffic along the Nile. Such a period, there is reason to believe, did follow on the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar. It is implied in Vers. 17-21, which carry us to a date seventeen years later than that of the verse with which we are now dealing; and also in Jeremiah 43:10-12. Josephus ('Contra Apion,' 1:20) speaks of Nebuchadnezzar as having invaded Libya. The reign of Amasis, which followed on the deposition of Hophra, was one of general prosperity as regards commerce and culture, but Egypt ceased to be one of the great world-powers after the time of Nebuchadnezzar and fell easily into the hands of the Persians under Cambyses. It is noticeable that Ezekiel does not, like Isaiah (Isaiah 19:18-25), connect the future of Egypt with any Messianic expectations.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
No
לֹ֤א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

foot
רֶ֣גֶל (re·ḡel)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 7272: A foot, a step, the pudenda

of man
אָדָ֔ם (’ā·ḏām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 120: Ruddy, a human being

[or]
לֹ֣א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

beast
בְּהֵמָ֖ה (bə·hê·māh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 929: A dumb beast, any large quadruped, animal

will pass
תַעֲבָר־ (ṯa·‘ă·ḇār-)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 5674: To pass over, through, or by, pass on

through,
בָּהּ֙ (bāh)
Preposition | third person feminine singular
Strong's Hebrew

and
וְלֹ֥א (wə·lō)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

it will be uninhabited
תֵשֵׁ֖ב (ṯê·šêḇ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 3427: To sit down, to dwell, to remain, to settle, to marry

for forty
אַרְבָּעִ֥ים (’ar·bā·‘îm)
Number - common plural
Strong's 705: Forty

years.
שָׁנָֽה׃ (šā·nāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 8141: A year


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 29:11 No foot of man shall pass through (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
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