Chaos Monsters Defeated

Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams.
Dragon here is tannin - the primordial chaos-dragon, the sea monster known elsewhere as Leviathan or Rahab. It is the same word that shows up in Isaiah 27 and Psalm 74, drawn from the wider world of Canaanite chaos-combat imagery.
So Ezekiel is not insulting Pharaoh's appearance. He is filing him under a category: the monster in the water that God defeats. And if Pharaoh is the dragon, the fish clinging to his scales are his people.
Scripture links:
- Ezekiel 29:3 - the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams.
- Isaiah 27:1 - in that day the Lord will punish Leviathan, and slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Empires in Scripture get cast as chaos monsters, and chaos monsters always lose.