Ezekiel 29:11 (KJV)

What does Ezekiel 29:11 mean?

Ezekiel 29:11 describes God’s judgment on Egypt as a forty-year period when the land would be empty of people and animals. The verse presents the judgment as a severe disruption of ordinary life across the land.

God is speaking through Ezekiel against Egypt. The picture of no human or animal foot passing through the land gives a sense of silence where travel, work, and settlement had once taken place.

The Hebrew behind Ezekiel 29:11

• “inhabited” — יָשַׁב (yashav): This word often means to dwell or settle. Here it points to the absence of settled life, not merely a lack of travelers.

Why Ezekiel 29:11 matters

• The forty years mark a limited period, not a permanent end to Egypt. In verses 13–14, God says he will gather the Egyptians and bring them back after that period.

• The empty land belongs to a wider picture of a scattered population. Verse 12 says the Egyptians will be scattered among other countries during the forty years.

• The judgment is directed at a land that had been proud of its river. Earlier in the passage, Egypt’s ruler is pictured claiming the Nile as his own (verse 3), while verse 11 pictures the land around it without inhabitants.