Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 29:9

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].

9. The ungodly overweening pride of Egypt is chiefly mentioned as the cause of its humiliation. It is a common idea that pride draws forth the judgment of Jehovah, who is alone exalted (Isaiah 2, 3). The prophet assumes that this pride is irreligious and an offence against Jehovah. However sedulously devoted the Egyptians might be in serving their own gods, their religion did not prevent this self-deification, which was an offence against him who was God alone.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The land of Egypt; that part here intended, say some, and in the 10th verse, bounded from Syene to the borders of Ethiopia; nor is this inconsistent with that Eze 29:2, against all Egypt, for all Egypt suffered much, though all were not equally wasted, and turned into a desolation, as these parts shall be. Desolate; a desolation, i.e. most desolate, and wasteness by the sword of the enemy, and by drought, as the word imports both: and this latter part of the judgment was executed by the folly of the twelve Egyptian roitelets, who made a mighty lake, Morris, to fill which they much drained and weakened Nilus, that it could not, as before it did, water and fertilize the land; suitable to Isa 19:5.

He hath said, & c.: see Eze 29:3.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. I am the Lordin antithesisto the blasphemous boast repeated here from Eze29:3, “The river is mine, and I have made it.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste,…. Men few or none being left in it, to till it, nor cattle found upon it:

and they shall know that I am the Lord; by these judgments executed upon them, now foretold; and which when come to pass, they will be obliged to acknowledge the omniscience and omnipotence of Jehovah:

because thou hast said, the river is mine, and I have made it;

[See comments on Eze 29:3]; this insolent expression was highly resented by the Lord, as appears by the repetition of it. The Targum is here, as before,

“the kingdom is mine, and I have subdued it;”

but, notwithstanding this vaunt, he could not keep it.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(9) Because he hath said.Again, as in Eze. 29:6, the division of the verses is very unfortunate. The expression shall know that I am the Lord, so common in Ezekiel, always closes a train of thought. The new sentence begins with the reason for the judgment upon Egyptbecause of its pride.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Eze 29:9 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].

Ver. 9. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it. ] With this proud speech he is twice twitted. see Eze 29:3 The Egyptians so trusted in their river Nile, as if they needed no help from heaven.

“ Aegyptus sine nube ferax, ”

saith Claudian. a And Lucan to like purpose:

“ Terra suis contenta bonis, non indiga mercis

Aut Iovis; in solo tanta est fiducia Nile. ”

How much better might God have said to these Egyptians, than Vespasian did, Haurite a me tanquam a Nile, Come ye to me, “the fountain of living waters,” and “hew not out thus to yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water!” But they used in mockery to tell the Grecians, that if God should forget to rain, they might chance to starve for it; they thought the rain was of God, but not the river:

“ Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres:

Arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Iovi. ”

– Tibul. de Nilo.

God therefore threateneth here to dry it up, and so he did; ingratitude forfeiteth all. In the reign of Cleopatra, Nile overflowed not the banks for two years together, saith Seneca. He brings in Callimachus, telling of a time wherein it had not done so for nine years’ time. Hence Ovid: b

“ Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva

Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem. ”

Thus their gold flowing c and fruit giving d river failed them, because they attributed too much to it. In Joseph’s time they had seven years’ famine.

a Epigram. 6.

b Art., lib. i.

c . – Athenaeus.

d . – Nazianz.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)