Ezekiel 29:4
But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
Ezekiel 29:4 belongs to the prophecies of judgment against Egypt in chapters 29 through 32, which concern Egypt and declare the certain fate of Pharaoh and his host. It was spoken by God through Ezekiel six hundred years before Christ, when Egypt was struggling with Babylon for supremacy in world empire. In that setting Egypt stands as a former oppressor of God's people and a symbol of dark unbelief.
The hooks in the jaws and the fish sticking to the scales picture God bringing Egypt and its ruler up out of the midst of its rivers, dragging them out from the Nile which had been their source of strength, into judgment and defeat. The prophecy declares that Egypt's rivers would be dried up, its idols abolished, and Egypt itself diminished and brought down. It would be brought low and abased and made the basest and lowest of the kingdoms, so that it would never again lift itself up above the nations, rise among them, or rule over the nations.
These predictions of Egypt's subjugation, loss of power, and reduction to the basest of kingdoms were literally fulfilled in its history. It was also taught that the prophecy about Egypt would be fulfilled when England takes complete control of Egypt.