Aswan Dam by MiqsPix
“And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries” (Ezek. 29:6-12)
Because of the time period mentioned (40 years) in this Old Testament Prophecy, many believe that it has yet to be fulfilled.
“And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
“When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
“And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.
“Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
“No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
“And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries” (Ezek. 29:6-12)
HERE IS AN ARTICLE FROM PROPHECY IN THE NEWS (SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE ARTICLE)
THIS ARTICLE STATES THAT THE DAM ITSELF FULFILLS BIBLICAL PROPHECY
BILL SALUS ALSO THINKS EZEKIEL 29:12 IS PROBABLY A FUTURE EVENT
My comment:
I think this event is a future event. Will the dam itself fulfill the prophecy? I don’t know. The Prophecy in the News article has this interesting statement:
“In 2002, Israeli Knesset member (MK) Avigdor Lieberman, admittedly a man given to controversial statements, announced that Israel could defeat an invading Egypt by bombing the Aswan High Dam. He knew that this would require the use of nuclear force, since many experts have testified that the dam is too massive to fall to ordinary explosives. Lieberman, who served as Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister, and as Minister both of Foreign Affairs and Strategic Affairs, had obviously been briefed upon military alternatives. It appears that he wanted to give Egypt something to think about.”
Mr. Lieberman is not the only one who thinks a nuclear event could cause the destruction of the Aswan Dam. Toxic wastes from such an event could certainly explain some of the details in Ezekiel’s prophecy. Has Egypt ever been desolate 40 years?
The article by Bill Salus states:
“According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Egyptians went into captivity after Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Egypt, which occurred around 568 B.C. However, it is difficult to confirm the length of the Egyptian deportation. Thus, 40-years of Egyptian deportation might still be a pending prophetic event.”
Because of the uncertainty of the timing of Nebuchadnezzar’s deportation, and the intensity of Ezekiel’s prophecy, I believe the prophecy is a future event.
When Ezekiel states:
“No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.”
I think there is no event in history that explains an event this extreme. Already admitting that I don’t know the “how,” I also don’t know “when.” Some think it will happen soon.
No matter what Ezekiel was referring to, we know that our God will never leave us or forsake us.
CR
Wings of the Wind 
Chris if you add the rest of the passage where he brings back the Egyptians from the nation where they were scattered I am sure that they have not been the country they were before so all that lowly country would fit. Now I am not saying that God can’t allow the Israelis to bomb the heck out of the dam. But He also says that those weapons fired upon Israel to destroy Israel will be turned back on those that fired them maybe he will choose to destroy it Again that way. I just can’t believe that all the other prophecy is inaccurate in light of this one prophecy- you the one that says that those born from the year when Israel is recreated as a nation. That generation will see Christ’s coming. Israel was reborn in 1948. I was born in 1951. I may die if some medical cause before He comes but I believe He will come in this generation. I have believed that for the 42 years I’ve been a Christian. I realize this comment will generate LOTS of positive and negative responses! Whatever! If we can’t stand up for what we believe, what good are we or the belief?
Cindy French 813 390 8791
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Hi Cindy.
It is so good to hear from you. You have made a very good point. As it is late, I will study this as soon as I get a chance. I also think this is the generation because of the prophecies concerning the return of Israel to the land. I couldn’t agree more with your last two sentences.
God’s blessings…
I’ll get back with a response after I check the rest of the passage.
p.s. I was just thinking of you the other day.
Hi Cindy. I have found the verses that you are referring to:
13 ‘For thus says the Lord God, “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered. 14 I will turn the fortunes of Egypt and make them return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom. 15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and it will never again lift itself up above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. 16 And it will never again be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned to Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.”’”
I, like you, believe the entire Bible and that every prophecy will come true including the one above.
Eventually, after these verses comes the beginning of the next chapter. The Prophecy of the News article makes this possible explanation:
“The following verses link the Tribulation Period (Day of the Lord) and the coming of this dire event. Also, notice again that the “tower of Syene” is mentioned:
“The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
“Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day
“For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
“And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
“Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.
“Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 30:1-6).
As we have often said, this would explain why Egypt is prophesied to be uninhabitable for a future period of forty years. This also explains why Egypt is missing in the prophesied attack on Israel by the allied forces of Gog, in Ezekiel 38.
Clean-up of the radioactive debris would be a staggering task. This massive project seems to extend into the early years of the Millennium. But somehow, it will be accomplished in the years following the Tribulation, probably supervised by the Lord and His followers.”
Also, there was apparently a city of Syene but no tower with that name.
The PITN article states:
“From several sources, it is quite easy to confirm that the biblical Syene is really Aswan. One of these is the Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, first published in 1866. It affirms the connection, from the Greek Septuagint: “[, Syene, in the inscriptions according to Brugsch [was] the most southerly border town of Egypt in the direction of Cush, i.e. Ethiopia, on the eastern bank of the Nile, some ruins of which are still to be seen in the modern Assuan (Aswan) …” (Vol. 9, Ezekiel 29-48, p. 8).
When Keil and Delitzsch wrote their commentary in 1866, there was no tower at Aswan. When Ezekiel wrote his prophecy around 570 B.C., there was no tower. In fact, until the huge hydroelectric project was completed by the Russians and Egyptians in 1967, there was no tower at Aswan. Now, this dam is the most towering feature of the area, and it is doomed to be wiped out at some point between now and the Tribulation.
Notice that the “tower” is mentioned before and after Egypt will come back to be the “lowest of the kingdoms”…as you noticed Cindy (29:15).
I guess my question would be, even though it is mentioned after the return, “Will the tower be literal or just a representation of where it once stood? Will a second tower be built, or is this just a reference to the location of the one that stands there now?
Here is a video that shows the tower that stands by the Dam today (check around 19 minutes in):
I certainly don’t buy into all that is taught at Prophecy in the News. I disagree with many of Gary’s guests on a variety of subjects. I have put this out there to see what people think and it is comments like yours that make me dig deeper. For that I am very thankful. As I have some more time to spend on this subject today, I am posting this now and will add to it as time allows.
God’s blessings…
I have looked for evidences of an ancient tower at Syene and have been unable to locate anything yet. Here is a definition from the Jewish Encyclopedia:
Ancient city of Egypt on the Ethiopian frontier in the Thebaid; situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, equidistant from Alexandria and Meroe. In the Bible it is called “Sweneh” (; Egyptian, “Sun”; Coptic, “Suan,” whence it may be assumed that the Hebrew name was originally , the ה being a locative suffix). Syene is mentioned as a frontier city of Egypt (Ezek. xxix. 10, xxx. 6); but the combination “migdol Sweneh” (A. V. “tower of Syene”) is due to a corruption of the text, as was seen by Jerome (ad loc.). The Septuagint accordingly has a place-name, “Magdolon”; so that the passage should read “from Magdolon [the northern frontier of Egypt] to Syene [the southern boundary].” While Jerome refers to a tower still standing there in his time, this was merely a Roman fort. Josephus also alludes to Syene as a frontier city (“B. J.” iv. 10, § 5). Neubauer is wrong in asserting (“G. T.” p. 419) that coins from Syene are mentioned in the Talmud (Ket. 67b). The entire district is rich in deposits of pink granite called syenite (Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” xxxvi. 8, § 13). The Syrians termed the place “Aswan,” the name by which it is known to-day (Assouan). The modern city, however, lies northeast of the ancient Syene.
“An Israeli attack on Egypt would likely strike at the main population centers of Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said, Suez, Luxor and Aswan. Cordesman does not give a death toll here, but it would certainly be in the tens of millions. It would also destroy the Suez Canal and almost certainly destroy the Aswan dam, sending monstrous floods down the Nile to sweep away the glowing rubble. It would mean the end of Egypt as a functioning society..”
This quote comes from this article which has no ties (to my knowledge) to PITN. It is entitled: “The Unthinkable Consequences of an Iran-Israel Nuclear Exchange.”
SOURCE
Then there’s this quote:
“Lower level Israeli officials speak frankly about Israel’s strategy toward the United Arab Republic: a) surface-to-surface missiles targeted on the Nile delta, and b) a capability to bomb and release the waters behind the Aswan High Dam. Destruction of the Aswan Dam would require a nuclear warhead; bombing with high explosives could not be counted on to do the job.”
SOURCE
The link in my post that had the opinion that the Dam was itself the fulfillment of prophecy, had some support by factual information.
SOURCE
This video also lists advantages and disadvantages of the Aswan Dam. I am posting it mostly because of the pictures of the Dam:
I was surprised how little I found on this subject although I didn’t go deep deep: I dug a bit.
At this point, I like you think a “low Egypt” can still line up with the prophecy being a future event. And I also believe like you do, Cindy, that Israel’s enemies’ weapons will be turned against themselves.
thanks Chris for being open minded!
Always a pleasure, Cindy. Some prophecies are easy to work out. Example: The messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Others are quite a bit more nebulous. Those are the ones we speculate about but refrain from becoming dogmatic. Definitely not a prerequisite for salvation.
God’s blessings…
aswan date of destruction may be 40 years from the date of the completion of the commemorative tower does anyone know when this tower was completed ? also migdol is tower not a place this means the 40 yrs is to mean the displacement of nubian people caused by the flooding of lake nasser so from the completion of the filling of the lake to the time they return also the reason this happens is so the people will know HE IS GOD this will be supernatural event Is 19 is same event when he comes on the clouds. LOOK UP YOUR REDEMPTION IS NEAR LAKE was completly filled in 1975 or 1976 possible destroyed 2015 to 2016
Interesting thoughts. When and if this even will occur is speculative in my mind. At the same time, Bible prophecy predicts a time when Egypt will be desolate…something that has never happened. Thus, it will certainly happen. The Bible hasn’t failed us yet in any way, particularly in the area of prophecy. I believe the “technology” exists to destroy any manmade building on the planet. I also believe that God is more capable than anything manmade. If the Aswan Dam is destroyed, will it be by the hands of men or by the hand of God?