Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 30:17
The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: and these [cities] shall go into captivity.
17. young men of Aven ] i.e. On or Heliopolis, “city of the sun,” Jer 43:13; cf. Gen 41:45. The obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle belonged to the sun temple in On; and in the vicinity of the ruins near the village Matariyeh stands the sycamore under which tradition affirms that the Holy Family rested in their flight to Egypt. The modern name is Ain Shems (sun-fountain) a few miles N.-E. of Cairo.
Phi-beseth shall fall ] i.e. Bubastos or Bubastis, Egyptian Pa Bast, house of Bast or Pasht, the goddess to whom the cat was sacred, and who herself was represented under the aspect of the cat. The cat mummies were here preserved. The place lay on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile; the ruins, bearing the name Tell Basta, are not far from the modern Zagazig. Herod. mentions that at a yearly festival held here as many as 700,000 people would assemble.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Aven – The same as On Gen 41:45, or Heliopolis. The word Aven means also transgression (compare Hos 10:8). Some have thought that here too Ezekiel substituted the word Aven for On to mark the sin of idolatry there in full vogue.
Pi-beseth – The Bubastis of Herodotus. The hieroglyphic name is Pe-bast, the house of Bast (the Egyptian Artemis, the cat-headed goddess). Bubastis was situated on the easternmost, the Pelusian, branch of the Delta. The road from Pelusium to Memphis lay through Bubastis and On. In the days of Herodotus Bubastis was the seat of one of the chief annual festivals of the Egyptians. The Persians took the town and razed the walls. The ruins bear the modern name Tel-Basta.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. Aven] Or On, the famous Heliopolis, or city of the sun.
Pibeseth] Bubastum or Bubaste, by a slight alteration of the letters. It is situated on the eastern branch of the Nile, towards Arabia.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The young men: it is probable these might be a select army of valiant youths in one body, collected out of these two cities, that resolved to break the Chaldean army, or fall in the enterprise; or else that they did to the utmost defend the walls, and were put to the sword when the city was taken by assault.
Aven; Bethshemesh and Heliopolis, an idolatrous city, that worshipped the sun, and in which was a stately temple built to the sun. Its size was one hundred and fifty furlongs, six miles and three quarters, in compass, a very vain and sinful city, as its name Aven intimates.
Pi-beseth; Bubastus, and sometimes called Haephestus, no inconsiderable place, and I believe not far from Avon. It should seem to be some convenient pass, as I conjecture.
These cities; the citizens, cities put for citizens.
Go into captivity; some of the first, it may be the very first; which put Memphis, at report of it, into a sick fit, with great pain; this being the first-fruits of the sad coming harvest.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Avenmeaning “vanity”or “iniquity”: applied, by a slight change of the Hebrewname, to On or Heliopolis, in allusion to its idolatry. Here stoodthe temple of the sun, whence it was called in Hebrew,Beth-shemesh (Jer 43:13).The Egyptian hieroglyphics call it, Re Athom, the sun, thefather of the gods, being impersonate in Athom or Adam,the father of mankind.
Pi-beseththat is,Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, near the Pelusiac branch of the Nile:notorious for the worship of the goddess of the same name (Coptic,Pasht), the granite stones of whose temple still attest itsformer magnificence.
these citiesrather, as the Septuagint, “the women,”namely, of Aven and Pi-beseth, in antithesis to “the young men.”So in Eze 30:18, “daughtersshall go into captivity” [MAURER].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The young men of Aven and of Phibeseth shall fall by the sword,…. Aven is the same with On, of which Potipherah was priest in Joseph’s time and whose daughter he married, Ge 41:45, the same with Heliopolis, or Bethshemesh, the city of the sun, see Jer 43:13,
[See comments on Jer 43:13]; where was the temple of the sun, and where it was worshipped; and so it is rendered by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions. It is called here “Aven”, or “vanity”, because of the vain and idolatrous worship here performed. Phibeseth is the Bubastis of Herodotus, and called by other writers Bubastus; hence there was a nome or province in Egypt called the Bubastic nome, mentioned by Ptolemy c, and others. In this was a temple built to the honour of Diana, where she was worshipped and Herodotus d says, that Bubastis, in the Greek tongue, is Diana; here she was worshipped in the form of a cat; and Stephanus e observes, that the Egyptians call a cat Bubastus; and it is also said that dead cats salted were buried in this city, as being sacred: according to Diodorus Siculus f, it was built for the sake of Isis; and Hillerus g says, that in the Abyssine language it was called “Phy’ mly’ sith”; that is, the portion of the wife, namely of Isis married to Osiris, by whom this city was built to the honour of her; as appears by the pillar of Isis, on which these words are inscribed,
“for me the city of Bubastia is built; be glad, be glad, O Egypt, which brought me up.”
This place is now called Bishbesh, according to Dr. Shaw h: now the young men of both these places, though they might exert themselves in the defence of them, yet should fail therein, and fall by the sword of the Chaldeans:
and these cities shall go into captivity; the rest of the inhabitants of the cities of Aven and Pibeseth, that shall not fall by the sword, shall be carried captive into other lands. Joseph Kimchi supplies “women” instead of “cities”; and thinks, that as the males are mentioned before, the females are understood here. The Targum is,
“they that served them shall go into captivity;”
that served the idols worshipped in these cities.
c Geograph. l. 4. c. 5. d Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 59, 138, 156. e De Urbibus. f Bibliothec l. 1. p. 24. g Onomastic. Sacr. p. 672. h Travels, p. 306. Ed. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(17) Of Aven and of Pi-beseth.Aven is the same as On of Gen. 41:45; Gen. 41:50, and as Bethshemesh (House of the Sun) of Jer. 43:13, the Heliopolis of the Greeks, so called because from the remotest times a chief seat of the worship of the sun. The vowel points are slightly changed from On to make Aven, nothingness, often used of idols. Pi-beseth, on the monuments Pi-Pashtso called from the cat-headed goddess there worshippedis Bubastis, situated on the canal leading from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile towards Suez.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Aven and of Pi-beseth The Greek, Latin, and Coptic correctly translate “on [Heliopolis] and Bubastis.” Heliopolis (“city of the sun,” Jer 43:13) was one of the most renowned and holy cities of ancient Egypt. There the king “washed his face” before the sun-god centuries before Joseph married the daughter of the priest (Gen 41:45). The spot is still called “sun fountain,” but even the rains of this celebrated city have disappeared, with the single exception of one lonely obelisk. Pi-beseth (Egyptian, Pi-beset, “house of Beset”) was undoubtedly Bubastis (now Tel Bast). There is probably a word play here between Beseth and the familiar Bo-sheth (shame) which was the Hebrew nickname for Baal (Jer 11:13; 2Sa 11:21). The worship of Bast greatly resembled that of Baal. The city was the “key to the Delta,” protecting as it did the road used by all Syrian invaders. It was a magnificent city, one of the eight selected for mention by Pomponius Mela among twenty thousand said to have existed in the days of King Amasis who was a contemporary of Ezekiel. The great temple which Herodotus described at length is now a mere heap of bricks. Naville has thoroughly explored the ruins. (See Egyptian Exploration Fund, Eighth Memoir.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 30:17. AvenPhibeseth. HeliopolisBubastum.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 30:17 The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these [cities] shall go into captivity.
Ver. 17. Aven. ] Called also Heliopolis, and Thebe.
Phibeseth. Aven = On, or Heliopolis (Beth = shemesh, city or house of the Sun), north of Memphis.
Pi-beseth. In some codices written as one word; in others as two words: Pi being “the” in Coptic, and Pasht = the Egyptian goddess Artemis. Now Tel Basta, in the Delta, north of Memphis.
Aven: or, Heliopolis, Gen 41:45
Pibeseth: or Pubastum, Situated on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, near the top of the Delta.
Reciprocal: Eze 30:23 – General Eze 30:26 – I will
Eze 30:17. The captivity is not a formal or national one such as the Israelites were then suffering in Babylon, but refers to the capture of the citizens by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, Aven and Pi-beseth were cities where many of the young men or heroes of the country resided. These braves” were to be destroyed by the Babylonian sword.
Eze 30:17-18. The young men of Aven, &c. Aven is the same with On, mentioned Gen 41:45, in aftertimes called Heliopolis, as the margin here explains it, because of a temple or image there dedicated to the sun: see notes on Isa 19:18; Jer 43:13. The word is so translated both here and Gen 41:45, by the LXX., who were very well acquainted with Egypt and all the principal places of it. And they translate Phibeseth, Bubastum. At Tehaphnehes Elsewhere written Tahpanhes, supposed to be the same place which was afterward called Daphn Pelusiac; the day shall be darkened By this expression is signified its being involved in great calamity; for the day, or light, in the Scripture language, is put for prosperity: therefore the day being darkened signifies a state of adversity.
On or Aven (Gr. Heliopolis), a major religious center in Lower Egypt, and Pi-beseth (Gr. Bubastis), another capital city 40 miles northeast of modern Cairo, would also fall in the war, and the Egyptian women would go into captivity. It would also be a dark day for Tehaphnehes (Hanes, Gr. Daphne), a fortress town and residence of the Pharaohs (Isa 30:4; Jer 2:16; Jer 43:7; Jer 43:9; Jer 44:1), when Yahweh would break Egypt’s power. Egypt’s pride would cease, doom would overwhelm her, and her people would go into captivity. This is how the Lord would judge Egypt, and the people would know that He is the true God.
"Various forms of misery characteristic of the Day of the Lord are mentioned here as what the cities of Egypt may expect. All of them are intended to apply to all of Egypt, although the style of the passage is to pair miseries with cities randomly, in a kind of literary collage." [Note: Stuart, p. 288.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)