Ezekiel 32:11

"For thus saith the Lord Jehovah; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to naught the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah, When I shall make the land desolate and waste, a land destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Jehovah. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament: the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, saith the Lord Jehovah."

"The divine judgment against Egypt will take the form of Babylonian invasion, slaughter and captivity. The Nile will flow quiet and clear, untouched henceforth by man or beast,"[11]

"I will destroy all the beasts thereof ..." (Ezekiel 32:15). This was always an inevitable consequence of any invasion by a hostile foreign power. All animals were slaughtered wholesale to provide food for the invading soldiers, as well as to deprive the inhabitants. General Sherman did the same thing in his march to the sea, during the Civil War.

"Their rivers to run like oil ..." (Ezekiel 32:14) This is the only instance of the use of this particular metaphor in the Bible. "These `rivers of oil' were symbols of ethical blessedness (Job 29:6 and Deuteronomy 32:13)." Keil applied this to the righteous rule of Nebuchadnezzar; but Plumptre believed there are echoes of the future Messianic kingdom in the passage.[12]

"The rivers of oil here are not rivers that flow quietly like oil, but rivers which contain oil and not water; they are symbolical of the rich blessings of God."[13] It should be noted that the great blessing to come to Egypt in future times is that they shall know that Jehovah is indeed God, and that there is none else beside him (Ezekiel 32:15).