And I will dry up the Nile means God will stop the water flowing in the Nile River, so that the Egyptians will not have water to drink and, because their crops will not grow through lack of water, they will not have food to eat. If readers are not familiar with the Nile (see 29.3), translators may say “the Nile River” (Contemporary English Version) or “the River Nile.”

And will sell the land into the hand of evil men means God will “deliver” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “hand over” (Christian Community Bible) the land of Egypt to wicked people. Sell does not have the sense of selling for money here, although the close connection of this prophecy with the prophecy in the previous chapter (where God will give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as pay for his work against Tyre) does give a sense of a price being paid for Egypt. Sell the land into the hand of may be rendered “put Egypt under the power of” (Good News Translation). Evil men describes the Babylonians. This clause may be translated “and I will put the land under the power of evil men” or “and I will allow evil men to take control of the land.”

I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it, by the hand of foreigners means God will use the Babylonian army to destroy the land of Egypt completely. For I will bring desolation upon the land (literally “I will cause the land to be destroyed”), see the comments on 29.9-10, 12. New Century Version says simply “I will destroy the land.” The land and everything in it points to the total destruction of Egypt. By the hand of foreigners means that God will use foreigners as his agents to do this (compare New Living Translation [1996] “using foreigners to do it”). These foreigners, of course, are the Babylonians under their king Nebuchadnezzar. This phrase may be rendered as a separate sentence by saying “I will use foreigners to do these things.”

I, the LORD, have spoken: This part of the prophecy ends with this emphatic statement that God himself said it, stressing that it is true (see the comments on 5.15). This clause may be rendered “It is I, Yahweh, who says this.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .