Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 32:1
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
1. The prophecy is dated the first of the twelfth month of the twelfth year, nearly a year and seven months after the fall of Jerusalem. Syr. reads eleventh year.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. 32 Final prophecy against Pharaoh
The chapter contains two parts:
First, Eze 32:1-16. A lament over Pharaoh.
Second, Eze 32:17-32. A funeral dirge over the interment of him and his multitude.
The line of thought in Eze 32:1-16 resembles that in the other chapters:
(1) Eze 32:1-6. Pharaoh, represented as a dragon in the waters, is dragged out by the net of Jehovah, and flung upon the land, where all fowls and beasts feed on him. His carcase fills the land and his blood the water-courses.
(2) Eze 32:7-10. Shock of nature and commotion among the nations, even the most distant and unknown to Egypt, over his fall.
(3) Eze 32:11-16. The instrument of his destruction is the king of Babylon. The overthrow of Pharaoh and his people shall be complete. The land shall be desolate and life shall cease in it; no foot of living creature, man or beast, shall trouble its waters, which shall run smooth and dead.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the twelfth month – About one year and seven months after the destruction of Jerusalem. In the meantime had occurred the murder of Gedaliah and the flight into Egypt of the Jews left behind by the Chaldaeans Jer. 4143. Jeremiah, who had accompanied them, foretold their ruin Jer. 44 in a prophecy probably contemporaneous with the present – the sixth against Egypt, delivered in the form of a dirge Eze 44:2-16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXXII
The prophet goes on to predict the fall of the king of Egypt,
under the figure of an animal of prey, such as a lion or
crocodile, caught, slain, and his carcass left a prey to the
fowls and wild beasts, 1-6.
The figure is then changed; and the greatness of his fall
(described by the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars)
strikes terror into all the surrounding nations, 7-10.
The prophet adds, that the overthrow of the then reigning
Egyptian dynasty was to be effected by the instrumentality of
the king of Babylon, who should leave Egypt so desolate, that
its waters, (alluding to the metaphor used in the second
verse,) should run as pure and smooth as oil, without the foot
of man or the hoof of a beast to disturb them, 11-16.
A beautiful, nervous, and concise description of a land ruined
and left utterly desolate. In the remaining part of the chapter
the same event is pourtrayed by one of the boldest figures ever
attempted in any composition, and which at the same time is
executed with astonishing perspicuity and force. God is
introduced ordering a place in the lower regions for the king
of Egypt and his host, 17, 18.
The prophet delivers his messsage, pronounces their fate, and
commands those who buried the slain to drag him and his
multitudes to the subterraneous mansions, 19, 20.
At the tumult and commotion which this mighty work occasions,
the infernal shades are represented as roused from their
couches to learn the cause. They see and congratulate the king
of Egypt, on his arrival among them, 21.
Pharaoh being now introduced into this immense subterraneous
cavern, (see the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, where a similar
imagery is employed,) the prophet leads him all around the
sides of the pit; shows him the gloomy mansions of former
tyrants, tells their names as he goes along; beautifully
contrasts their former pomp and destructive ambition, when they
were a terror to the surrounding states, with their present
most abject and helpless condition; declares that all these
oppressors of mankind have not only been cut off out of the
land of the living, but have gone down into the grave
uncircumcised, that is, they have died in their sins, and
therefore shall have no resurrection to eternal life; and
concludes with showing Pharaoh the place destined for him in
the midst of the uncircumcised, and of them that have been
slain by the sword, 22-32.
This prophetic ode may be considered as a finished model in
that species of writing which is appropriated to the exciting
of terror. The imagery throughout is sublime and terrible; and
no reader of sensibility and taste can accompany the prophet in
this funeral procession, and visit the mansions of Hades,
without being impressed with a degree of awe nearly approaching
to horror.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXII
Verse 1. In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month] On Wednesday, March 22, the twelfth year of the captivity of Jeconiah, A.M. 3417.
Instead of the twelfth year, five of Kennicott’s MSS., and eight of De Rossi’s, read in the eleventh year. This reading is supported by the Syriac; and is confirmed by an excellent MS. of my own, about four hundred years old.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the twelfth year of the captivity of Jeconiah.
In the twelfth month, answering to part of our February and part of March, and called Sabat. In the first day; and was the 15th of February old style, and the 5th new style.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. The twelfth year from thecarrying away of Jehoiachin; Jerusalem was by this time overthrown,and Amasis was beginning his revolt against Pharaoh-hophra.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass in the twelfth year,…. Of Jeconiah’s captivity, above a year and a half after the taking of Jerusalem; the Syriac version reads in the eleventh year:
in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month; the month Adar, which answers to part of our February, and part of March; the Septuagint version reads it the tenth month: according to Bishop Usher t, this was on the twenty second of March, on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday), 3417 A.M.or 587 years before Christ:
that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; as follows:
t Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3417.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Lamentation over the King of Egypt
Pharaoh, a sea-monster, is drawn by the nations out of his waters with the net of God, and cast out upon the earth. His flesh is given to the birds and beasts of prey to devour, and the earth is saturated with his blood (Eze 32:2-6). At his destruction the lights of heaven lose their brightness, and all the nations will be amazed thereat (Eze 32:7-10). The king of Babel will come upon Egypt, will destroy both man and beast, and will make the land a desert (Eze 32:11-16). – The date given in Eze 32:1 – ”In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying” – agrees entirely with the relation in which the substance of the ode itself stands to the prophecies belonging to the tenth and eleventh years in Ezekiel 29:1-16 and Eze 30:20-26; whereas the different date found in the Septuagint cannot come into consideration for a moment.
Eze 32:2-6 The destruction of Pharoah. – Eze 32:2. Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and say to him, Thou wast compared to a young lion among the nations, and yet wast like a dragon in the sea; thou didst break forth in thy streams, and didst trouble the waters with thy feet, and didst tread their streams. Eze 32:3. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Therefore will I spread out my net over thee in the midst of many nations, that they may draw thee up in my yarn; Eze 32:4. And will cast thee upon the land, hurl thee upon the surface of the field, and will cause all the birds of the heaven to settle upon thee, and the beasts of the whole earth to satisfy themselves with thee. Eze 32:5. Thy flesh will I put upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy funeral heap. Eze 32:6. I will saturate the earth with thine outflow of thy blood even to the mountains, and the low places shall become full of thee. – This lamentation begins, like others, with a picture of the glory of the fallen king. Hitzig objects to the ordinary explanation of the words , (lxx), leoni gentium assimilatus es (Vulg.), on the ground that the frequently recurring would only have this meaning in the present passage, and that , which would then be synonymous, is construed in three other ways, but not with the nominative. For these reasons he adopts the rendering, “lion of the nations, thou belongest to death.” But it would be contrary to the analogy of all the to commence the lamentation with such a threat; and Hitzig’s objections to the ordinary rendering of the words will not bear examination. The circumstance that the Niphal is only met with here in the sense of , proves nothing; for has this meaning in the Kal, Piel, and Hithpael, and the construction of the Niphal with the accusative (not nominative, as Hitzig says) may be derived without difficulty from the construction of the synonymous with . But what is decisive in favour of this rendering is the fact that the following clause is connected by means of the adversative (but thou), which shows that the comparison of Pharaoh to a forms an antithesis to the clause in which he is compared to a young lion. If ‘ contained a declaration of destruction, not only would this antithesis be lost, but the words addressed to it as a lion of the nations would float in the air and be used without any intelligible meaning. The lion is a figurative representation of a powerful and victorious ruler; and is really equivalent to in Eze 31:11.
Pharaoh was regarded as a mighty conqueror of the nations, “though he was rather to be compared to the crocodile, which stirs up the streams, the fresh waters, and life-giving springs of the nations most perniciously with mouth and feet, and renders turbid all that is pure” (Ewald). , as in Eze 29:3. Ewald and Hitzig have taken offence at the words , “thou didst break forth in thy streams,” and alter retla d into , with thy nostrils (Job 41:12); but they have not considered that would be quite out of place with such an alteration, as in both the Kal and Hiphil (Jdg 20:33) has only the intransitive meaning to break out. The thought is simply this: the crocodile lies in the sea, then breaks occasionally forth in its streams, and makes the waters and their streams turbid with its feet. Therefore shall Pharaoh also end like such a monster (Eze 32:3-6). The guilt of Pharaoh did not consist in the fact that he had assumed the position of a ruler among the nations (Kliefoth); but in his polluting the water-streams, stirring up and disturbing the life-giving streams of the nations. God will take him in His net by a gathering of nations, and cause him to be drawn out of his element upon the dry land, where he shall become food to the birds and beasts of prey (cf. Eze 29:4-5; Eze 31:12-13). The words ‘ are not to be understood as referring to the nations, as spectators of the event (Hvernick); but denotes the instrument, or medium employed, here the persons by whom God causes the net to be thrown, as is evident from the which follows. According to the parallelismus membrorum , the . . can only refer to the carcase of the beast, although the source from which this meaning of the word is derived has not yet been traced. There is no worth to be attached to the reading rimowt in some of the codices, as does not yield a suitable meaning either in the sense of reptile, or in that of putrefaction or decomposed bodies, which has been attributed to it from the Arabic. Under these circumstances we adhere to the derivation from , to be high, according to which may signify a height or a heap, which the context defines as a funeral-pile. , strictly speaking, a participle from , to flow, that which flows out, the outflow (Hitzig), is not to be taken in connection with , but is a second object to ; and the appended word indicates the source whence the flowing takes place, and of what the outflow consists. , to the mountains, i.e., up to the top of the mountains. The thought in these verses is probably simply this, that the fall of Pharaoh would bring destruction upon the whole of the land of Egypt, and that many nations would derive advantage from his fall.
Eze 32:7-10 His overthrow fills the whole world with mourning and terror. – Eze 32:7. When I extinguish thee, I will cover the sky and darken its stars; I will cover the sun with cloud, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. Eze 32:8. All the shining lights in the sky do I darken because of thee, and I bring darkness over thy land, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Eze 32:9. And I will trouble the heart of many nations when I bring out thine overthrow among the nations into lands which thou knowest not, Eze 32:10. And I will make many nations amazed at thee, and their kings shall shudder at thee when I brandish my sword before their face; and they shall tremble every moment, every one for his life on the day of his fall. – The thought of Eze 32:7 and Eze 32:8 is not exhausted by the paraphrase, “when thou art extinguished, all light will be extinguished, so far as Egypt is concerned,” accompanied with the remark, that the darkness consequent thereupon is a figurative representation of utterly hopeless circumstances (Schmieder). The thought on which the figure rests is that of the day of the Lord, the day of God’s judgment, on which the lights of heaven lose their brightness (cf. Eze 30:3 and Joe 2:10, etc.). This day bursts upon Egypt with the fall of Pharaoh, and on it the shining stars of heaven are darkened, so that the land of Pharaoh becomes dark. Egypt is a world-power represented by Pharaoh, which collapses with his fall. But the overthrow of this world-power is an omen and prelude of the overthrow of every ungodly world-power on the day of the last judgment, when the present heaven and the present earth will perish in the judgment-fire. Compare the remarks to be found in the commentary on Joe 3:4 upon the connection between the phenomena of the heavens and great catastrophes on earth. The contents of both verses may be fully explained from the biblical idea of the day of the Lord and the accompanying phenomena; and for the explanation of , there is no necessity to assume, as Dereser and Hitzig have done, that the sea-dragon of Egypt is presented here under the constellation of a dragon; for there is no connection between the comparison of Egypt to a tannim or sea-dragon, in Eze 32:2 and Eze 29:3 (= , Isa 51:9), and the constellation of the dragon (see the comm. on Isa 51:9 and Isa 30:7). In Pharaoh is no doubt regarded as a star of the first magnitude in the sky; but in this conception Ezekiel rests upon Isa 14:12, where the king of Babylon is designated as a bright morning-star. That this passage was in the prophet’s mind, is evident at once from the fact that Eze 32:7 coincides almost verbatim with Isa 13:10. – The extinction and obscuration of the stars are not merely a figurative representation of the mourning occasioned by the fall of Pharaoh; still less can Eze 32:9 and Eze 32:10 be taken as an interpretation in literal phraseology of the figurative words in Eze 32:7 and Eze 32:8. For Eze 32:9 and Eze 32:10 do not relate to the mourning of the nations, but to anxiety and terror into which they are plunged by God through the fall of Pharaoh and his might. , to afflict the heart, does not mean to make it sorrowful, but to fill it with anxiety, to deprive it of its peace and cheerfulness. “When I bring thy fall among the nations” is equivalent to “spread the report of thy fall.” Consequently there is no need for either the arbitrary alteration of into , which Ewald proposes, with the imaginary rendering announcement or report; nor for the marvellous assumption of Hvernick, that describes the prisoners scattered among the heathen as the ruins of the ancient glory of Egypt, in support of which he adduces the rendering of the lxx , which is founded upon the change of into . For Eze 32:10 compare Eze 27:35. , to cause to fly, to brandish. The sword is brandished before their face when it falls time after time upon their brother the king of Egypt, whereby they are thrown into alarm for their own lives. , by moments = every moment (see the comm. on Isa 27:3).
Eze 32:11-16 The judgment upon Egypt will be executed by the king of Babylon. – Eze 32:11. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon thee. Eze 32:12. By swords of heroes will I cause thy tumult to fall, violent ones of the nations are they all, and will lay waste the pride of Egypt, and all its tumult will be destroyed. Eze 32:13. And I will cut off all its cattle from the great waters, that no foot of man may disturb them any more, nor any hoof of cattle disturb them. Eze 32:14. Then will I cause their waters to settle and their streams to flow like oil, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, Eze 32:15. When I make the land of Egypt a desert, and the land is made desolate of its fulness, because I smite all the inhabitants therein, and they shall know that I am Jehovah. Eze 32:16. A lamentatoin (mournful ode) is this, and they will sing it mournfully; the daughters of the nations will sing it mournfully, over Egypt and over all its tumult will they sing it mournfully, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. – In this concluding strophe the figurative announcement of the preceding one is summed up briefly in literal terms; and toward the close (Eze 32:14) there is a slight intimation of a better future. The destruction of the proud might of Egypt will be effected through the king of Babylon and his brave and violent hosts. , as in Eze 31:12 (see the comm. on Eze 28:7). in Eze 32:12 and Eze 32:13 must not be restricted to the multitude of people. It signifies tumult, and embraces everything in Egypt by which noise and confusion were made (as in Eze 31:2 and Eze 31:18); although the idea of a multitude of people undoubtedly predominates in the use of in Eze 32:12. , the pride of Egypt, is not that of which Egypt is proud, but whatever is proud or exalts itself in Egypt. The utter devastation of Egypt includes the destruction of the cattle, i.e., of the numerous herds which fed on the grassy banks of the Nile and were driven to the Nile to drink (cf. Gen 47:6; Gen 41:2.; Exo 9:3); and this is therefore specially mentioned in Eze 32:13, with an allusion to the consequence thereof, namely, that the waters of the Nile would not be disturbed any more either by the foot of man or hoof of beast (compare Eze 32:13 with Eze 29:11). The disturbing of the water is mentioned with evident reference to Eze 32:2, where Pharaoh is depicted as a sea-monster, which disturbs the streams of water. The disturbance of the water is therefore a figurative representation of the wild driving of the imperial power of Egypt, by which the life-giving streams of the nations were stirred up.
Eze 32:14. Then will God cause the waters of Egypt to sink. Hitzig and Kliefoth understand this as signifying the diminution of the abundance of water in the Nile, which had previously overflowed the land and rendered it fertile, but for which there was no further purpose now. According to this explanation, the words would contain a continued picture of the devastation of the land. But this is evidently a mistake, for the simple reason that it is irreconcilable with the , by which the thought is introduced. , tunc, is more precisely defined by ‘ in Eze 32:15 as the time when the devastation has taken place; whereas Kliefoth takes the 15th verse, in opposition both to the words and the usage of the language, as the sequel to Eze 32:14, or in other words, regards as synonymous with . The verse contains a promise, as most of the commentators, led by the Chaldee and Jerome, have correctly assumed.
(Note: The explanation of Jerome is the following: “Then will purest waters, which had been disturbed by the sway of the dragon, be restored not by another, but by the Lord Himself; so that their streams flow like oil, and are the nutriment of true light.”)
, to make the water sink, might no doubt signify in itself a diminution of the abundance of water. But if we consider the context, in which reference is made to the disturbance of the water through its being trodden with the feet (Eze 32:13), can only signify to settle, i.e., to become clear through the sinking to the bottom of the slime which had been stirred up (cf. Eze 34:18). The correctness of this explanation is confirmed by the parallel clause, to make their streams flow with oil. To understand this as signifying the slow and gentle flow of the diminished water, would introduce a figure of which there is no trace in Hebrew. Oil is used throughout the Scriptures as a figurative representation of the divine blessing, or the power of the divine Spirit. , like oil, according to Hebrew phraseology, is equivalent to “like rivers of oil.” And oil-rivers are not rivers which flow quietly like oil, but rivers which contain oil instead of water (cf. Job 29:6), and are symbolical of the rich blessing of God (cf. Deu 32:13). The figure is a very appropriate one for Egypt, as the land is indebted to the Nile for all its fertility. Whereas its water had been stirred up and rendered turbid by Pharaoh; after the fall of Pharaoh the Lord will cause the waters of the stream, which pours its blessings upon the land, to purify themselves, and will make its streams flow with oil. The clarified water and flowing oil are figures of the life-giving power of the word and Spirit of God. But this blessing will not flow to Egypt till its natural power is destroyed. Ewald has therefore given the following as the precise meaning of Eze 32:14: “The Messianic times will then for the first time dawn on Egypt, when the waters no more become devastating and turbid, that is to say, through the true knowledge to which the chastisement leads.” Eze 32:16 “rounds off the passage by turning back to Eze 32:2” (Hitzig). The daughters of the nations are mentioned as the singers, because mourning for the dead was for the most part the business of women (cf. Jer 9:16). The words do not contain a summons to the daughters of the nations to sing the lamentation, but the declaration that they will do it, in which the thought is implied that the predicted devastation of Egypt will certainly occur.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Fall of Egypt; Lamentation for Pharaoh. | B. C. 587. |
1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. 3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net. 4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee. 5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. 6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee. 7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. 8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD. 9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known. 10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall. 11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. 12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. 13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. 14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD. 15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD. 16 This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
Here, I. The prophet is ordered to take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, v. 2. It concerns ministers to be much of a serious spirit, and, in order thereunto, to be frequent in taking up lamentations for the fall and ruin of sinners, as those that have not desired, but dreaded, the woeful day. Note, Ministers that would affect others with the things of God must make it appear that they are themselves affected with the miseries which sinners bring upon themselves by their sins. It becomes us to weep and tremble for those that will not weep and tremble for themselves, to try if thereby we may set them a weeping, set them a trembling.
II. He is ordered to show cause for that lamentation.
1. Pharaoh has been a troubler of the nations, even of his own nation, which he should have procured the repose of: He is like a young lion of the nations (v. 2), loud and noisy, hectoring and threatening as a lion when he roars. Great potentates, if they by tyrannical and oppressive, are in God’s account no better than beasts of prey. He is like a whale, or dragon, like a crocodile (so some) in the seas, very turbulent and vexatious, as the leviathan that makes the deep to boil like a pot, Job xli. 31. When Pharaoh engaged in an unnecessary war with the Cyrenians he came forth with his rivers, with his armies, troubled the waters, disturbed his own kingdom and the neighbouring nations, fouled the rivers, and made them muddy. Note, A great deal of disquiet is often given to the world by the restless ambition and implacable resentments of proud princes. Ahab is he that troubles Israel, and not Elijah.
2. He that has troubled others must expect to be himself troubled; for the Lord is righteous, Josh. vii. 25.
(1.) This is set forth here by a comparison. Is Pharaoh like a great whale, which, when it comes up the river, gives great disturbance, a leviathan which Job cannot draw out with a hook? (Job xli. 1), yet God has a net for him which is large enough to enclose him and strong enough to secure him (v. 3): I will spread my net over thee, even the army of the Chaldeans, a company of many people; they shall force him out of his fastnesses, dislodge him out of his possessions, throw him like a great fish upon dry ground, upon the open field (v. 4), where being out of his element, he must die of course, and be a prey to the birds and beasts, as was foretold, ch. xxix. 5. What can the strongest fish do to help itself when it is out of the water and lies gasping? The flesh of this great whale shall be laid upon the mountains (v. 5) and the valleys shall be filled with his height. Such numbers of Pharaoh’s soldiers shall be slain that the dead bodies shall be scattered upon the hills and there shall be heaps of them piled up in the valleys. Blood shall be shed in such abundance as to swell the rivers in the valleys. Or, Such shall be the bulk, such the height, of this leviathan, that, when he is laid upon the ground, he shall fill a valley. Such vast quantities of blood shall issue from this leviathan as shall water the land of Egypt, the land wherein now he swims, now he sports himself, v. 6. It shall reach to the mountains, and the waters of Egypt shall again be turned into blood by this means: The rivers shall be full of thee. The judgments executed upon Pharaoh of old are expressed by the breaking of the heads of leviathan in the waters,Psa 74:13; Psa 74:14. But now they go further; this old serpent not only has now his head bruised, but is all crushed to pieces.
(2.) It is set forth by a prophecy of the deep impression which the destruction of Egypt should make upon the neighbouring nations; it would put them all into a consternation, as the fall of the Assyrian monarchy did, Eze 31:15; Eze 31:16. When Pharaoh, who had been like a blazing burning torch, is put out and extinguished it shall make all about him look black, v. 7. The heavens shall be hung with black, the stars darkened, the sun eclipsed, and the moon be deprived of her borrowed light. It is from the upper world that this lower receives its light; and therefore (v. 8), when the bright lights of heaven are made dark above, darkness by consequence is set upon the land, upon the earth; so it shall be on the land of Egypt. Here the plague of darkness, which was upon Egypt of old for three days, seems to be alluded to, as, before, the turning of the waters into blood. For, when former judgments are forgotten, it is just that they should be repeated. When their privy-counsellors, and statesmen, and those that have the direction of the public affairs, are deprived of wisdom and made fools, and the things that belong to their peace are hidden from their eyes, then their lights are darkened and the land is in a mist. This is foretold, Isa. xix. 13. The princes of Zoan have become fools. Now upon the spreading of the report of the fall of Egypt, and the bringing of the news to remote countries, countries which they had not known (v. 9), people shall be much affected, and shall feel themselves sensibly touched by it. [1.] It shall fill them with vexation to see such an ancient, wealthy, potent kingdom thus humbled and brought down, and the pride of worldly glory, which they have such a value for, stained. The hearts of many people will be vexed to see the word of the God of Israel fulfilled in the destruction of Egypt, and that all the gods of Egypt were not able to relieve it. Note, The destruction of some wicked people is a vexation to others. [2.] It shall fill them with admiration (v. 10): They shall be amazed at thee, shall wonder to see such great riches and power come to nothing, Rev. xviii. 17. Note, Those that admire with complacency the pomp of this world will admire with consternation the ruin of that pomp, which to those that know the vanity of all things here below is no surprise at all. [3.] It shall fill them with fear: even their kings (that think it their prerogative to be secure) shall be horribly afraid for thee, concluding their own house to be in danger when their neighbour’s is on fire. When I shall brandish my sword before them they shall tremble every man for his own life. Note, When the sword of God’s justice is drawn against some, to cut them off, it is thereby brandished before others, to give them warning. And those that will not be admonished by it, and made to reform, shall yet be frightened by it, and made to tremble. They shall tremble at every moment, because of thy fall. When others are ruined by sin we have reason to quake for fear, as knowing ourselves guilty and obnoxious. Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?
(3.) It is set forth by a plain and express prediction of the desolation itself that should come upon Egypt. [1.] The instruments of the desolation appear here very formidable. It is the sword of the king of Babylon, that warlike, that victorious prince, that shall come upon thee (v. 11), the swords of the mighty, even the terrible of the nations, all of them (v. 12), an army that there is no standing before. Note, Those that delight in war, and are upon all occasions entering into contention, may expect, some time or other, to be engaged with those that will prove too hard for them. Pharaoh had been forward to quarrel with his neighbour and to come forth with his rivers, with his armies, v. 2. But God will now give him enough of it. [2.] The instances of the desolation appear here very frightful, much the same with what we had before, Eze 29:10-12; Eze 30:7. First, The multitude of Egypt shall be destroyed, not decimated, some picked out to be made examples, but all cut off. Note, The numbers of sinners, though they be a multitude, will neither secure them against God’s power nor entitle them to his pity. Secondly, The pomp of Egypt shall be spoiled, the pomp of their court, what they have been proud of. Note, in renouncing the pomps of this world we did ourselves a great kindness, for they are things that are soon spoiled and that cheat their admirers. Thirdly, The cattle of Egypt, that used to feed by the rivers, shall be destroyed (v. 13), either cut off by the sword or carried off for a prey. Egypt was famous for horses, which would be an acceptable booty to the Chaldeans. The rivers shall be no more frequented as they have been by man and beast, that came thither to drink. Fourthly, The waters of Egypt, that used to flow briskly, shall now grow deep, and slow, and heavy, and shall run like oil (v. 14), a figurative expression signifying that there should be such universal sadness and heaviness upon the whole nation that even the rivers should go softly and silently like mourners, and quite forget their rapid motion. Fifthly, The whole country of Egypt shall be stripped of its wealth; it shall be destitute of what whereof it was full (v. 15), corn, and cattle, and all the pleasant fruits of the earth; when those are smitten that dwell therein the ground is untilled, and that which is gathered becomes an easy prey to the invader. Note, God can soon empty those of this world’s goods that have the greatest fulness of those things and are full of them, that enjoy most and have their hearts set upon those enjoyments. The Egyptians were full of their pleasant and plentiful country, and its rich productions. Every one that talked with them might perceive how much it filled them. But God can soon make their country destitute of that whereof it is full; it is therefore our wisdom to be full of treasures in heaven. When the country is made destitute, 1. It shall be an instruction to them: Then shall they know that I am the Lord. A sensible conviction of the vanity of the world, and the fading perishing nature of all things in it, will contribute much to our right knowledge of God as our portion and happiness. 2. It shall be a lamentation to all about them: The daughters of the nations shall lament her (v. 16), either because, being in alliance with her, they share in her grievances and suffer with her, or, being admirers of her, they at least share in her grief and sympathize with her. They shall lament for Egypt and all her multitude; it shall excite their pity to see so great a devastation made. By enlarging the matters of our joy we increase the occasions of our sorrow.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 32
THE LAMENTATION OF PHARAOH
Verses 1-16:
Two lamentations are given in this chapter: 1) First, vs. 1, over Pharaoh and 2) Second, v. 17, fifteen days later over all the people of Egypt.
Verse 1 fixes the time of the first day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of the captivity and carrying away of Jehoachin. Jerusalem had been overthrown by this time and Amasis was revolting against Pharaoh-hophra.
Verse 2 calls upon Ezekiel to begin a lamentation cry against Pharaoh king of Egypt. He was to compare him with a young lion of the dry ground, among heathen nations, and a whale or dragon of the seas, that left its salt water habitat to pollute earth’s rivers and streams, an object of terror, on land and sea, feared like the crocodile of the river Nile. This alludes to Pharaoh’s leaving his own nation to go out and trample others, Eze 19:3; Eze 19:6; Eze 29:3; Eze 34:18; Eze 38:13; Isa 27:1.
Verse 3 warns that the Lord God will spread out His net like a snare, with a great company of people, to ensnare Pharaoh. This alludes to the Chaldeans, God’s instruments of chastening judgment to overthrow Pharaoh, Eze 29:3-4; Hos 7:12.
Verse 4 describes the judgment carnage to be made of Pharaoh, as the Lord caused him and his armies to be cut down upon the land, be left in the open fields, to be devoured by flesh eating fowls and carnivorous beasts; He is to die like fish, or a sea monster, on dry land, v. 2; Eze 19:5; Psa 63:10; Psa 74:4; Psa 79:2-3; Isa 14:19; Isa 18:6; 1Sa 17:44.
Verse 5 warns that Pharaoh’s judgment both personal and on his mighty armed forces would be so severe that the flesh of his men and horses that were slain in the valleys, together with their corpses and stench, borne by vultures of prey, would reach to the heights upon the mountains. The world would know of the Divine judgment that had brought him low, Eze 31:12.
Verse 6 further warns that armed slaughter of Pharaoh’s hordes of men and horses would be so great that the land, Nile and her streams, would swim with blood, seas of blood, as in God’s judgment on her in the days of Moses, Exo 7:19; Rev 8:8. Their blood was to pollute the streams, from the Nile and her valleys, to the top of the mountains, wherever the crocodiles swam and sought life and food, even as they symbolized the dragon-like powers and nature of Pharaoh.
Verses 7, 8 describe darkness, defeat, despair, and loneliness that will shroud the land like a dense cloud, when Divine judgment has fallen on Pharaoh and the army of his might, at the hand of the Lord. All heaven’s bright lights, the sun, moon, and stars, objects, creatures they had come to worship instead of the Creator, were to be turned to darkness, Exo 10:21; Job 18:5; Isa 13:10; Jer 13:16; Joe 3:15; Amo 8:9; Mat 24:29; Rev 6:13; Rom 1:25. Their political lights were put out.
Verse 9 foretells that the Lord would vex or provoke to anger the hearts of many people, when He brought tidings of their destruction, with the captives who would be carried as slaves into many nations, that they had not even known.
Verse 10 describes terror brought upon many people and other kings round about upon learning of Pharaoh’s fall, when the Lord brandished His sword, by means of the Chaldean army. Fear and trembling gripped all who beheld Pharaoh’s fall, Deu 29:24; 1Ki 9:8; Eze 26:16.
Verse 11 warns that the sword of the king of Babylon would surely come down upon Pharaoh, without escape, Jer 46:26; Eze 30:4.
Verse 12 asserts that the sword of the mighty (king of Babylon) the terrible ones of the earth, the people and pomp of all Egypt would be destroyed, made spoil for the warriors who destroyed her, Eze 28:7; Eze 29:19.
Verse 13 describes the Lord’s destruction of the beasts, domesticated animals beside the great waters of the Nile and her tributaries, so that the foot of no man or beast would trouble them any more in all the land, Eze 29:11.
Verse 14, 15 further prophesies that in this judgment upon Pharaoh He will make their rivers deep, or waters to subside, go down, so that the waters should run like oil (quietly), with no rush of waterfall noise, because they were near dried up. Thus the land would become destitute of its former fullness, until they who survived should recognize the Lord as the one true God, Exo 7:5; Exo 14:4; Exo 14:18; Exo 20:1-5; Psa 9:16; Psa 83:17-18.
Verse 16 concludes the repeated lament which the survivors of Egypt and all nations should lament for her and her fallen king and his armies as declared by the Lord God, 2Sa 1:17; 2Ch 35:23-25; Eze 26:17. And so it should and did come to pass.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
PROPHETIC DIRGES OVER EGYPTS FALL (Chap. 32)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.Eze. 32:1. In the twelfth yearin the twelfth year from the carrying away of Jehoiakin: Jerusalem was by this time overthrown, and Amasis was beginning to revolt against Pharaoh-Hophra.
Eze. 32:2. Like a young lion and as a whaleany monster of the waters: here the crocodile of the Nile. As a lion on dry land and a crocodile in the waters, Pharaoh is terrible alike by land and sea.
Eze. 32:3. I will spread my netthe Chaldeans (chap. Eze. 29:3-4; Hos. 7:12.) Jehovah spreads His net in the congregation of many nations, and gives it over to them that they may draw it out.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 32:4. Then I will leave thee upon the landit will fare no better with thee than with a fish, which must perish miserably because it is taken out of its element.
Eze. 32:5. I will fill the valleys with thy heightthy hugeness (Fairbairn). The multitude of thy forces, on which thou pridest thyself, shall only be a great heap of corpses to fill the valleys up to the sides of the mountains.Fausset.
Eze. 32:7-8. I will put thee outextinguish thy light in the political sky. In great political catastrophes and the endless woe connected with them, the heavenly luminaries appear to be extinguished (Isa. 13:10; Amo. 8:9-10; Mat. 24:29; Rev. 6:12).
Eze. 32:9. When I shall bring thy destruction among the nationsthe tidings of thy destruction (breakage) carried by captive and dispersed Egyptians among the nations (Grotius); or, When I bring thy ruins among the nationsthy broken people, resembling one great fracture, the ruins of what they had been.Fairbairn.
Eze. 32:14. Then will I make their waters deepto subside into the deep, to sink, or decrease (Fairbairn). To settle and grow clear. The Nile fertilises Egypt by its black mud, whence it is called the black. Ezekiel poetically saw it become a clear-flowing stream in the Messianic times.Geikie. Their rivers to run like oiltheir canals flow like oilemblem of quietness, or sluggish action.
Eze. 32:16. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament herfrequently repeated. This is a prophetical lamentation; yet so shall it come to pass.Grotius.
Eze. 32:18. The daughters of the famous nationsthe glorious nations themselves, some of whom are enumerated in the succeeding verses. They were as virgins, or daughters, once splendid in the bloom of youth, lovely to behold.
Eze. 32:19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? Beyond whom art thou lovely?Hengstenberg.Art thou any fairer than others?Geikie. Go downto Sheol, the under-world, where all beauty is speedily marred.
Eze. 32:20. Draw her and all her multitudesto the shades of the grave, ye powers of the under-world. As if addressing her executionersdrag her forth to death.
Eze. 32:21. The strong among the mighty shall speak to himwith a taunting welcome, as now one of themselves.
Eze. 32:22. Asshur is there and all her companyhis graves are about him. The abrupt change of gender is because Ezekiel has in view at one time the kingdom (feminine), at another the monarch. Assyria is placed first in punishment as being first in guilt.Fausset. The brightest example of greatness going to destruction.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 32:23. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit. In the depths of Sheol.Geikie. Deepest in guilt, they occupy the lowest depths.Fairbairn. The grave is deep even if, materially taken, it be only a few feet, as a stream is very deep if it be only six feet. The grave is deep enough to cover all glory.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 32:24. There is Elam. Placed next as having been the auxiliary of Assyria. Its territory lay in Persia. In Abrahams time an independent kingdom (Gen. 14:1). Famous for its bowmen (Isa. 22:6).Fausset.
Eze. 32:25. Slain by the sword. The very monotony of the same phraseology so often repeated gives to the dirge an awe-inspiring effect.
Eze. 32:26. Meshech, Tubal, and her multitudethe Moschi and Tibareni on the Pontic Mountains, between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Eze. 32:27. With their weapons of war. The custom, regarded as significant by the prophet, prevailed among them, to bury their fallen warriors with their death-weapons, in which they have their misdeeds with them, so that guilt and punishment are united in the grave.Hengstenberg. But their iniquities shall be upon their bones. Their iniquities shall come upon their very bones.Geikie. Their swords buried with them bear witness of their violence, and of the retributive cause of their own humiliation.
Eze. 32:29. Edom and all her princes. Edom was not only governed by kings, but by subordinate princes or dukes (Gen. 37:36). This people had shown a malicious joy in the downfall of Judah. They shall lie with the uncircumcised. Though Edom was circumcised, being descended from Isaac, he shall lie with the uncircumcised.
Eze. 32:30. There be the princes of the north. Syria, which is still called by the Arabs the north; or the Tyrians, north of Palestine, conquered by Nebuchadnezzar (chaps. 2628)Grotius. And all the Zidonianswho shared the fate of Tyre (chap Eze. 28:21).
Eze. 32:31. Pharaoh shall be comforted. He sighs, is troubled. Others explain, He comforts himself. But Pharaoh could so much the less derive comfort from the view of the others, as they had been not his foes but his confederates on earth, and their defeat was at the same time his own.Hengstenberg. Pharaohs comfort was but a sigh.
Eze. 32:32. I have caused my terrors. Pharaoh was a long time terrible, not by his own power, but by the operation of God, who made use of him as His instrument. The terror he had been to others shall be experienced by himself and his people. He shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised. Used up, Pharaoh is now destroyed by the same power which employed him before for its own ends. He has in the time of the power vouchsafed to him proved himself unclean and uncircumcised, and hence must share the fate of the uncircumcised.Hengstenberg.
HOMILETICS
THE TERRIBLENESS OF THE DIVINE VENGEANCE
(Eze. 32:1-16.)
I. Provoked by the reckless abuse of power (Eze. 32:2). Egypt is here represented as a young lion, or enraged crocodile working havoc by land and sea in sheer wantonness and prodigality of strength. The needs and enjoyments, the rights and privileges, of others are utterly disregarded in the reckless and excessive exercise of absolute power. Egypt had oppressed the people of God, and this was not forgotten. It had already measured its strength against the Asiatic forces, and had been checked in its ambitious projects. Its defeat abroad tended to intensify its tyranny at home, until its oppression and viciousness became unbearable. The day of retribution was at hand. It had roused the righteous anger of Heaven, and the fiat had gone forthShall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? (Jer. 5:9).
II. Seen in the utter ruin of a mighty nation.
1. Its power to harm others shall be crippled (Eze. 32:3-6.) In the graphic style of Ezekiel, Egypt is represented as a huge crocodile caught in a net, dragged from the waters, slung out upon the open field, and left stranded in the valley, its vast bulk spreading on the mountain-sides, the land soaked and the torrent-beds filled with the gushing-out of its blood, the birds and beasts of prey gorging themselves on its distended carcass. The great tyrant is now powerless to oppress, and is in the death-grip of the avenger.
2. Its glory is quenched (Eze. 32:7-8). The sun is veiled with clouds and the moon gives no light, the stars and all the shining lights of heaven become black, and darkness is poured over the land. The plague of darkness in a former age (Exo. 10:21-23), filling the people with awe while it lasted, was temporary; but the dense gloom that now settled upon the nation meant the permanent extinction of its brilliant career.
3. Its desolation is complete (Eze. 32:11-15). The sword of the mighty will beat down the proud pomp of Egypt and destroy its people. The cattle that browsed beside its rivers shall be swept away, so that no foot of man or hoof of beast shall trouble these waters more. The waters shall then settle and grow clear and the canals flow like oil; no longer shall they descend violently, as the overflowing Nile, on other countries, but shall become still and sluggish in political action. The land shall be stripped of its abundancedestitute of that whereof it was fulland desolation shall reign supreme.
III. Fills surrounding nations with dread (Eze. 32:9-10). The rehearsal of Egypts tragic fate shall paralyse the people of other lands with fear. Kings shall shake with terror and tremble continually, as if apprehensive that a similar punishment is impending over them. It shall then be evident that Egypt had a greater foe than Nebuchadnezzar, and one who could not be insulted and ignored with impunity. Then shall they know that I am the Lord (Eze. 32:15). The desolating weapon was the sword of Babylon; but it was brandished by the arm of the invisible Jehovah. If men will not seek to know God in the tenderness of His mercy, they shall know Him in the severity of His judgment. Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. He bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect (Psa. 33:8; Psa. 33:10).
IV. Is the occasion of national sorrow. This is the lamentation that they will raise; the daughters of the nations shall chant it: they will sing this dirge for Egypt and for all her multitude (Eze. 32:16).Geikie. London witnessed the other day a remarkable military pageant, when the remains of Field-Marshal Lord Napier of Magdala, the hero of many a fierce battle fought for his country, were borne in funeral procession to their last resting-place in St. Pauls Cathedral. The packed masses of the people in the streets silently and sorrowfully saluting the coffin as it passed; the solemn, melting music of the Grenadiers and Scots Greys, the best musicians of the British army, playing the funeral march; the long lines of Guards in soldierly array, and the softened sunshine occasionally brightening the scene, made up a wonderfully imposing and impressive spectacle. In the presence of royalty and the highest magnates of the realm, and amid the tears of an appreciative people, the body of the great warrior was reverently placed alongside the tombs of heroes who had won distinction in many a hard-fought battle by land and sea. A nation may well mourn the loss of its brave defenders; but who can fathom the depths of grief of a people wildly lamenting over national disasterthe throne overturned, government disorganised, homes wrecked, the land ravaged by the ruthless destroyer, and chaos everywhere!
LESSONS.
1. Divine vengeance is never inflicted without ample warning.
2. Is based on the highest principles of justice and equity.
3. Will be a terrible awakening to the impenitent wicked.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze. 32:2-16. With the Chaldean conquest the political ascendancy of Egypt began finally to decline; the arm of its power was for ever broken; its monarch could no more move about as he pleased and trouble the nations; he was henceforth to reside in comparatively still and peaceful waters, himself on every hand restrained and hemmed in by superior force, and all his pride and glory, as the head of empire, reduced to perpetual desolation. It is Egypts doom as a kingdom, not the mere condition of its soil and surface, that the prophet throughout has in view.Fairbairn.
Eze. 32:2-10. Difficulties and their Conquest.
1. Difficulties terrify the weak and indolent. Like a young lionas a whale in the seas (Eze. 32:2).
2. Difficulties are resolutely encountered by the brave and strong. I will spread My net over thee (Eze. 32:3).
3. Great difficulties are not conquered without great havoc.
(1.) Their hugeness evident in their ruins (Eze. 32:4-6).
(2.) Their dazzling glamour quenched in darkness (Eze. 32:7-8).
4. Conquered difficulties the admiration and the fear of others.
Eze. 32:2. Take up a lamentation. Ministers that would affect others with the things of God must make it appear that they are themselves affected with the miseries that sinners bring upon themselves by their sins. It becomes us to weep and tremble for those that will not weep and tremble for themselves, to try if thereby we may set them weeping, set them atrembling.M. Henry.
Like a young lion and crocodilefor pride, fierceness, and cruelty. Thou domineerest over sea and land, far and wide; thou playest rex.Trapp.
Troubledst the waters. A great deal of disquiet is often given to the world by the restless ambition and implacable resentments of proud princes. Ahab is he that troubles Israel, and not Elijah. The princes and conquerors of this earth, who, like Pharaoh, gain a great name by aggression and violence, are no better in Gods eyes than beasts which live by making the weaker their prey, or monsters of the deep which trouble the waters and foul the rivers in pursuit of their victims.Fausset.
Eze. 32:3. A large, long, and wide net drawn out to full extent, with which both lions and crocodiles might be taken, and in which this lion and crocodile should certainly be taken, for God, whose hand never errs, will spread the net. In brief, war by land and sea, by a confederacy of many people against Hophra, shall be Gods net, wherein he shall be taken, kept a prisoner as he was, and at last strangled.Pool.
He will repay them in their own coin. All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword (Mat. 26:22). As they had spread their net over weaker peoples, with a company of many peoples, so God will spread out His net over them with a company of stronger people, the Chaldeans, who should bring them up as fishes caught in His net (Hab. 1:14-17).Fausset.
Eze. 32:7-8. Darkness.
1. A symbol of destruction and mourning.
2. A proof of the awfulness and completeness of the destruction.
3. Suggests how all the forces of nature are subservient to the purpose of an avenging Deity.
As a torch is extinguished. A description of great sorrows, fears, troubles, and perplexities. Or it may intimate particularly the total ruin of the whole kingdom, in which the best, greatest, and noblest parts are: for heaven suppose the government, the sun the king, the moon the queen, the stars the princes and nobles, the bright lights the most eminent of the subjects for wisdom and understanding, and the land the common people. All shall be covered with clouds and darkness of misery and sorrow.Pool.
Eze. 32:8. I will involve thee, thy house, thy people, and the whole land in desolation and woe.
Eze. 32:10. Reasons for Fear.
1. When conscious of personal sin.
2. When the sword of vengeance is brandished before our eyes.
3. When we witness the fall of the proud and great.
4. When in trembling uncertainty as to the nearness and manner of our approaching fate.
All they who had admired the grandeur and power of Egypt when the tidings of her destruction should be brought, would be amazed and horribly afraid. The kings, whosoever were conscious of similar sins to those of Pharaoh, would tremble, every man for his own life, when the Lord should brandish His sword before them. Those who admire the pomp of worldly greatness shall necessarily be astonished at its downfall, and shall tremble for themselves as involved in the same condemnation as the world which they love. But the fall of earthly things will not take by surprise nor alarm the children of God, whose portion is not in this world, and who know its real emptiness.Fausset.
Eze. 32:12. Spoil the pomp.Break her strength, rob her treasures, sack her cities, captivate her people, make the kingdom tributary, and so stain all her glory.Pool.
Eze. 32:11-16. The Desolation of the Sword.
1. The occasion of savage delight to the warlike.
2. Silences the proud boaster.
3. Depreciates the value of human life.
4. The foe of commerce and national prosperity.
5. Is the theme of bitter lamentation among the suffering survivors.
Eze. 32:11-12. Those that delight in war and are on all occasions entering into contention may expect some time or other to be engaged with those who may prove too hard for them. Pharaoh had been forward to quarrel with his neighbours, and to come forth with his rivershis armies. God will now give him enough of it.M. Henry.
Eze. 32:13. There should be so few men left in Egypt that they should not, as formerly, disturb the waters by digging, swimming, or rowing on them; or no more trouble the waters with the passing of mighty armies over them to invade their neighbours; so few horses or cows that they should not at watering times, or in the heat of the day, foul the waters by running into them and stamping or trampling in them; but the waters should continue pure and undisturbed.Pool.
Eze. 32:15. God can soon empty those of this worlds goods that have the greatest fulness of those things and are full of them; that enjoy most, and have their hearts set upon those enjoyments. The Egyptians were full of their pleasant and plentiful country and its rich productions. Every one that talked with them might perceive how much it filled them. But God can soon make their country destitute of that whereof it is full. It is, therefore, our wisdom to be full of treasures in heaven.M. Henry.
Then shall they know that I am the Lord. The awful and destructive visitation shall be sanctified to those that survive; it shall yield them important instruction, and they shall give glory to My power and justice, while a sensible conviction of the vanity of the world, and of the fading and perishing nature of all things in it, shall draw their affections from it and from all that it contains, and induce them to seek an acquaintance with Me as their portion and happiness.Benson.
HOMILETICS
A FUNERAL CHANT OVER THE GRAVES OF FALLEN NATIONS
(Eze. 32:17-32.)
In this paragraph Ezekiel, the prophet of the captivity, foresees the approaching downfall of the great monarchies who had oppressed and were then oppressing his beloved Israel. He sees them marching to the grave in slow and solemn funeral pomp, and as if standing by the huge sepulchre into which they disappear, chanted over them a sad, pathetic dirge which rises here and there into strains of the wildest and weirdest character. The seers of Judah, writes Milman, uttered their sublime funeral anthems over the greatness of each independent tribe or monarchy as it was swallowed up, first in the empire of Assyria, and then Chaldea. They were like the tragic chorus of the awful drama which was unfolding itself to the Eastern world. This funeral chant of Ezekiels has in it more of sorrow than exultation. The old-world kingdoms, with all their tyranny and oppression, are not allowed to pass away without a sigh. He is friendless indeed who does not leave behind a solitary mourner. Observe
I. That the grave brings the proudest nationalities to a common level. Egypt, with her sedate antiquity and stately pride; Assyria, with her vast empire and riches; Elam, with her strong-armed bowmen; Edom, with her fierce highlanders; and the princes and kinglets of the NorthMeshech, Tubal, and the Zidoniansare all buried in the same earth over which their mighty armies tramped. The clash of arms, the flutter of banners, the noisy pomp of regal magnificence, the shout of triumph, and the groan of defeat are alike unheard and unheeded. The rules of etiquette, the rights of precedence and supremacy, about which so many bloody battles were fought, are now utterly meaningless.
II. That the grave knows no distinction of persons. Prince and peasant, the general and the humblest soldier, the great in wisdom, wealth, and power, lie side by side with the common multitude; rich and poor, circumcised and uncircumcised, are huddled together in the same capacious sepulchre. The Egyptian, with his fastidious notions of cleanliness, shrank from the contamination of the uncircumcised, but the grave effectually cured all such scruples. The reflective Cyrus, the great Persian conqueror, saw how completely the grave would strip him of his imperial glory when he ordered this inscription to be engraven on his tombO man! whatsoever thou art, and whencesoever thou comest, I know that thou wilt come to the same condition in which I now am. I am Cyrus, who brought the empire to the Persians: do not envy me, I beseech thee, this little piece of ground which covereth my body!
III. That the grave reveals the vanity of national strife and ambition. Questions of boundaries, official privilege, insulted honour, or tarnished fame dwindle into utter insignificance. Great warriors have cherished to the last the memory of their victories and parted reluctantly with the trophies of their ambition. A king of Prussia, conscious of the near approach of death, desired to see his army defile before him for the last time, and his couch was moved to a window where by reflection in a mirror he was able to take a last adieu of his troops as they marched past; and it is said that Napoleon Bonaparte ordered himself to be seated on his deathbed and arrayed in military dress that he might meet the King of Terrors as he had been accustomed to meet his mortal foes. In the grave all military glory is for ever quenched. Philip III. of Spain, who strove to do his duty as king, once said he would rather lose his kingdom than willingly offend God. Convinced of the vanity of all imperial ambitions in comparison with the claims of religion, he broke forth with the lamentWould to God I had never reigned! Oh that those years I have spent in my kingdom I had lived a solitary life in the wilderness! Oh that I had lived a life alone with God! What doth all my glory profit, but that I have so much the more torment in my death!
IV. That it is but meagre comfort to the fallen that in the grave they share the same fate as those who have been as great as they (Eze. 32:31). Yet this is all the comfort some will have: it was all that proud Egypt found. It is no satisfaction and but little relief to the sufferer to know that many others suffer with him. In this verse there is a clear indication of a consciousness after death. This indestructible consciousness will be the vehicle of future joy or sorrow.
LESSONS.
1. National reverses evoke sympathy.
2. The grave suggests many salutary reflections.
3. The highest and best work we do survives the tragedy of the grave.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze. 32:17-32. Thus closes the Divine word against Pharaoh and his kingdom; they go down to the land of forgetfulness in common with all the surrounding heathen who stood in a position of rivalry or antagonism to Israel. Throughout the whole series of the predictions we find the one grand point of difference between the two parties steadily kept in view; the judgment that lights on Israel is only partial and temporary, the power and dominion again return to him and settle in everlasting possession, while the neighbouring kingdoms that in turn aspired to the supremacy fall to rise no more. The question virtually discussed in all such predictions is thisWho shall give law to the world; Israel, or the rival nations of heathendom? And the answer returned, though with manifold variety of form, is perpetually the same. All other dominions are destined to pass away; that of Israel alone becomes permanent and universal. This is to be sought only in Christ, in whom all that peculiarly belonged to Israel concentrates itself and rises to its proper perfection. In Him, therefore, it is that the pre-eminence destined for Israel has its accomplishment, and all the external victories gained over the surrounding heathen, or the advantages granted to Israel in preference to them, were but the sign and prelude of that glorious ascendancy over the whole earth which in right is already Christs, and in due time shall also be His in actual possession.Fairbairn.
The prophet in this funeral song brings Egypt into connection with the congeries of nations on which the Chaldean judgment fell. The practical aim is expressed in the words of the PsalmistTrust not in oppression and fraud; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. The prophecy is fitted to call forth a deep feeling of the vanity of earthly things; to warn against carnal confidence in earthly power and its abuse by violence and wrong; and, what comes specially into account here, to guard against envying those who enjoy such power for the moment. Human nature, what is it? In an hour it falls to the ground!Hengstenberg.
Eze. 32:18. The Egyptians affected to be buried either in the isle Chemnis or in the Pyramids. Their kings and great ones thus would be laid by themselves, but Ezekiel provides them their grave among common peopleburies them where they fall. They shall not have what they account so much of in their funeral.Pool.
Where they an equal honour share,
Who buried or unburied are;
Where Agamemnon knows no more
Than Irus, he condemned before;
Where fair Achilles and Thersites lie,
Equally naked, poor, and dry.
Eze. 32:19. Beauty.
1. A rare endowment, whether national or personal.
2. No modern type that has not been equalled in the past.
3. No protection against the ravages of time.
4. Undistinguishable when the grave has done its work.
5. Its possession no ground for vain boasting.
Art thou better than others that thou shouldst not die and be laid in dust? Speak, Hophra, if thou hast any privilege to plead, what hast thou to say why thou shouldst not go down to the pit as a despised mortal? The prophet, hearing no plea of privilege, says sarcastically, Go down; take up thy lodging, thy long, dark, dismal recess, where thy dust and bones shall never be known by any royal figure.Pool.
How little does it signify whether a mummy be well embalmed, wrapped round with rich stuff, and beautifully painted on the outside or not! Go down into the tombs, examine the niches, and see whether one dead carcass be preferable to another.A. Clarke.
Eze. 32:20. Make no ceremony more than usually is made when common soldiers, slain in the field where the battle is fought, are dragged by scores into mighty pits and thrown into them promiscuously, or, suppose any of them unwilling to stoop, draw them to it against their will.Pool.
Eze. 32:21-32. The Grim Welcome of the Dead. A welcome.
1. To the great majorityAll her multitude.
2. To defeatSlain by the sword.
3. To humiliation and shameThey lie with the uncircumcised, though they caused terror in the land of the living.
4. To whatever comfort may be found in sharing the same fate as great conquerorsPharaoh shall see them and be comforted.
Eze. 32:22-26. His graves are about him. The Graves of our Kindred.
1. Recall many tender memories of affection, acts of kindness, and words of counsel received from those who sleep so peacefully there.
2. Arrest the tendency to reproach those who are gone for any injustice they may have done to us when living.
3. Remind us we shall soon be called to share their resting-place, and how utterly useless all worldly gain, power, and reputation will be to us there.
4. While reverently bending over them we should solemnly resolve, by Gods help, to seek that glorious immortality which the grave is powerless to destroy.
Eze. 32:23. All which caused terrorwhere a terror to all they would be enemies to, and proudly boasted of and inhumanly used their power, now lie quiet, their dust little regarded, less feared, and least of all pitied.Pool.
Eze. 32:27. With their weapons of war. It was usual in former times to put swords, shields, and other armour in the graves of military men, as they did in the grave of Theseus and on the bier of Alexander the Great. But the meaning of the prophet here is, that those of whom he speaks should be without these usual martial solemnities with which people formerly honoured their dead.Benson.
Eze. 32:32. It is God who speaks, who had punished former tyrants, that the world might see His just judgments. They were a terror to the world by their cruelty, oppression, and continued violence; by their covetousness, ambition, and pride; and God had made them a terror by His just severities in their punishment.Pool.
Surely men disquiet themselves about a vain thing in so keenly pursuing pleasure, gain, fame, and power, at the cost of their immortal souls. What will all these objects of worldly mens pursuit do for them when they are laid in the grave? Lord, do Thou teach us the blessedness of having Thee as our portion for ever!Fausset.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
VI. DIRGE OVER PHARAOH 32:116
TRANSLATION
(1) And it Came to Pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) Son of man, lift up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, You likened yourself to a young lion of the nations, but you are like a crocodile in the seas, and you burst forth in your rivers, and you troubled the waters with your feet and you polluted their rivers. (3) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will spread out over you My net with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in My net. (4) And I will leave you in the land, upon the field I will cast you forth, and I will cause all the birds of the heaven to remain upon you, and I will fill the beasts of all the earth with you. (5) And I will put your flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. (6) And I will water the land where you swim with your blood even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you. (7) When you are extinguished I will cover the heavens, and I will make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. (8) All the light bearing bodies in the heavens I will make dark over you, and set darkness over your land (oracle of the Lord GOD. (9) And I will provoke the heart of many people, when I bring your destruction among the nations, unto countries which you have not known. (10) And I will make many people astonished concerning you, and their kings shall be horrified on account of you when I shall unsheath My sword before them; and they shall tremble al every moment, each man for his life, in the day of your fall. (11) For thus says the Lord GOD: the sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. (12) By the swords of the mighty I will cause your multitude to fall: the most ruthless of the nations are all of them: and they shall spoil the pride of Egypt. and all her multitude shall be destroyed. (13) And I will destroy all her cattle from beside many waters; and the foot of man shall not trouble them any more, nor shall the hoofs of cattle trouble them. (14) Then I will make their waters to settle, and their rivers I will cause to go as oil (oracle of the Lord GOD). (15) When I make the land of Egypt a desolation and waste, a land devoid of fullness, when I smite all the inhabitants in it, then shall they know that I am the LORD. (16) With this lamentation shall they lament over it; the daughters of the nations shall lament over her; on account of Egypt and all her multitude they shall lament her (oracle of the Lord GOD).
COMMENTS
The last oracle against Egypt is dated about a year and a half after the fall of Jerusalem. The date, according to the modern calendar would be March 4, 585 B.C.12 (Eze. 32:1). The prophet is told to take up a lamentation a prophetic doom-song over Pharaoh.
Pharaoh fancied himself to be like a lion roaming among the nations striking fear into all who saw him. In reality Pharaoh was more like a crocodile (see on Eze. 29:3) whose movement was restricted to the waters. Occasionally Egypts army would burst forth from his waters, i.e., venture forth beyond the national frontiers. Moving into yet other rivers the Egyptian crocodile would thrash about, churning up the waters and befouling them (Eze. 32:2).
God had decreed the end of the disruptive crocodile. He would spread out His net to capture and immobilize the vicious beast. A company of many people Babylon and her allies would assist in drawing up that divine net (Eze. 32:3). The crocodile would be cast upon dry land out of his natural habitat. Thus his doom would be sealed. The birds of prey and beasts of the field would take their fill of him (Eze. 32:4). The mountains and valleys would be filled with the long carcass of the crocodile
12. Some confusion exists in the ancient versions on the date Of this oracle. Some ancient scribes, determined to keep the oracles in Ezekiel in chronological order, amended the Hebrew text to read eleventh year and twelfth month. Others retained the reading twelfth year but altered the month to read tenth month. The reading of the standard Hebrew text is not to be surrendered. (Eze. 32:5). The blood of the beast would saturate the land and fill the rivlets (Eze. 32:6).
A second figure depicts the demise of Egypt. The once bright star (Egypt) would be extinguished. This day of divine judgment is depicted as a day of darkness. The sun, moon and stars would refuse to give their light (Eze. 32:7-8). Such passages are not to be interpreted literally, but rather are the traditional way of depicting the fall of a great nation.[449]
[449] See Isa. 13:10; Joe. 2:10 : Amo. 8:9
Many other nations including some unknown to Egypt would be terrified by the news of the destruction of that empire (Eze. 32:9). Other kings would tremble before the sword of God the agent of Gods judgment upon the world (Eze. 32:10).
The agent of Gods judgment on the sixth century world was Babylon (Eze. 32:11). The Babylonians are called the mighty, the ruthless of the nations (cf. Eze. 28:7). The pride of Egypt, all the multitude of her population, would be spoiled by the northern invaders (Eze. 32:12). Even the cattle that fed along the banks of the Nile and its canals would be destroyed. Neither man nor beast would befoul the waters of the land anymore, for the land would be temporarily desolate (Eze. 32:13). The undisturbed waters would flow as smoothly as a river of oil (Eze. 32:14). The desolation with which God would smite Egypt would cause men to recognize His sovereignty (Eze. 32:15). This section closes as it began, with emphasis being placed on the nature of the oracle. It is a lament which the daughter of the nations the professional mourners would take up over Egypt (Eze. 32:16).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) In the twelfth year.This was one year and between six and seven months after the destruction of Jerusalem, and when, therefore, one great hindrance to Nebuchadnezzars march upon Egypt had been removed. It is also nearly two months (Eze. 33:21) since Ezekiel had heard of this calamity through a fugitive. It could not have been very long before the arrival of the fugitive Jews in Egypt, after the murder of Gedaliah; yet that it was somewhat earlier is plain from Eze. 33:24. It was about the same time with the similar prophecies of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 43, 44); but as the date both of the murder and of the flight are unknown (except that the former occurred in the seventh monthJer. 41:1but of what year is not stated), the exact chronological relation of these things must remain uncertain.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Twelfth year This is March, 584 B.C., a little more than a year and a half after Jerusalem’s ruin had been accomplished. The fall of the holy city has caused him to hear the sound of the falling empires which were her destruction.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And so it was that in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him:
“You were likened to a young lion among the nations,
Yet you are as a monster in the seas.
And you burst forth on your rivers,
And you trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers.
‘The word of Yahweh came to me saying.’ This introduces every oracle. No prophet is quite like Ezekiel in his emphasis that what he received was a direct revelation from Yahweh. He spoke when Yahweh spoke.
The description in the poem is vivid like so much in Ezekiel. Pharaoh was seen among the nations as a powerful young lion in his prime, one to be feared by all. One to be admired for his ferocity. The Egyptian sphinx had the body of a lion, which was thus closely connected with Egypt. But by Yahweh Pharaoh and his people were seen as a sea monster, a large crocodile, dirtying the waters and causing harm and destruction among their own people, and also among others, wherever he went. This Pharaoh (Hophra) had done much interfering, not very helpfully. That was why he had to be dealt with.
There is a dual idea here moving between the great mythological monsters of the myths, defeated by the gods, and the crocodiles of the Nile, feared because of their nefarious activities. Both caused chaos and left problems behind them. The mythological association brings out the world shattering nature of the event, but Ezekiel grounds it firmly in this world.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Sixth Oracle. A Lament Over Pharaoh and Egypt ( Eze 32:1-16 ).
The date of the oracle is March 585 BC. It follows the destruction of Jerusalem. The versions vary, seeking to alter the date to before that in Eze 33:21 (probably to maintain a smooth chronology). But there is no valid reason to do so.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Oracles Against Egypt ( Eze 29:1 to Eze 32:32 ).
This section of the book is composed of seven oracles issued against Egypt. The fact that there are seven is probably deliberate in order to emphasise the divine completeness of the condemnation, for throughout the Near East seven was the number of divine perfection.
Egypt was the great power to the south, as Assyria, Babylon and Persia were successively to the north. Except in very weak times, she had always seen the land of Canaan as hers and under her administration, and had only reluctantly ceded ground when forced to do so for a time by those great powers from the north. Her influence had never been good and she was responsible for much of the idolatry in Israel. This was necessarily so because Pharaoh saw himself as the manifestation of the god Horus, becoming the great Osiris on his death. Thus the destruction of Egypt’s power was necessary if ever Israel was to be free.
This denunciation of Egypt is looking at more than the current situation, although having that in mind. For centuries Egypt had dominated Israel. Again and again she had crushed her and exacted tribute. Now she was to receiver retribution.
Furthermore at this time Egypt was seeking to rally the peoples in and around Canaan, encouraging them to rebel against Babylon with promises of aid. But because of her own comparative weakness this could only lead them into deep trouble. She was not strong enough to lean on. So if His people were to know peace Egypt had to be dealt with, and dealt with thoroughly.
From this time on Egypt would never again rise to be the great power that she had been. And Ezekiel reveals this as being due to the activity of Yahweh.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Eze 29:5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
Eze 29:5
1Sa 17:44, “And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Lament over the King of Egypt
v. 1. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, v. 2. Son of man, v. 3. Thus saith the Lord God, I will therefore spread out My net over thee, v. 4. Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, v. 5. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, v. 6. I will also water with thy blood, v. 7. And when I shall put thee out, v. 8. All the bright lights of heaven, v. 9. I will also vex the hearts of many people, v. 10. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, v. 11. For thus saith the Lord God, The sword of the king of Babylon, v. 12. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude, v. 13. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof, v. 14. Then will I make their waters deep, v. 15. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, v. 16. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her, the daughters of the nations,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 32:1
In the twelfth year, etc. March, B.C. 584, nineteen months attar the destruction of Jerusalem. The two sections of the chapter, Eze 32:1-16 and Eze 32:17-32, belong to the same year, and probably, though the date of the month is net given for the second, were written within a fortnight of each other. The thoughts of the prophet still dwell upon the downfall of Egypt, and he is stirred, as by a special inspiration, to write an elaborate “lamentation” over its departed greatness. It would seem, from the repetition of the word in Eze 32:16, as if the elegy had originally been intended to end there. Possibly it may have occurred to the prophet that what he had written was rather a prediction of coming evil than a lamentation, and therefore needed to be completed by a second, coming more strictly under that title.
Eze 32:2
Thou art like a young lion; rather, with the Revised Version, thou wast likened unto a young lion. The two clauses of the verse stand in direct contrast to each other. Flatterers, orators, courtiers, had used the usual symbolism of the animal world. The King of Egypt was as the king of beasts. Ezekiel rejects that comparison, and likens him rather to the whale, the dragon (Revised Version), in the seas, i.e. to the crocodile of his own river (compare the use of the “dragon” for the King of Egypt, in Eze 29:3; Isa 51:9). Ewald and Smend, however, translate, “young lion of the nations, thou art brought to naught;” but there is no adequate reason for abandoning the Revised translation. Troubledst the waters. As in Eze 34:18, the act is used as the symbol of all selfish and aggressive rule, defiling the streams of righteousness and judgment. Thou camest forth with thy rivers. Ewald and Smend translate, “Thou didst spurt out the water,” as describing the act of the crocodile when it raises its head out of the water as in the “neesings,” or “sneezings” of Job 41:12, Hebrew [English version, 18].
Eze 32:3
I will spread out my net. The imagery of Eze 29:3 is repeated, with a variation as to the mode of capture. There is no evidence that the crocodile was ever taken with a net; but Ezekiel may have chosen the comparison for that very reason. What was impossible in the parable, according to its letter, was possible when it received its application.
Eze 32:4
The picture is carried out to its completion. The carcass of the crocodile becomes the prey of unclean birds and beasts. The carcass of the Egyptian greatness was to satiate the appetite of the invading hosts. Were the words of Psa 74:14, as to leviathan being “given for meat to the people in the wilderness” floating in Ezekiel’s mind (compare the strange reference to leviathan in 2 Esdr. 6:49, 52, and in later Jewish traditions)? Greek writers describe the ichthyophagi of Africa as feeding on the flesh of sea-monsters, and the word may possibly include the crocodile.
Eze 32:6
I will water with thy blood. Was the plague of the water of the Nile turned to blood (Exo 7:19, Exo 7:20) present to Ezekiel’s mind? Such an inundation of the Nile, in all its horrors, was a fit symbol of the deluge of invaders by whom Egypt was laid waste.
Eze 32:7
When I shall put thee out; better, with the Revised Version, extinguish. The verb is used of lamps in 2Ch 29:7. The change of metaphor is at first startling, but I follow Ewald, Hitzig, and Smend, in thinking that there is a traceable sequence of ideas. The “dragon of the Egyptian waters” suggested the “dragon” which was conspicuous between Ursa Major and Minor among the constellations of the heavens, and the name of which, probably derived by the Greek astronomers from a remote past, suggested that of an enemy of God (comp. Isa 51:9). So taken, the new comparison finds a parallel in that of the King of Babylon to Lucifer, the morning star, in Isa 14:12. Upon this there follows naturally the imagery of Eze 30:18; Isa 34:4. As the other trees of the forest had mourned for the cedar (Eze 31:15), so the other lights of heaven mourn for that particular star which has been quenched for ever (comp. for the general imagery. Isa 13:10; Joe 2:10; Joe 3:4, Hebrew [English version, Eze 2:1-10 :31].
Eze 32:9
I will also vex the hearts. The words intensify the bitterness of the downfall. The prophet passes out of the region of metaphors into that of facts. The fall of Egypt will cause pity among the nations. They shall simply be “vexed” in heart, terrified at the thought (Eze 32:10) that the sword which had laid her low was “brandished” also against them.
Eze 32:11-14
The sword of the King of Babylon, etc. The effects of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion are now described in language which seems plain enough, but in which we may read between the lines an allusive reference to the previous symbolism. Thus in Eze 32:13 we are thrown back upon the thought of the “troubled waters” of Eze 32:2. The Nile was no longer to be troubled by the foot of beasts; the streams of justice were no longer to be defiled with a selfish corruption, but were to run smooth and calm, even as the “rivers of oil” which were the symbols of ethical blessedness (Job 29:6; Deu 32:13). So Ewald and Keil, for once agreeing. The rule of Nebuchadnezzar was to be a righteous rule, in spite of its severity. I am unable, however, to follow these commentators further in seeing in the words a prediction of the Messianic kingdom. The Egyptians were to “know the Lord,” as the other nations addressed by Ezekiel were to know him, as a righteous Judge, not as yet as a Deliverer (comp. Eze 28:26; Eze 29:21; Eze 30:26).
Eze 32:16
This is the lamentation, etc. The work of mourning for the dead was for the most part assigned to women (2Sa 1:24; Jer 9:17; 2Ch 35:25), and is therefore appropriately assigned to the daughters of the nations. He hears, as it were, their wailing over the fallen greatness of Egypt, even in the solitude of Tel-Abib.
Eze 32:17
For yet fourteen days the mind of the prophet brooded over the fall of Egypt, and his thoughts at last found utterance in another lamentation, based upon that of Isa 14:1-32. Taken together, the two passages give a vivid picture of the thoughts of the Hebrews as to the unseen world, and we find in them the germs of the later belief of Judaism in Paradise and Gehenna. What I have called the Dante element in Ezekiel it seen here raised to its highest power.
Eze 32:18
Cast them down, etc. The prophet thinks of himself as not only the predictor, but the minister, of the Divine judgments. So it was given to Jeremiah (Jer 1:10) “to root out and to pull down,” and to Amos (Amo 9:1) to “smite” and to wound. He executes the sentence, not on Egypt only, but on the other daughters of the famous nations, sc. on the nations themselves, especially those that are named in the verses that follow.
Eze 32:19
Whom dost thou pass in beauty? The lamentation, as might be expected from Ezekiel’s standpoint, is an illustration of irony and triumph rather than of sorrow. The question implies a negative answer. Glorious as Egypt had been, other nations had equaled her. They had passed away, and so should she. With the uncircumcised. The words, as in Eze 31:18, suggest the thought that Israel, so far as it was faithful to its calling, circumcised in heart as well as flesh (Jer 9:26), had a higher and happier dwelling in Hades than the uncircumcised heathen. As the Egyptians practiced circumcision, the language of the prophet had a special significance. Their place in Hades was among the heathen to whom that hereto was unknown.
Eze 32:20
She is delivered to the sword; better, with the margin of the Revised Version, the sword is appointedpossibly, as Ewald suggests, with reference to the practice of burying a warrior with his sword beneath his head (comp. Eze 32:27). Draw her, etc. The command would seem to be given, so to speak, to the warders of Sheol. They am to receive the new comers and take them to their appointed place.
Eze 32:21
The strong among the mighty. Those already in Sheol watch the new arrival, and make their scornful comments (comp. Isa 14:9, Isa 14:18), at once classing them with the uncircumcised. Had they heard, we ask, of the downfall of Egypt?
Eze 32:22, Eze 32:23
Asshur is there. The verses that follow contain, as it were, the prophet’s retrospect of the history of the past, as far as he had knowledge of it. Foremost in those is Assyria, which the prophet had already chosen (Eze 31:3) as the pattern instance of a fallen greatness. There in the sides of the pit (i.e. in its remotest and deepest regions) lie the graves of the rulers surrounded by those of their subjects. They had caused terror, the prophet adds, with a keen irony, in the land of the living. They can cause no terror now.
Eze 32:24
There is Elam etc. The nation so named appears grouped with Asshur in Gen 10:22; in Isa 11:11 it stands between Cush and Shinar; in Isa 22:6 its warriors form part of the host of Sennacherib; in Ezr 4:9 they are named as having been among the settlers in Samaria; in Isa 21:2 as joining with the Medes in the attack on Babylon; in Jer 25:25 again coupled with the Medes among the enemies of Nebuchadnezzar; in Dan 8:2 as the province in which Shushan was situated, and therefore subject to Babylon. Jeremiah (Jer 49:34-39) had uttered a special prophecy against it. From Ezekiel’s point of view it might well take its place among the powers that had received their death-blow at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Yet have they borne their shame; sc. the disgrace of being uncircumcised, and therefore taking their place with the lower circles of the dead.
Eze 32:25
They have set her a bed. The noun is used for the sleeping-place of the deadthe cemetery, if we trace that word to its root in Isa 57:2; 2Ch 16:14. In the rest of the verse Ezekiel reiterates what had been said in Verse 24 with an emphatic solemnity. In the Hebrew, as in the English, there is a constant variation in the pronouns used, now masculine, now feminine, now singular.
Eze 32:26
There is Meshech, Tubal. (On the ethnological relations of the two tribes, see note on Eze 27:13, and later on in Eze 38:1-23, and Eze 39:1-29.) Ezekiel obviously speaks of them as one of the powers that bad been conspicuous in his own time, and had been, in part at least, overthrown by the Chaldean monarchy. We may probably connect his words with the great irruption of the Scythians mentioned by Herodotus as having swept over Asia even to Palestine and Egypt, in the time of Josiah, and which, after compelling Cyaxares to raise the siege of Nineveh, left traces of itself in the name of the city of Scythe-polls. Many commentators find a reference to that invasion in the “evil from the north” of Jer 1:14; Jer 4:6; and in Zep 1:13-16. They also, once the terror of the nations, are now represented by the prophet as in the shadow-world of Sheol.
Eze 32:27
And they shall not lie with the mighty. The words seem at first to contradict Eze 32:26. The LXX. meets the difficulty by omitting the negative; Ewald and Havernick, by taking it as an interrogative, “Shall they not lie,” etc.? Probably the explanation is laying stress on the word “mighty.” Meshech and Tubal have a lower place in Hades; they are buried without the honors of war. Their swords are not placed beneath their heads (for the practice thus referred to, see Died. Sic; 18.26; Arrian, 1.5; Virg; ‘AEn.,’ 6.233). For the Scythians, who worshipped the sword (Herod; 1. 62), this would be the extremest ignominy. In this way their iniquities should be upon their bones as they lay dishonored.
Eze 32:28
Yea, thou shalt be broken. The words are obviously addressed to Pharaoh. He must prepare himself for a like doom. His place, proud as he was of his magnificence, shall be with the wild nomad hordes of Scythia.
Eze 32:29
There is Edom, her kings and her princes. (For the political relations of Edom at this time, see Eze 25:12-14.) Whatever shadow of power might yet remain to it, Ezekiel, from his standpoint, could yet declare that her greatness had departed. The exultation which the Edomites had shown over the fall of Jerusalem (Psa 137:7) would naturally tend to accentuate the prophet’s language. The “princes” of Edom are probably identical with the “dukes” of Gen 36:15-43 and 1Ch 1:51, where the word means literally the heads or captains of thousands, i.e. of tribes, as in Jdg 6:15 (comp. Zec 9:7; Zec 12:5).
Eze 32:30
There be the princes of the north. The noun for “princes” is different from that of Eze 32:29, and has the sense of “vassal rulers,” as in Jos 13:21; Mic 5:4. So we have the “kings of the north” in Jer 25:26. The fact that they are coupled with the Zidonians (it is suggestive that Ezekiel names these rather than the Tyrians) points in the direction of Northern Syria, including cities like Damascus, Hamath, Arpad, and others.
Eze 32:31
Shall be comforted, etc. (comp. for the thought, Eze 31:16). That shall be all that he will have to console him. As before, other nations were comforted by the downfall of Egypt, so Egypt in her turn finds her comfort in their downfall. All are sharers alike in the fiend-like temper which exults in the miseries of others. Ewald and Hitzig, here as there, take the word as in the sense of “mourning overse” As to the extent and manner in which the predictions of the chapter have been fulfilled, see notes on Ezekiel 29-31. Sufficient evidence has been given that Egypt was probably invaded and conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. The silence of the Greek historians, and notably of Herodotus, as to any such invasion goes for little or nothing. He could not read the Egyptian records, and derived his knowledge from the priests through an interpreter. They, after their manner, would draw a veil over all disasters, and so, while he records the revolution which placed Amasis upon the throne of Hophra, he is silent as to any invasion, and does not even mention the battle of Carchemish.
HOMILETICS
Eze 32:2, Eze 32:3
The lion in a net.
Pharaoh is compared both to a young lien and to a whale. The young lion has left his mark at the watering-place of the cattle. Therefore a net is spread for him, and he is entrapped.
I. THE GREATEST ERE UNDER THE POWER OF GOD. The lion is the king of beasts; the whale is the greatest sea-monster. Yet both are under the power of their Creator. Kings are subject to God. Successful rich men have not grown out of his reach. Men of great intellect are not able to outwit Heaven. The raging of the wicked will not save them. They may roar like lions; they may plunge like whales; but they cannot escape God’s net and hook. We are all entirely in the hands of God. It is a miserable thing that this thought should inspire terror, a happy thing when it only encourages confidence. The lions, fierce and strong as they are, cannot save themselves from the net; but the most helpless lambs of the flock are safe under their shepherd’s care. It is better to be God’s feeblest sheep than as the mightiest lions of the forest in opposition to God.
II. GOD CANNOT ENDURE THE SPIRIT OF DESTRUCTION. The lion ravages the flock; even when he is not doing this deadly work, he is represented as fouling the rivers. He is in all respects a mischief-maker. Then his lordly mien will not protect him. The great heathen empires incurred the wrath of Heaven for their rapacious destructiveness. If a man is injuring his fellow-men in body or soul, he will be treated by God as a beast of prey, hunted and netted and destroyed.
III. SIN MUST BE RESTRAINED. The lion is caught in a net. There he may rage and roar to his heart’s content, but he can do no more mischief. The best treatment of evil is to change the lion into the lamb. This is Christ’s method. The wild demoniac sits at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. But men will not always yield to the influence of Christ. They cannot then be left at large forever. There are two netsa gospel net (Mat 13:47) and a net of judgment. The latter is for those who have escaped the meshes of the former.
IV. SINNERS MAY BE ENTRAPPED UNAWARES. The lion would not enter the net knowingly. “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird” (Pro 1:17). But the net is hidden, and it ensnares its victim before he is aware of his danger. Souls are entrapped by their own sins. They fall into danger before they observe it. We cannot say that sin will go on unchecked and unpunished simply because we do not perceive any immediate signs of Divine interference. God has his hidden nets, fine as gossamer thread, strong as steel.
V. THE WORLD CONCURS IN THE OVERTHROW OF EVIL–DOERS. All the peoples help to ensnare the lion. The nations assist at the down-casting of Egypt. The selfish, cruel man may be thronged with flatterers in his prosperity. In his adversity he will be equally thronged with revengeful victims. It is a terrible thing to prepare hatred for the day of calamity. No fate excites less commiseration than that of a proud, selfish, heartless soul.
Eze 32:8
Lights darkened.
I. MAN CANNOT DISPENSE WITH LIGHTS OF HEAVEN. He may never look up. Yet he cannot live without the light that comes from over his head. In spiritual experience there are men who ignore the light above and the very existence of the heavenly world. Yet they are not the less largely dependent on those higher influences. If the sun were blotted out, all life on our globe would perish in darkness and coldthe world reduced to a block of silent frozen matter. If God were to withdraw, all being would come to an end.
II. THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN ARE DARKENED BY SIN. Sin eclipses the soul’s sun. It spreads black clouds between the offender and the heavenly regions. It shuts a man out from fellowship with God. This is its worst effect, though men may treat it lightly at first. The process is twofold.
1. Man is blinded. Though the sun shines in noonday splendor the blind man walks in midnight darkness. Now, sin puts out the eyes of the soul. It is like a red-hot iron that burns away the vision of spiritual things; then the bright lights of heaven are made black.
2. God withdraws his brightness. We pray that God may lift up the light of his countenance upon us. But he may do the reverse, and turn his face from us. He will not forever display his graciousness to heedless, rebellious souls.
III. THE DARKENING ON THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN BRINGS MANY GRIEVOUS CONSEQUENCES.
1. Knowledge is obscured. We cannot see truth when God’s light is with- drawn or when our souls are blinded to the perception of it. “In thy light we shall see light” (Psa 36:9). “Judicial blindness” must be a fearful fate.
2. Joy is extinguished. A gloomy day is depressing. Darkness brings sadness. When heaven is dark all sunshine vanishes from the Soul.
3. Life is threatened. The soul’s higher life Trows sickly and threatens to pass away in the darkness of separation from God.
IV. THERE IS A DARKENING OF THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF HEAVEN WHICH MAY COME IN THE COURSE OF THE SOUL‘S DISCIPLINE. There was darkness round the cross when Jesus was dying. Then in mysterious spiritual gloom he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mat 27:46). Earnest souls may have times of darkness, during which the vision of heaven is obscured, seasons of deep depression, when all that once seemed most real melts into the blackness of a great doubt.
V. CHRIST BRINGS A NEW LIGHT TO BENIGHTED SOULS. If we are dark now we need not remain in gloom forever. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isa 9:2). Christ came as “the Light that shineth in darkness,” as “the Light of the world.” Though the bright lights of heaven be made dark over us, they are not annihilated; they are but beclouded or at worst eclipsed. For all dim, bewildered, sorrow-laden souls there is the hope of light in Christ. But as sin brings on the deepest night of darkness, so it is by repentance and after-forgiveness that we can hope to see the darkness clear away and a new light from heaven arise to shine into our Souls.
Eze 32:9
(“I will also vex the hearts of many peoples”)
Vexation of heart.
I. THE GREATEST DISTRESS IS THAT WHICH IS CAUSED BY VEXATION OF HEART. Terrible reverses of fortune may be endured, and the millionaire may become a beggar, and yet the deepest sorrows may not be reached; for there are men who have proved themselves superior to their circumstances, and who have been able to look with a serene countenance on the wreck of their fortunes, because they have been possessed of interior sources of happiness. Bodily sickness which produces acute physical pain does not induce the greatest real sufferings. Not only have martyrs learnt to triumph at the stake, but patient, obscure sufferers have acquired peace and even joy while their bodies have been racked with torment. But when the heart is sore vexed the most terrible Sorrow is felt. This may be endured amid external circumstances of affluence, and then those circumstances appear but as gilded vanities, mocking the bitter grief that lurks within. We live in our hearts, and if our hears be sore and sorrowful, our lives are darkened with a distress that no outer comforts can cheer.
II. VEXATION OF HEART SPRINGS ESPECIALLY FROM LOSS AND DISAPPOINTMENT. We accustom ourselves to the usual, and do not grieve greatly over what we never had and never expected to possess. No man is much distressed at the thought that he is not a prince of the archangels. The simple peasant does not grieve because he is not the owner of a kingdom, as Alexander is said to have grieved because he could find no new worlds to conquer. The childless wife is not desolate as the mother whose baby has been snatched from her. The loss of the loved and the disappointment of cherished hopes are the greatest sources of vexation of heart. Now, we have all lost a great inheritance, we have missed our high Divine vocation. The sorrow of failure is at the root of the worst heartache. The old weary world groans without perceiving the cause of its anguish. Clearly something is wrong, for a good Creator would not have made a world for sorrow and disappointment. The great disillusion which at some time comes to every sanguine soul, and turns May into November, must have a cause. The world has suffered a great loss; it has met with a great disappointment. The first step is to have the courage to admit the fact, and not to be living in the optimism which the first touch of reality proves to be but a dream. The next is to discover the cause and to see that the loss is the loss of God, and the failure sin.
III. CHRIST HAS COME TO CURE VEXATION OF HEART. He may not help us to retrieve broken fortunes. “To the poor the gospel is preached”and yet they remain poor; he may not now restore health as he did during his earthly ministry. But he aims at the deepest trouble-he cures vexation of heart. To the laboring and heavy laden he gives rest. It is not his will that his people should go mourning all their days. The dim and faded life may be brightened and gladdened by the love of the great Savior. This is possible because Christ goes to the seat of the trouble, whereas most earthly comforters have only tried to smooth away the superficial symptoms. He finds the lost God. He restores man to his missed destiny. He slays the sin that is the worm at the root of the world’s life. He brings the heart-joy of life eternal in fellowship with God.
Eze 32:14
Still waters of death.
The waters of Egypt are to settle and so to be clean. From being a highway of commerce the Nile is to become an undisturbed inland river. The water-wheels shall be still, the splash of the oar shall be no more heard. The silent river shall be left to its own peacethe peace of death.
I. SIN DESTROYS CIVILIZATION. The river is the busy scene of Egyptian life and activity. Its waters will be quiet because Egypt will lose its energy. This is represented as the consequence of the nation’s wickedness. Consider how the process works.
1. Sin is anti-social. Civilization is the art of city-life. It is dependent on co-operation, division of labor, mutual ministries, and mutual confidence. All these things are shattered by the selfish and untrue conduct of sin.
2. Sin, is unaspiring. Civilization presses forward; essentially it seeks an advance. Sin may be greedy and grasping, and may incline men to seize much for themselves, but it does not inspire energy for general progress. It is depressing and discoursing.
3. Sin is essentially opposed to the laws of God. Now, no civilization can be secure and lasting that is not based on those laws. All corrupt civilization bears within it the seeds of its own destruction. The only “city which hath foundations” is the city of God, and this is “let down from heaven,” i.e. it is a city of which the constitution is Divine, and which embodies the idea of “the kingdom of heaven.”
II. IT IS WELL THAT A SINFUL CIVILIZATION SHOULD BE SHATTERED. The East is scored with the ruins of ancient empires. Today the scene of decay is melancholy and oppressive. Yet the sight of those old, bad empires in their flourishing days was far more sad to behold. They were seats of cruelty and haunts of vice. It is well that they have ceased to be. The hyenas and jackals that now infest their neglected temples and palaces are clean and innocent inhabitants compared with the lustful and murderous men who formerly lived there. The running sore of modern Christendom is in the condition of its great cities. The broken-down wrecks of civilization are far more degraded than the simple savages of the forest. It was good for the world that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, that great Nineveh became a lonely resort of lions of the desert, that the Egypt of the Pharaohs fell from her proud and wicked splendor. It wilt be well for modem civilization to be swept away if it becomes only secular, atheistic, and immoral.
III. THE RESULTS OF A SHATTERED CIVILIZATION WILL BE A PREPARATION FOR A BETTER FUTURE. The old foul Nile is to settle quietly and so become clear. Its once disturbed waters are to run smoothly like oil. These facts which occur in the list of calamities for Egyptand rightly, because they indicate the departure of the old, busy, populous life from its banks and its surfaceare nevertheless in themselves good. It is well that the river should be clear and run smoothly. The destruction of empires brings deliverance to oppressed subject races. The loss of civilization may be the gain of naturalness. There may be less wealth, but more welfare; less pleasure, but more peace. In silence and sorrow of soul people learn to look beneath the surface of life, the Egyptians in their desolation could look deep down into the still, smooth waters of the Nile. This may be a preparation for a holier new life in the future.
Eze 32:18
Sympathetic sorrow.
I. SYMPATHETIC SORROW IS CALLED FOR BY THE TROUBLES OF OUR FELLOW MEN. Ezekiel is told by God to wail for the multitude of Egypt. He had his own troubles among the disaffected Jews; but he was not to shut himself up in the selfishness of private distress. His nation was passing through a season of terrible experiences, many of his kinsfolk driven into exile, and the remaining inhabitants threatened with fresh war-cruelties. Yet, Jew as he was, Ezekiel was to find room in his heart for grief over the distresses of Egypt. It is inhuman not to be moved by a neighbor’s trouble. We ought to widen the area of our sympathy, and embrace in it the interests and troubles of foreign nations. If a Jew should wail for Egypt, should not a Christian wail for the evils of the world? Mansion House funds for various successive foreign needsPersian and China famines, etc.are among the healthiest signs of our times, and contain a better augury of the future of England than the high price of government stock. Individually we are called upon to grieve over our neighbor’s troubles.
II. SYMPATHETIC SORROW IS ESPECIALLY REQUIRED BY THE WORLD‘S SIN.
1. We should grieve more over sin than over external calamity. The gambling of England is a more sorrowful sight than the wreckage that strews our coast after a disastrous gale. We mourn for the death of the good and noble; we should mourn more for the life of the wicked and ignoble. Drunkenness is a worse evil than pauperism. Profligacy is infinitely more deplorable than poverty. Therefore people who think themselves happy and do not seek our commiseration may most need it.
2. We should grieve over sin rather than coldly condemn it. The sympathizer is himself a sinner. Many who have fallen most low have been most grievously tempted; but even when the kindest charity can discover no excuse, wickedness itself should be regarded as a miserable source of grief to all right-minded people. God pitied the sinner, and sent his Son to save him. Christ wept over Jerusalem. The Christian treatment of sin is to approach it with sympathetic sorrow.
III. SYMPATHETIC SORROW IS A MINISTERING ANGEL OF MERCY.
1. It is a source of consolation. Sympathy may comfort when no helping hand can relieve suffering. It is much to know that we are not alone, uncured for, and forgotten. The sympathy of God is offered to every distressed son of man. This is a type and pattern of what must be in the heart of every godly man.
2. It is an inspiration of deliverance. To be content to wail for the troubles of others, when by any effort or sacrifice we might alleviate those troubles, is to declare ourselves no better than hypocrites. Rich people who deplore the misery of their poor neighbors, and yet do nothing to relieve the burden of poverty, are guilty of shameful inconsistency and moral untruth. If they really grieved they would relieve. The first step is to feel the troubles of our fellow men; the next must be to do all in our power to help them. Happily in regard to spiritual troubles Christian people have a source of assistance to offer in the gospel of Christ.
Eze 32:18-30
The world of the dead.
“The strong among the mighty” are the inhabitants of the under-world who once were kings and heroes on earth. Now those monarchs of the dead stir themselves as they see great Pharaoh coming to join their company, and prepare to give him a stately though a gloomy welcome.
I. THERE IS A WORLD WHERE THE DEAD YET LIVE. This world only appeared to be a realm of shades and desolation to the Jews of Old Testament times. For those who have not the life of Christ in them the New Testament offers a worse prospect. Yet that some world of departed spirits exists is taught in the Old Testament as well as in the New. This agrees with the almost universal belief of man in all ages and of all nations and of most religions. There seems to be implanted in us an instinct of immortality. We cannot escape from some conception of a hereafter.
II. IT IS OF SOME IMPORTANCE THAT WE SHOULD CONSIDER OUR RELATION TO THE WORLD OF THE DEAD. Religion is primarily for this life, to help us to do our daily duty. But it also bears on the future. We cannot but feel that our life is swiftly fleeting. Every year brings us nearer to the great mystery. We know full well that every soul among us will soon solve the awful riddle of futurity. Surely, then, it is of some moment that we should stand in right relations with the world of the dead, if only we can know what those relations should be.
III. GOD RULES OVER THE REALMS OF THE DEAD. The psalmist, when meditating on the Divine omnipresence, exclaimed, “If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there” (Psa 139:8).
1. Therefore it is vain to hope to escape from God by the gate of death. The suicide is mistaken if he thinks he will elude the grasp of the great Avenger.
2. God will maintain order and justice in the realm of the dead. Bad souls do not descend into a Miltonic hell, ruled over by Satan and his crew, at whose mercy they must be without the interference of God. Such a pandemonium does not exist. As far as the Bible is a guide on the subject, there seems to be a solemn order in the regions of the dead. The confusion of earth does not reach the silent realms on the other side of the dark river. If we would be well dealt with there, we must be right and straight with God’s justice here.
IV. THE REALM OF THE DEAD WILL BE A DOLEFUL PLACE FOR THE SINNER. The old delights will all be extinguished. The worldly store will be left behind. If the soul has no better treasure, it will be starved and beggared. The strongest and most exalted on earth will find that their power and rank are utterly gone. There kings lie low. The guilty soul will stand naked, with all its sin exposed. There will be no shelter from wrath and punishment. Christ alone can save us from this doleful prospect, by giving us his life eternal.
V. THE WORLD WILL WEAR A NEW ASPECT WHEN VIEWED FROM THE REALM OF THE DEAD. Seen from the sun, the earth must appear to be a very small planet. Many great interests, delights, and distresses of earth must seem but poor child’s play to the large sad eyes of death, but spiritual experiences must seem intensely real. Yet every man will be himself still. Pharaoh is recognized. The future is linked on to the past; it will look back on the past, and gravely judge it.
Eze 32:27
(“Their iniquities shall be upon their bones”)
Indelible sin.
The idea seems to be that the guilty Egyptians shall not have honorable burial like that of the kings and princes who have been laid in the tombs with their weapons of war by their sidea token that they may yet roam as great fighting heroes through the dim regions of the nether world. The Egyptians are forbidden this prospect. They who of all people cared for the preservation of the bodies of the dead, by embalming and burying in huge pyramids, are to have their bones flung in a heap like a confused mass of corpses hurriedly gathered together from a battle-field. This is a punishment of sin.
I. SIN ONCE COMMITTED REMAINS WITH THE SINNER. Our own deeds are our lasting possession. We may lose all else and still not lose them. In the exciting moment of temptation the foolish fancy is entertained that the sin may be quickly committed and then left behind. The sinner will flee from his guilt and leave it in the dark depths of some distant forest. Alas! this is impossible. The awful thing pursues its maker into the wilderness, into the city, into the sacred sanctuary of the home.
II. SIN ENTERS DEEPLY INTO THE NATURE OF THE SINNER. It is not merely a deed of the hand. If it were that only it would have no moral character. But it springs from the inner being, and it comes home to roost. Though the flesh be scraped from the bones, still the sin remains, as though cleaving to the very skeletonit is so close a companion, its seat is so terribly centered within.
III. SIN PURSUES THE SINNER AFTER DEATH. The sinner does not carry his wealth with him, but he carries his wickedness. His estate must be left behind, his iniquity will accompany him. His body he must cast off, but he cannot cast off his sin. The man and his sin will enter into the dread world of the dead together, there to be judged by God, there to reap the consequences of their fearful partnership.
IV. NO HUMAN EXPERIENCE CAN REMOVE SIN. Iniquities lying on the very bones of the dead! Who shall tear them off and fling them away? Tears will not wash them out, for tears cannot undo the past. Amendment will not destroy them, for even if that be possible, it is wholly a thing of the future, it does not touch the record of the past.
V. CHRIST BLOTS OUT SIN THAT IS OTHERWISE INDELIBLE. He cannot deny history, turn back the wheels of time and unknit the web of the past. But he can and he does offer pardon. When sin is forgiven God will remember it no more against the sinner (Jer 31:34). With pardon Christ also brings a new heart and life. The new inner life has had nothing to do with the old sin. It makes a fresh start unhampered with the ugly burden of the past. This great result is brought about on Christ’s side by his death and resurrection (Rom 4:25), and on our side through penitence and faith (Act 3:19).
Eze 32:31
Pharaoh comforted.
After his death Pharaoh is comforted by what he beholds of his companions in the realm of departed spirits. He sees that the great ones who preceded him are as badly off as he is. Those kings and princes were not his enemies; they were his allies. Therefore Pharaoh could scarcely gain comfort from a malignant satisfaction in seeing them degraded. Accordingly, Hengstenberg understands the passage to say that Pharaoh sighs. But might he not find some consolation in the perception that he was not alone in his calamity.
I. THERE MAY BE SOME MITIGATION OF THE FUTURE SUFFERINGS OF SINNERS. This is a dark and mysterious subjectone about which it is very unwise to dogmatize. Still, we cannot but remember that the same merciful God who rules on earth also reigns over all the realms of the dead. Certainly we have the assurance of Christ that all will not suffer equally; some will be beaten with many stripes, and others with few stripes (Luk 12:47, Luk 12:48).
II. THE JUSTICE OF GOD SHOULD BE A CONSOLATION IN VIEW OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT. God will never exceed what is right. All his dealings will be fair and equable. His aim will be to maintain goodness, not to wreak personal vengeance on his victims. We should feel that righteousness is the supreme end of all things. The vision of sin is dark and dreadful. If there be any lightening of its gloom this must be seen in the fact that the Almighty God has set his hand to destroy it.
III. THE UNIVERSALITY OF DEATH SUGGESTS THE BELIEF THAT IT FALLS IN WITH THE DIVINE ORDER OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. It may be said that, just as sin is universal through man’s own fault, so death is universal as the consequence of sin. Death in its horror is associated with sin: “The sting of death is sin” (1Co 15:56). But physiologically, death belongs to the order of nature. Everything that lives dies. We regard this fact with distress when it touches our friends, and perhaps with dread when it approaches ourselves. But we should learn to trust God, who orders all things well.
“Like as the damask rose you see,
Or like the blossom on the tree,
Or like the dainty flower in May,
Or like the morning of the day,
Or like the sun, or like the shade,
Or like the gourd which Jonah had,
E’en such is man; whose thread is spun,
Drawn out, and cut, and so is done.
The rose withers, the blossom blasteth;
The flower fades, the morning hasteth;
The sun sets, the shadow flies;
The gourd consumesand man he dies!”
(Simon Wastell.)
IV. THE DEEPEST COMFORT IN VIEW OF DEATH IS ONLY TO BE DRAWN FROM FAITH IN CHRIST. All else leaves but a desolate prospect at best. But Christ sheds a glorious light on the realm beyond. For those who trust and follow him death has lost its terrors. The grim under-world is transferred into a peaceful sleep, from which to awake in Christ. “I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (Joh 11:25).
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 32:2
The noxiousness of a sinful nation.
In order to justify the humiliation and the calamities appointed for Egypt, the prophet mentions the evil which the king and people of that land have committed, and which an omniscient and righteous Ruler cannot possibly pass unnoticed and unrebuked. According to his metaphorical habit, Ezekiel pictures Egypt as a young and ravening lion, seizing and devouring prey; as a dragon or crocodile, troubling the waters with its feet, and fouling the rivers. Such creatures are regarded by men as noxious, and as fit to be seized and destroyed.
I. THE CAUSE OF A NATION‘S MORAL NOXIOUSNESS. The ultimate cause, recognized by inquirers who penetrate beneath the surface, is estrangement from God, a spirit of rebelliousness against God, leading to the violation of Divine Law and defiance of Divine authority.
II. THE MANIFESTATIONS OF A NATION‘S MORAL NOXIOUSNESS.
1. An ungodly people is its own enemy. Its irreligiousness reacts upon itself, and saps the springs of national life.
2. Its example is injurious to surrounding peoples, who are in danger of being corrupted thereby; for “evil communications corrupt good manners.”
3. Mischief is done by unprincipled states by fostering discord, suspicion, and war. The weak are oppressed, and powerful rivals are provoked to hostilities. The peace of the world is ever threatened by ambitious, aggressive, and quarrelsome nations.
III. THE PUNISHMENT OF A NATION‘S NOXIOUSNESS. In the figurative language of Ezekiel, the dragon is captured, dragged to the shore, and suffered to die, so that its flesh is left to be consumed by birds and beasts, and its blood is mingled with the waters of the rivers. By this it is intimated that Egypt, as a punishment for the evil and mischief it has wrought, shall be brought low, its power crippled, and its glory dimmed.T.
Eze 32:7-10
The sympathy of nature and of man with a fallen people.
The greatness of the catastrophe by which Egypt is to be overwhelmed is depicted by the prophet in a strikings, and poetical manner. It is represented that an impression is made thereby upon the heavenly bodies by which the earth is illumined, and upon the nations and kings who are astonished witnesses of the overthrow of one of the greatest monarchies of the world.
I. THE LUMINARIES OF THE DAY AND OF THE NIGHT VEIL THEIR SPLENDOUR AND WITHDRAW THEIR SHINING. The Scriptures teach us that all nature is a vehicle for the manifestation of Divine attributes, and that creation, in a very real sense, is one. Hence the sympathy appointed between nature and humanity. When men’s sins are grievous, the floods cover the earth and sweep its guilty inhabitants into destruction. When the children of light strive in battle with the children of darkness, the sun stands still to prolong the hours of victory and pursuit. When the Savior expires upon the cross, it is amidst thick darkness. When the Holy Spirit is given, it is with the rush of wind and with lambent flames. These are but some instances of the part which nature plays in human history. No wonder, then, that when the Almighty, by the hand of his servant Nebuchadnezzar, smites Egypt to its fall, the sun, the moon, and the stars should be represented as withholding their light, as weeping over the calamities of one of the greatest of human powers.
II. THE PEOPLES AND THEIR KINGS ARE AMAZED AND TREMBLE AS FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY.
1. They experience a natural compassion for fallen greatness; it is a spectacle fitted to melt every heart. Envy and hatred vanish in the presence of misfortune so appalling.
2. They feel themselves in the presence of a supernatural power, which is righteousness taking the form of judicial interposition. The consciousness of the nearness and action of such a power is enough to rouse any nation from insensibility, secularity, and unspirituality. The hand of God is seen and the voice of God is heard. The Lord himself is near.
3. They mingle with the general apprehension of the activity of supernatural justice a certain apprehension and fear with regard to themselves. Have they not shared in some measure Egypt’s sin? Have they not reason to dread Egypt’s punishment? Who are they that they should be exempt from the retributive justice of the Eternal? The sword is brandished before them: may it not smite them? They tremble every man for his own life.T.
Eze 32:11, Eze 32:12
The sword the implement of Divine judgment.
The sword has been a mighty factor in human history. However peace and harmony may be the ideal state of human society, the chronicles of the past and the observation of the present concur to assure us that there are elements in man’s nature which will surely reveal themselves in hostility and in mutual ill will, in bloodshed, and in violent death. Nation rises against nation. The sword is drawn, and is only sheathed when one combatant is constrained to submit to the superior power of the other.
I. THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH THE SWORD OF THE MIGHTY CONQUEROR IS THE SWORD OF GOD HIMSELF. When the King of Babylon attacked the King of Egypt, there is no doubt he was actuated by motives of hostility, of personal ambition, perhaps of revenge. But for all this, and although he knew it not, he was the minister of God, was doing God’s work, executing God’s purposes. The Almighty can overrule the wrathful passions of men to bring about the objects he desires to compass.
II. THE SWORD OF THE CONQUEROR IS THE SYMBOL OF SUPREME POWER. Men talk of submitting matters to the arbitrament of the sword, implying that there is no possibility of going behind and beyond this. In all earthly government physical force is the Ultimate resource; it may not be brought prominently forward, but it lies in the background, to be used when necessary. God’s power controls and rules the nations; he cannot be resisted. “The nations are as nothing before him; they are counted as less than nothing and vanity;” “Let not the rebellious exalt themselves!”
III. THE CONQUEROR‘S SWORD IS THE EMBLEM OF THE EXECUTION OF DIVINE JUSTICE. We speak of the sword of the magistrate, as well as of the sword of the soldier: “He beareth not the sword in vain.” There is certainly no allusion in this prophetic passage to judicial functions, if they are understood to be distinct from military operations. Yet in God’s hand the sword is not a weapon of violence, far less of injustice. He never smites vindictively, but always as a righteous Ruler and an impartial Judge. Even in warfare he is exercising a magisterial as well as a military office and power. His sword subdues the rebel, corrects the offender, and establishes the rule of justice, and brings about the purposes of equitable and happy peace.T.
Eze 32:17-32
The gathering of the guilty nations in Hades.
This vision of the poet-prophet is one of the boldest and most sublime in the whole compass of literature. As a lofty flight of imagination it excites the wonder and admiration of every reader gifted with poetical appreciation. Ezekiel is bringing to a close his prophecies regarding the nations by which the land of Israel was encompassed. How far from the narrowness and the lack of sympathy sometimes attributed to the Hebrews was the prophet of the Oriental captivity! How wide the sweep of his vision! How ready his sympathy for the fate of other peoples than his own! And, above all, how sublime: his conception of the unity and the true immortality of the human race! As he was not limited by space, but interested himself in the territories and the dominions of distant monarchs, so he disdained the bounds of time, passed beyond this scene of discipline and probation, and anticipated the community of the heathen nations in the realm of Hades. There his prophetic spirit beheld Pharaoh and his people surrounded by the kings and armies and multitudes from other lands, participating in a just and common fate.
I. THE COMMON SIN OF THE NATIONS. Of all those mentioned by the prophet, it may be said that they were unfaithful to their trust, and incurred the just displeasure of the Ruler of the universe.
1. They had all forgotten God, for it is in this light that we must view their idolatry.
2. They had all sought their own aggrandizement and glory rather than the life of righteousness.
3. They had all been rapacious, violent, and unscrupulous in their treatment of neighboring peoples.
II. THE COMMON DOOM OF THE NATIONS. It is said of one after another of these guilty states, that they were all slain with the sword, and bore their shame with them that go down to the pit, to the midst of Sheol. It is said that “their iniquities were upon their bones” by which we may understand that their sin clave to them, that they were counted responsible for it, and were required to bear the penalties attaching to it. It would be absurd to attempt a precise explanation of the poetical language of this splendid vision, which is utterly insusceptible of logical analysis. It expresses the mood of the inspired prophet; it conveys a great moral truth; it aids us in the appreciation of national continuity and vitality; it brings powerfully before our mind the amenability of governments and states to the moral law and jurisdiction of the Eternal Righteousness.
III. THE COMMON WOE AND LAMENTATION OF THE NATIONS. “Son of man,” said the Lord, “wail for the multitude of Egypt.” Although the nations are represented as lying still in the depths of Sheoltheir swords under their headsyet they are represented as in some measure conscious; Pharaoh of Egypt being “comforted” at the awful approach of his compeers in pride and terror, and the Zidonians as ashamed because of their sin and its recompense. Mourning and lamentation must ensue upon sin, even though during its commission there be insensibility and obduracy.
IV. THE COMMON TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. The fate of the colossal world empires of antiquity has preached, in tones of power and in terms of unmistakable precision, to the after-times. These nations, in their worldly pride and in their providential fall, have taught mankind that there is but one sure foundation for a people’s well-being, and that those who build upon another foundation are doomed to fall. God himself is the Source of true national life and prosperity. Where he is repudiated or forgotten, ruin is sure. Where he is honored and obeyed, there and there only will there prevail progress and stability and peace.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 32:1-10
Judgment on a proud king.
The mightiest king is not irresponsible. Although he may find no authority on earth to exercise control over him, he shall find that an unseen Power holds him in check, and chastises his oppressions. From the ubiquity of God’s scepter he cannot escape. We have here described
I. A MONSTER OF MISCHIEF. He is represented as “a young lion of the nations,” as “a whale in the seas.” He is noteworthy, not for intellectual or manly qualities, but merely for animal strength and violence. This is ignoble and infamous. This is to degrade one’s self. He who was created to be a ruler over the animal tribes lowers himself to be their equal. His crown is gone. To do good is worthy of a man; to do mischief is beast-like. “Thou troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.” It is easy to do mischief; it is tenfold harder to do permanent good. Amaniac can destroy in an hour what a man of genius has taken long years to create. The king who devotes himself to aggressive warfare lowers himself to the level of a beast. A lion of the forest does the same.
II. HIS HUMILIATING CAPTURE. “I will therefore spread out my net over thee.” The man who has been a firebrand among the nations, a pestilent destroyer, God often takes, with facility, in one of his nets. In the net of bodily disease King Herod was taken”was eaten up of worms, and died.” Sometimes God captures men by means of their own vices. Their lust or their drunkenness hath slain them. Sometimes God uses the plot of a conspirator, the intrigue of a palace cabal. Sometimes God uses the simplest agency of nature, as when the snow-flakes overwhelmed Napoleon’s army, and defeated his purpose. A change of wind is sufficient to capture the royal monster, as when God turned the waves of the Red Sea over Pharaoh and his host. It is the height of folly for a king to be self. willed or to lose sight of the King of kings.
III. HIS COMPLETE DESTRUCTION. “I will cast thee forth upon the open field.” The figure is maintained, viz. that the dead carcass of the monster shall lie unburied in the open field. This is not spoken of the person of Pharaoh, but of his imperial power, his existence as a monarch. His rule was to be destroyed. His crown and scepter should pass into hostile hands. Improbable as this event seemed at the moment of Ezekiel’s announcement, it nevertheless came to pass. The dynasty of the Pharaohs ceased. The line of the Ptolemies occupied the throne. The improbable very frequently becomes the actual.
IV. NOTORIOUS DISHONOR. “I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.” The extreme idea of degradation and infamy is here delineated. Men crave for posthumous fame. They yearn to have a place of honor in the memory of coming generations. For the lifeless body to be treated with insult and neglect is a perpetual dishonor. Still greater is the dishonor when precious human blood is poured out, as a worthless thing, to irrigate the soil. Herein is the old doctrine confirmed, “They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” In silent, unexpected methods God vindicates himself,
V. HIS FUNERAL DIRGE. “I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.” The inanimate objects of nature are poetically described as sympathizing with the doleful event. Man and nature are linked together. Man’s fall was felt throughout the natural world. “The whole creation groaneth and travalleth together in pain until now.” Man’s recovery wilt be the consummation of nature’s joy. “Then shall all the trees of the field rejoice;” “There shall be new heavens and a new earth.” If only to give to men a livelier impression of the greatness of the disaster in Egypt, the luminaries of heaven are supposed to hide their faces in a mantle. In Egypt the light of the sun and of the moon are most brilliant. Seldom ever is a cloud seen. Hence the singular occurrence of sudden darkness would leave a deeper effect upon the human mind. The distant stars are moved by man’s rise or fall.
VI. A WORLD–WIDE SHOCK. “I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee.” Pharaoh had seemed to be the highest embodiment of strength. His army had been prodigious. The desert on every side had been a rampart of defense. His power was well-establishedhad been of long continuance. His scepter had wide renown. If he fell, who can stand? where could safety be found? A sense of insecurity shock every monarch. Every man’s life seemed to tremble in a balance. Distant nations heard the news of Pharaoh’s fall with bated breath. Clearly a tremendous power hovered about them, all the more to be dreaded because unseen. Each man felt that he might be the next to be stricken down. All human calculations failed. Calm self-possession, in all seasons, is the special heritage of the godly.D.
Eze 32:11-16
The downfall of one involves the downfall of many.
Every man is linked to society by organic ties. A king especially holds an important and responsible place. He is the key-stone of the arch. “No man liveth unto himself.” He lifts others up or drags others down. He goes not to heaven, nor to hell, alone.
I. WAR IS THE SCOURGE IN GOD‘S HAND. “By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitudes to fall.” Even the angry passions of men God utilizes for righteous purposes. However reluctant, the devil shall become his servant. Sin shall illustrate the splendors of his grace. His amazing power shall form and mould all things to his will. The cruel sword shall serve to establish the empire of universal peace.
II. ONE MAN‘S DESTRUCTION INCLUDES TEN THOUSAND OTHERS. Every man is, in greater measure or less, a moral magnet. The fall of a great commercial house brings down to ruin smaller enterprises. The bankruptcy of an employer of labor brings loss to all his servants. If the commander-in-chief falls in battle, the entire army is weakened. If a throne is overturned, all the inhabitants of the land suffer. We are bound each to each by manifold ties, and influence each other’s destiny. A sense of responsibility should lend dignity to all our words and actions.
III. HUMAN DESTRUCTION IS MEASURED IN NATURE‘S DESOLATION. “I will destroy all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters;” “The country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full.” Under man’s care, cattle increase, and the fields become trebly fertile. But if the inhabitants are swept off by the sword, domestic cattle disappear, and wild beasts roam at large. The land, uncultivated, cannot maintain the flecks. Desolation spreads far and wide. Barrenness appears where formerly plenty smiled. The face of nature mourns in sympathy with ruined man.
IV. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS WELL PURCHASED WITH THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS. “When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, then shall they know that I am the Lord.” All knowledge is power, but the knowledge of God is power of the highest kind; it is life. To know God is practical wisdom; it is the only path to safety, elevation, and honor. If the issue of suffering, loss, or defeat in battle be to gain the knowledge of God, then, however great the outlay, the reward is amply satisfying. To know God is the way to obtain likeness to God; and this is the supreme privilege of every man. This is wealth that is abiding, joy that is eternal: honor that never fades.
V. SEVERE DISASTER BRINGS INTO VIEW THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. “The daughters of the nations shall lament her.” The prosperity of a man or of a nation often excites envy. But distress awakens compassion. The sight of suffering moves into action the better part of human nature; it awakens the deepest feelings of the soul. In a time of great disaster, men forget their rivalries and hostilities, and, by their deeds, proclaim the oneness of the human family. Such sympathy in suffering has a benign and purifying influence on human nature. The night-dew is a preparation for higher fertility and beauty in the garden, both in nature and in the soul.D.
Eze 32:17-32
Companionship in woe.
The prophet is a man of power. He is a king bearing an invisible scepter. As a monarch wields only a borrowed powera power lent by Godso a true prophet is God’s vicegerent. Here he unfolds a terrible vision, the outline of a woeful reality. He leads the Egyptian king to the mouth of a vast abyss, in which lie multitudes of the vanquished and the slain. He is invited to contemplate the condition of those thus dishonored by the King of Babylon. And he is forewarned that such will be his doom. Escape was just possible, but it was almost a forlorn hope.
I. DUTY OFTTIMES IS EXCEEDINGLY PAINFUL. God’s servant is called upon to wail He is even an agent, though a subordinate agent, in casting king and people into the abyss of death. He is under obligation to act for God. The path of duty is often severely rugged; yet no other path is smoother, though another path may seem to be. The course of righteousness will be in the end peace, but in the process there is strife and hard discipline. The harvest will be plentiful, but severe exertion is required, and faith is put to the strain. The pain of travail must precede the joy of young life. Through toil we pass to honor.
II. SIN ALWAYS LEADS TO TERRIBLE DEGRADATION. Sin is already real degradation, although very often men do not see it. But the disease will appear by-and-by on the exterior circumstance. The seed will come to the fruitage. Sin is no “respecter of persons.” Even “the daughters of the famous nations”eminent for strength and beauty”shall be cast down into the nether parts of the earth.” There shall be visible a terrible downfall, an unmitigated degradation. As the lower orders of creatures cannot sin, neither can they suffer such degradation. The balances are in the hands of supreme justice, and the hour of final retribution draws on apace.
“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.”
III. SELF–ESTEEM IS NO SAFEGUARD AGAINST JUST RETRIBUTION. “Whom dost thou pass in beauty? Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised” The spirit of vanity may tempt us to say, “We are better than they. The doom of others will not be our doom” It is marvelous how men are taken in the web of self-deception. Yet no external circumstance has ever yet saved men from the effects of unrighteousness. Riches have not saved them. The beauty of Cleopatra did not protect her from a terrible doom. The honor of our contemporaries cannot save us. Posterity will easily reverse the present judgment of men, and the hand of justice will tear in pieces our flimsy reputation. Present fame may be future disgrace.
IV. ASSOCIATION WITH OTHERS WILL BE DETERMINED BY MORAL AFFINITIES. In the present state, men are associated by natural affinities and by external circumstances. But such arrangements are temporary and provisional only. Children nursed at the same breast and fed at the same table will have their final portion as separate as the poles asunder. Now kings consort with kings, nobles with nobles, poets with poets; but in the final apportionment, the righteous of every social grade will consort with the righteous; vile kings will consort with vile beggars. Earthly circumstance and pomp will have disappeared. Only moral distinctions will remain. Association in sin must terminate by association in woe. Human beings and all beings gravitate to that state for which they are fitted. No affinities are so deep and strong as moral affinities, and, though for a time suppressed, they will by-and-by be uppermost.
V. THE RUIN OF OTHERS IS IMPOTENT TO DETER FROM SIN. “The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell” If only men would be warned by the fall and ruin of others, we might hope that all future generations of mankind would be saved. There are beacons without number to frighten men away from the rocks and quicksands of peril, yet all to no purpose. We think others to be in peril, not ourselves. Alas! “the heart is deceitful above all things.” Nothing will turn us away from the fascinating eye of sin but the working of almighty grace within. Beacons become to us what scarecrows do to birdsthey soon cease to alarm.
VI. SELF–INFLATION IS THE PRELUDE TO ETERNAL SHAME. “They were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living;” “With their terror, they are [now] ashamed of their might.” After all, what a frail reed is the mightiest scepter or the most martial arm! What real weakness is at the heart of him who brandishes the gory sword! Like the frog who attempted to inflate himself to the magnitude of an ox, so the paltry man who assays to play the tyrant soon collapses. One sharp prick, and the windbag soon collapses. As a child feels overwhelmed with shame when he sees in the clear light of morning the tree or the gate-pest that terrified him in the darkness; so men at length discover the emptiness of the monarch, whose frown was for a moment their terror. All pretence to power and authority shall presently be hurled to the ground, ay, cast into the pit of oblivion. All real power shall abide.
VII. GOD‘S TERROR IS SUPREME OVER MAN‘S. “I have caused my terror in the land of the living.” There is such a thing as power in the universean infinite powerbefore which it becomes every man to tremble; but this power is in the hand of God. “Jehovah reigneth, therefore let the people tremble.” “Before him the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers; they are like the small dust of the balance.” His power is real, all-pervading, all-enduring. No being in the universe can diminish it nor resist it. Being a real power, it is becoming that it should inspire us with awe. The terror which tyrants and warriors awaken is only for a moment. The sham soon gets exposed. But presently the King of kings will make even tyrants shake, and the hearts of warriors melt. “Vengeance is mine,” saith God; “I will repay.” When Jehovah appears, tyrants hide themselves “in dens and caves of the earth.”
“Fear him, ye saints, and ye will then
Have nothing else to fear.”
D.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Eze 32:1-10
God’s teaching in history.
As the prophet continues his utterance in the same strain, our thought is directed to the same class of truths, and we learn
I. THAT GREAT SINNERS ARE GREAT TROUBLERS. Egypt was a young lion among the nations, fierce, dangerous, dreaded (Eze 32:2). It was a crocodile in the river, “breaking forth,” “troubling the waters,” and “fouling” them (Eze 32:2). Great cities like Rome and Sparta, powerful kingdoms like Assyria anti Egypt, strong men like Scylla and Napoleon, have been sad troublers of their time. They have been invaders of territory, destroyers of institutions, disturbers of domestic life. And whenever strength is found dissociated from Christian principle and the Christian spirit, there must always be grave danger of trouble. To propound their own notions, to contrive their own comfort, to extend their own influence, unprincipled or selfish men will use their strength to disturb their neighbors’ peace, reckless of the good they are undoing and of the misery and mischief they are causing.
II. THAT THEY FIND THEMSELVES DEFEATED IN THE END. God spreads out his net (Eze 32:3), and the raging animal, the powerful fish, is taken in it. In the height of their power great nations and strong men imagine themselves to be absolutely secure, and they laugh at the designs of their enemies. But they do not know what forces are at work either within or around them; and they do not calculate that there is One who is working above them and against them. And as surely as the night follows the day, the hour of darkness will come to those who use the light of heaven to abuse their privileges and to wrong their fellow-men. Defeat and calamity await them. And sometimes it will be found
III. THAT PALPABLE DISCOMFITURE SUCCEEDS DEFEAT. This great dragon of the deep could not be buried out of sight; its carcass was “upon the green field,” “laid upon the mountains,” and “filling the valleys,” even” watering the laud with its blood” (Eze 32:4-6). It could not be hidden; the ruin of the once proud kingdom should be
“Gross as a mountain, open, palpable.”
Every eye should see it, every tongue should talk about it. Let men who are now prominent in power take heed lest they should become conspicuous for shame and for destitution, lest the name that is now on the lip of praise should be branded with dishonor. Unrighteousness, impurity, and selfish cruelty, when they have run their guilty and wretched course, will be held up before the eyes of men to receive the execration they deserve. The false divinity of today will be the fiend of tomorrow.
IV. THAT THE DISCOMFITURE OF ONE MAY MEAN THE CONFUSION OF MANY. When Egypt’s light went out, the world immediately around it would be in darkness; all those who were walking in its light would be utterly benighted and confused (Eze 32:7, Eze 32:8). If we live in no better and no more enduring light than that of a very strong but unprincipled power, we may prepare for utter darkness before long. Our light will be extinguished; we shall lose our guide, and grope our way miserably. Well it is for those who choose the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, that in the beams of his Divine truth they may rejoice all the day, may do their life-work, may “have light at eventide,” and may be ready for a still brighter and everlasting morning under other skies.C.
Eze 32:13, Eze 32:14
The unvisited river; or, life at a low level.
The great river appropriately represented the great nation which it enriched; and the picture of the fall of the kingdom includes the desertion of the banks of these “great waters” by man and beast (Eze 32:14); and also the sinking of the river itself: “Then will I cause their waters to subside” (Fairbairn’s translation). Such a river as the Nile may well illustrate
I. A NOBLE LIFE. It is a source of beauty and fertility, and therefore of enrichment, to the land through which it runs. Itself an object of delight to the eye, it is the source of verdure all along its banks. By its overflow, or through simple agricultural appliances, it waters the whole district in which it flows, and makes all the difference between barrenness and abundance. Thousands of animals drink of it and bathe in it, while the inhabitants of town and village flock to its banks in their various necessities. A noble human life may be all this in a higher sphere.
1. It may add very considerably to that spiritual worth and beauty on which Christ looks down with Divine satisfaction.
2. It may be the source of all kinds of goodof health, of sustenance, of knowledge, of wisdom, of purity, of piety; of life at its best below, of the beginning of the life eternal.
3. It is a constant source of blessing. As the river runs, not spasmodically, but night and day, continually sending forth its refreshing and nourishing moisture into the land, so a true, Christian life is incessantly and unconsciously communicating good, in many forms, to those around it.
II. A LIFE PITIFULLY REDUCED. A very pitiful sight would be a river in such a state as that here imagined (rather than foreseen). Instead of being what it once was, it is now to the prophet’s eye a diminished stream, its waters are low (not deep, but sunk; “the verb is properly to ‘sink'”), and lie far beneath its banks; and they am such that no beast cares to drink of them; no man approaches to use them for the purposes of human life, whether of nourishment or of cleansing. The river is useless, worthless, abandoned to itself. How much more pitiable is the life that has been reduced; the life that has sunk, that moves not any longer on the higher plane of heavenly wisdom, but only on the low and muddy levels of selfishness, of covetousness, of a base indulgence; the life that has shriveled up into a poor dirty stream, no longer reflecting the beauty that is about it or the glory that is above it; the life that is unvisited, that no man cares to consult, by which no virtuous man directs his own, from which no man gains any strength, or impetus, or pure refreshment, which does no man any spiritual good; the life that is severely left alone!
III. THE CAUSE OF ITS DECLINE. If any river be thus actually reduced (as in Ezekiel’s thought), it is because it is no longer fed as it once was by the rains of heaven. If a noble human life is thus reduced, it is because it is no longer supplied from above. It lacks the truth, the influences, the sustaining power, which should come to it from God. These may be cut off by some serious sin; or they may be withdrawn because we no longer keep open the channels through which they come.
1. Keep the mind open to all Divine wisdom and the heart to all holy influences.
2. Draw down the renewing rains of Heaven by constant communion and earnest prayer.
3. See that no “great transgression” diverts the waters; and the river of our life will flow on to the sea, without loss to its beauty or its power.C.
Eze 32:17-32
A vision of the unseen world.
In this highly figurative prophetic utterance we have
I. THE PROPHET‘S VISION ITSELF. He sees Egypt taking her place, as a fallen power, amongst the departed in the nether world. Nothing could save her; there was no reason why she should not go down as other guilty powers had done, “Whom did she pass in beauty?” (Eze 32:19). No distinction could be made in her case; she must “go down and be laid with the uncircumcised” (Eze 32:19), “she and all her multitude” (Eze 32:20). “The strong amongst the mighty” (in Shoal) give the latest comer welcome (Eze 32:21). Assyria, with all tier company, is there to greet her; there, too, is Persia (Elam), and there is Scythia (Eze 32:26), with “their swords under their heads, but their iniquities upon their bones (Eze 32:27); Edom also is there, with her kings and princes, and “all the Zidonians, gone down with the slain.” The old kingdoms that arose and that were sustained by violence have “perished with the sword” (Mat 26:52), and the prophet of Jehovah is commissioned to” cast down Pharaoh” (Eze 32:18) into “the nether parts of the earth” with them.
1. It is Egypt’s sad fate to be discrowned of her power, as a mighty monarchy, to come down from her high place of honor and of command, to suffer an humiliating prostration from which she could have no hope of recovering.
2. It was Egypt’s comfort that, in this descent, she would take her place amongst the greatest and strongest powers that once were upon the earth, but that had “gone down” to the shades. Pharaoh should see these, “and be comforted.” She would not suffer alone.
II. ITS HISTORICAL PARALLEL. Those who have lived as God’s servants, and have cared for the cause of righteousness, for the kingdom of God, have watched that they might witness the working of his hand among the great kingdoms of the earth. And they have seen that issue which Ezekiel here foretells concerning Egypt. They have seen great empires, rich and flourishing cities, powerful republics, that once “stood strong and even claimed to be immortal, broken under the weight of their iniquities, burdened with their wealth and all the corruptions it engendered, struck by the holy hand of Divine retribution,” go down,” and disappear. We look for them now, but they are no more. The same skies and the same hills and plains are there; the rivers that ran through the land still flow on; but what is left of their buildings, if anything is left at all, is in ruin; and the power that once was has utterly departed. It lives in nothing but in story and in song. But what is
III. ITS PERSONAL APPLICATION. Not only the king or the prince, but also “the multitude,” are seen in the nether parts (Verses 18, 24, 26). The people are there. This directs us to:
1. A common impending fate. Some day the grave will hold all the living. Indeed, to the poet’s eye, this earth is less the home of the living than the resting-place of the dead.
“The hills,
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods, rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Old ocean’s grey and melancholy waste,
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man.”
(Bryant.)
As the multitude that once trod the earth now “slumber in its bosom,” so we also shall soon find our place beneath the ground.
2. A poetical consolation. Small comfort would it be to Pharaoh (see Verse 31) to find that he and his were in no worse plight than other kings and peoples who tenanted the shades. But such as it was, it was at his service. And it is quite true, as the same writer (supra) reminds us
“Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt thou retire alone. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world, with kings,
The powerful of the earth, the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulcher.”
But we want some better consolation than this very imaginary and unsatisfying one. Surely this is a very poor alleviation for losing life and all that a true and full human life holds. We must look elsewhere for our comfort. And we shall not fail to find it.
3. The real redeeming thought, viz. that the future to which we look forward, as the disciples and followers of Christ, is neither the dark grave in the cemetery nor the little less inviting Sheol of Hebrew thought, but the home of the blessed in the near presence of God, where life is free and full and pure, the mansions of the Father’s house.C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAPTER 32
1And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first 2[day] of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and say to him: Young lion of the heathen peoples thou didst imagine thyself [thou didst compare thyself to such an one], and thou [wast] as the dragon in the sea [in the seas], and brakest forth in thy streams, and didst trouble the water with thy feet, and didst trample their streams! 3Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I spread forth My net over thee in the 4assembly of many peoples, and they pull thee up in My draw-net. And I set thee free into the land [push thee away thither], upon the plains of the field will I sling thee; and I make all the birds of heaven to sit down on thee, and let the 5living creatures of the whole earth satisfy themselves with thee. And I give thy 6flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy high heap [thy height]. And I cause the land of thy overflowing to drink out of thy blood, even to the mountains: 7and the hollows shall be full of thee. And I cover [veil], while I extinguish thee, the heaven, and darken its stars; the sun will I cover with a cloud, and the 8moon will not make her light to shine. All luminaries of light in the heaven, I will make them dark over thee; and I give darkness upon thy land: sentence of 9the Lord Jehovah. And I vex the heart of many peoples, when I bring thy breach [destruction] among the heathen peoples, to lands which thou knowest not. 10And I make many peoples astonished over thee, and their kings shall shudder shudderings over thee, when I brandish My sword before their face; and they tremble every moment, each one for his soul [life], on the day of thy downfall. 11For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The sword of the king of Babylon will come to thee. 12By the swords of heroes will I make thy tumult to fall; the violent of the heathen [are] they all, and they lay waste the pride of Egypt, and all its 13tumult is destroyed. And I extirpate all the beasts thereof from many [the great] waters, and foot of man shall not trouble them any more, nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them. 14Then will I make their waters to sink, and make their 15streams go as the oil: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. When I give [to] desolation the land of Egypt, and the land is wasted away from its fulness, when I 16smite all that dwell in it, then they know that I am Jehovah. This is lamentation, and as lamentation they intone it, the daughters of the heathen peoples will intone it as a lamentation; upon Egypt and upon all its tumult shall they intone it as a lamentation: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. And 17it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 18Son of man, wail for the tumult of Egypt, and cast it down, it and [as] the daughters of the glorious heathen peoples, to the land of the depths, with those that go down to the pit. 19Whom dost thou surpass in being lovely? Go 20down, and lie with the uncircumcised! In the midst of those pierced through with the sword shall they fall; sword is given; they drag it [Egypt] and all its 21tumults away. The strong of the heroes from the midst of hell [sheol] shall speak of [to] him with his helpers: they go down, they lie, the uncircumcised, pierced 22through with the sword! There is Asshur and his whole company; round about 23him his [their] graves; they all pierced through, fallen by the sword: Whose graves were [are] given in the innermost of the pit, and his company was [is] round about his grave; they all pierced through, fallen by the sword, who gave 24terror in the land of the living. There [is] Elam and all his tumult round about his grave: they all pierced through, fallen by the sword, who are gone down, uncircumcised, to the land of depths, who gave their terror in the land of the 25living, and henceforth bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. Amid the pierced through they gave him a couch with all his tumult; round about him his graves; they all uncircumcised, pierced through with the sword; for their terror was given [spread] in the land of the living, and they henceforth bear their shame with those that go down to the pit; among the pierced through is he 26given [laid]. There [is] Meshech, Tubal, and all his tumult; round about him his [their] graves; they all uncircumcised, pierced through with the sword; for they 27gave their terror in the land of the living. And they do not [they shall not] henceforth lie with the heroes, the fallen of the uncircumcised, who went down to hell in [with] their weapons of war; and they gave their swords under their heads, and their iniquities were upon their bones, for terror of heroes [were they] in the land of 28the living. And [also] thou among the uncircumcised, thou shalt be broken, and 29shalt lie with the pierced through by the sword. There [is] Edom, his kings and all his princes, who have been given in [with, in spite of] their strength with the pierced through by the sword; they lie henceforth with the uncircumcised, and 30with those that go down to the pit. There are the princes of the North, they all and all the Zidonians, who went down with the pierced through, in their terror [the terror before them] from their strength [proceeding from their strength] come to shame; and they lie henceforth uncircumcised with the pierced through by the sword, and bear from this time onwards their shame with those that go down to the 31pit. Them will Pharaoh see, and will comfort himself over all his tumult; pierced 32through are Pharaoh and all his host: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. For I gave his terror [that which is before him] in the land of the living, and Pharaoh and all his tumult is laid [now] among the uncircumcised with the pierced through by the sword: sentence of the Lord Jehovah.
Eze 32:1. Sept.: … . (Anoth. read.: , undecimo anno.)
Eze 32:2. . . . Vulg.: Leoni assimilatus es et draconi et ventilabas cornu in(Other readings: and .)
Eze 32:3. … . ; so too the Vulg.
Eze 32:4. … (Anoth. read.: , Syr.)
Eze 32:5. … . Vulg.: colles tuos sanie tua. Anoth. read.: , excelsa tua; , projectionibus tuis (Targ.), v. vermibus tuis (Syr.).
Eze 32:6. … . . . . Vulg.: ftore sanguinis tui
Eze 32:8. Vulg.: mrere faciam super te
Eze 32:9. Sept.: … Vlug.: irritabo contritionem tuam
Eze 32:10. Sept.: … .
Eze 32:12. , . .
Eze 32:14. Vulg.: Tunc prissimas reddams adducam
Eze 32:15. cum dedero deseretur autem(Anoth. read.: in Hophal.)
Eze 32:17. Anoth. read.: , Syr. and interlined Bible. Sept.: … .
Eze 32:18. Sept.: … . (Eze 32:19 : ,. . . ; . . . Vulg.: gentium robustarum ad terram ultimam (Other read.: , and , and , Sept.)
Eze 32:19. , .
Eze 32:20. , . . (Other read.: .)
Eze 32:21. Sept.: … . , ; . Vlug.: qui cum auxiliatoribus ejus descenderunt et dormierunt
Eze 32:22. , . ,
Eze 32:23. .
Eze 32:25. The words are not represented in the Sept.
Eze 32:26. Sept.: . . , , , Vulg,; interfectique et cadentes gladio
Eze 32:27. . , Vulg.: et incircumcisis(Anoth. read.: , Syr.)
Eze 32:29. Sept.: . . , ,
Eze 32:30. “, . . . Vulg.: et universi venatores, qui paventes et in confusi(Anoth. read.: , Chald., Syr.; or they read , satraps. Instead of , Sept. read .)
Eze 32:31. Vulg.: Vidit eos et consolatus est
Eze 32:32. Quia dedi terrorem meum et dormivit
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
Eze 32:1-16. The Lamentation over Pharaoh.
Hitzig justly finds the date, as also the place of this section, quite correctly given. He likewise abides, for the more exact determination of the time, by the Hebrew text of Eze 32:1; while the old translations read, some the tenth, others the eleventh year, some the tenth, others the twelfth month. It was twenty-one months after Eze 31:1, almost two months after that the prophet had received intimation of the destruction of Jerusalem; and to this time also belongs the flight of the remnant of Judah to Egypt, which was prohibited through the mouth of Jeremiah. [Schmieder: The first of these two death-songs (Eze 32:1-32) is dated on the day of the new moon, the second on the day of the full moon. Hengst.: The occasion of this lamentation was probably the circulation of the Lamentations of Jeremiah among the exiles. Ezekiel delights generally to follow that prophet as his leader. The double lamentation-song of this chapter accompanies, by way of consolation, the lamentation-songs among the people of God.]
Eze 32:2. Comp. Eze 19:1.As Eze 27:2 upon Tyre, and Eze 28:12 upon the prince of Tyre, so here it is first upon Pharaoh, and afterwards, Eze 32:17 sq., upon Egypt.The designation as young lion (Eze 19:2) of the heathen nations (meaning of them not in the sense of being among them, but in that of showing himself to be such toward them), , as in Eze 31:11 , an antithetical reference, very fitly applies to the personality of Hophra. The youthful, rapacious, conquest-loving spirit of this prince may have been characterized., Niph. (from ), to make ones self like (the subjective of Pharaohs to the objective of Jehovahs, Eze 31:2; Eze 31:18). dropt, perhaps, on account of the immediately preceding , or to be construed accusatively; anyhow, perfectly plain as to the meaning, since immediately follows. That Pharaoh could not be found like a lion and also a dragon, as Hitzig alleges, has this only as a ground of offence, that it overlooks the distinction, the contrast, between the two resemblances. As a young lion Pharaoh is conscious of what belonged to him out of himself, whereas the other image rather represents the customary, perhaps also the limits to be kept by the Pharaohs of Egypt. (With the third Ramses, says Duncker, Egypt had ceased to be the first power of the old world. About the same time, when the warlike ambition of Assyria began to display itself, Egypt returned to a peaceful mode of life, and remained quiet within its old natural boundaries.) Philippson: Pharaoh, who belonged only to Egypt as crocodile, would also as a lion seize upon other lands. So also Raschi. [Hitzig translates : thou art a dead man (Cocceius); Hengst.: thou art undone; never means: to be made like, always: to be silent, undone. According to him, Eze 32:2 is a short outline which must be afterwards filled up.]The representation generally is not that of the glory of the fallen king (Keil), and the image of the dragon in particular will not explain that of the lion (Hengst.); though it is right to say that the bearing of Pharaoh is meant to be set forth, only not so properly among the peoples as in his own relation. For in the sea is neither the sea of the peoples (Hengst.), nor to be taken along with what precedes = on land and in water (Rosenm.), but a reproduction of the Nile-situation (Eze 29:3, in the midst of his streams) corresponding to the self-elation implied in the young lion of the heathen, as (comp. Isa 19:5) in Homer the Nile is called , and the native designation speaks of the white, blue seas. The counter-position () is this: To the heathen nations thou wouldst show thyself as a young lion, and thine own people thou didst destroy, didst ruinas is presently brought out in the prophets delineation. To the correspond the ;. from (?), is, according to Kimchi, the Kal; who, however, allows it also as Hiphil, which Frst takes to be the form, wishing, however, to understand it transitively: and broughtest forth thy waters through thy streams; but of Hiphil, as of Kal, is only the intransitive signification known. [Hitzig, who holds that the breaking forth of the crocodile is not meant to be expressed, would fain make it: thou causest thy streams, namely, out of thy nostrils, to break forth; but the streams and are against him, and he hence reads with Ewald: , who translates: since thou art as the crocodile in the waters, and with thy nostrils dost splutter (Job 41:20). Hengst. cites, for the mischief which Pharaoh did among the nations, the North American crocodiles (thou brakest forth with thy rivers)how, while breathing with the most frightful noise, they spurt forth streams of smoke and water, like a torrent in a hurricane, through their jaws and blowholes.] The sense, however, is much simpler: while in Eze 29:3, Pharaoh, the great dragon, lies in the midst of his streams at his ease, he is now represented as breaking forth in the same (thine, as he there pretends); that is, not precisely with his hosts, but in this, his national-Egyptian pride of power, rising up, elevating himselfwhich elevation of Pharaoh (as indicated by Jerome, Vulg., and Sept.) troubled the waters of Egypt (, comp. Eze 32:13), while he with his feet trampled their streams or caused a muddy jumbling. [Schmieder: With his restless ambition for war he stirred up the slumbering passions (the mire) among his peoples.] Very good Philippson: brought his people into agitation, guilt, and danger; while the heterogeneous intermingling of the figure of the dragon with that of the lion, and in consequence thereof the explanation with reference to the nations, occasions misunderstanding and needless attempts at interpretationas when Ewald, who is followed by Hvernick, speaks of the crocodile foully wallowing with mouth and feet in the fresh waters and life-sources of the nationsas troubling all that was pure.
Eze 32:3. See Eze 12:13; Eze 17:20., on comparison with Eze 23:24, can scarcely be understood of mere spectators, since they pull up, therefore, as helpers, associates, servants, carry the matter into effect. The peoples punish the sin of Pharaoh committed on his own people. Under the many we may think of the Chaldean army as composed of many races (Dereser), or also of the diverse peoples that followed the Chaldeans in making war upon Egypt.Comp. Eze 26:5; Eze 26:14; Eze 29:4. In Siam, people often spread nets upon the river to catch the crocodile. Comp. lian, Var. Hist. Eze 10:21.
Eze 32:4. Comp. Eze 29:5., land, in contrast to the water; while in Ezekiel 29 it is the wilderness., to throw down, Hiphil, strengthens , as is pictured out by , on the plains (face) of the field.Eze 31:13. It is acutely remarked by Bunsen, that in the description, as it passes over into the monstrous, the prophet comes to do with the matter, touches less upon the image.
Eze 32:5. As the guilt, so the punishment takes place within the land, which is represented by mountains and valleys (Eze 31:12). Pharaoh is laid there as to his flesh, together with his warriors., Gesen. from , a high heap of corpses. Hengst.: with thy height, in contrast to the valleys as low ground, with the proud corpse. It were better to read , from , collective, worms. Hitzig thinks of the blood which should flow down from the mountains into the valleys. Others take it, after the plural reading, of the hosts of which Pharaoh was proud, their corpses; Raschi, from , to throw away: thy thrown away, that is: thy fallen.
Eze 32:6. Here (from , to overflow, to inundate) with is not the land of thy swimming (Gesen.), in which thou as crocodile hast swimmed, but Egyptonly not as Hengst.: the land which thou formerly didst overflow with thy rivers. At least Eze 32:2 cannot be adduced for this sense, except in so far as the Nile, which Pharaoh in Ezekiel 29 had in a manner claimed for himself, overflows Egypt, and thereby provides the ground of prosperity and strength to Pharaoh. That God causes the land to drink (Gen 2:10) is placed over against the boasted overflowing of it through Pharaohs Nile; besides, however, the closer determination of the meaning by out of (with) thy blood (Exo 7:17 sq.), which Hitzig explains as a gloss of in Eze 32:5. (Keil takes as the outflowing, and construes with two objects, so that announces whence the outflowing comes, and wherein it consists. Schmieder: Pharaohs life-juice, which flows with his blood from his wounds, the most precious, most peculiar possessions of his home-power. Hv.: I saturate the earth with thy current, on occasion of thy blood covering the mountains. Hitzig: the soil of the earth with thy outflow. Kimchi takes as a fem. part.: thy land over which the waters swam. Others: the land which from thee was overflowed, namely, by thy blood. Attention has been called by Kimchi also to , to spy outthe land of thy spying outso that the high places thereof might be meant.)Even to the mountains signifies: to as far as the overflowing of the Nile usually extends.
Eze 32:7 (Eze 30:18). The covering of the heaven, in its symbolic character, fitly enough regarded as analogous to the judgment-day of God (Eze 30:3; Joe 2:4), need not, however, be conceived of from this point of view, but may remind us of Exo 10:21 sq., while still it is expressly thought of in connection with Pharaohs extinction, who in his glory must not be contemplated merely as a bright shining light (Hengst.), but, according to the Egyptian style of thought, as the light of the world for his subjects, beaming forth upon the land and imparting prosperity and blessing (comp. at Eze 29:6 a, Eze 30:17; see also Duncker, i. p. 150). It is unnecessary, therefore, for Hitzig to fall back upon Dereser, who, under the expression: when thou art extinguished, makes the constellation of a dragon follow here upon the image of a sea-dragon, as then the zodiac might be of Egyptian origin. Keil regards Ezekiel as leaning upon Isa 14:12; but the discourse is not at all of Pharaoh as a star of the first magnitude (Dereser), but with his extinction the heaven (the heaven, namely, of Egypt), the higher, the governing supremacy and glory, one may say, is veiled, which in what follows is more nearly defined and expressed. Comp. Eze 31:15. The heaven comes into consideration as to its stars, and as such are specified (in place of all) sun and moon, which, again, appear in Eze 32:8 as ,the sun, with pointing back to ; the moon, with negative reproduction of the . That with what is said, mourning, condolence should be expressed (as at Eze 31:15), does not lie in the words; and just on that account Eze 32:9-10 do not give, as Hitzig would have it, the import of the figurative speech here in Eze 32:7-8. Finally, neither kingdoms, nor peoples, nor individual men of distinction are indicated by the stars.
Eze 32:8. Gen 1:14., agreeably to Eze 32:7 (): on account of thee, or as upon thy land.All the luminaries resume the stars in Eze 32:7; repeats there, and the darkness, sq., combines what is said of sun and moon together in the effect. Through thy land light falls upon the land of thy overflowing, in Eze 32:6.
Eze 32:9. The vexing of the heart is to be understood according to Eze 32:10. Sorrow; not sympathy, but, in consideration of themselves, and of that which might still also be done to them, grief. It is not hard words only which vex us, but there are also hard fates which cause us vexation, especially the more we would live and would let live. (and with Segol twice), probably: the report (but not necessarily to be read, as Ewald, with an Aramaic signification, )of the destruction; that such a world-power was broken could not but cause many heart-breakings in the world. The addition: which thou knowest not, however, points to more than simple knowledge, namely, to persons who become acquainted with that of which they had hitherto been entirely ignorant, regions utterly unknown to them. (Targum of Jonathan: those broken through the war; Hv., with a reference to the Sept.: the prisoners, who, as ruins of the old glory of Egypt, are themselves the heralds of the misfortune among the nations.) Comp. Eze 30:9.
Eze 32:10. See Eze 27:35; Eze 28:19., so that the hair stands on end., Pilel from , to make to fly. The sword, while they see how it flies to and fro over Pharaoh, is swung before their face, that they may with shuddering take a warning from it to themselves.On , comp. Eze 26:16.Eze 31:16.
Eze 32:11. Since Jehovahs sword which is brandished is that of the king of Babylon, the coming of this king can now be fitly spoken of. for . Comp. also. Eze 30:10. There is a similar break in the discourse.
Eze 32:12. Comp. on Eze 31:2; Eze 31:12; Eze 28:7., in their collective character; , from , properly: spreading terror.On Hitzig remarks: not that of which Egypt is proud, but what is proud in Egypt, what raises itself up, pushes into the height. Comp. Eze 30:6; Eze 30:18.
Eze 32:13. The extirpation of the beasts is explained by Schmieder figuratively of the potentates of Egypt, beside the crocodile Pharaoh, who stir up the population. As to the reality, Hitzig thinks of the grassy banks of the Nile, whither large herds of cattle were driven to get drink and to pasture (Gen 47:6; Gen 41:2 sq.; Exo 9:3). Rosenm. brings also to remembrance the Egyptian horse – training. The beasts, however, appear rather as embellishment, for the Nile with its waters forms the chief feature, as it also had led the inhabitants of the land of Egypt at an early period from shepherd life to agriculture, and had consequently given rise to the prosperity of the country. The desolation of the greatness and glory of Egypt, the annihilation of all its tumult (Eze 32:12), is represented by the extirpation of the beasts; in which the not unintentionally repeated , in the transition to the , points back with a certain irony to in Eze 32:2, while such a ruinous result for the land through the punishment of Pharaoh is rendered still more remarkable. The not any more does not import that it should no more at all happen, but only in comparison with the earlierno more in such a sense, that the earlier ascendency of power should again have place. Foreign dominion, inflicting mischief, causing man and beast to disappear (Eze 32:12), should bring to a stand the native pernicious rule of Pharaoh. [According to the interpretation of others, it is to be understood with respect to other nationsas Hengst.: in part also of the seductive glitter of Egyptof the ambitious military expeditious of Pharaoh (Cocc., Grotius), or generally of the pushing character of Egypt as a worldly power (Keil).]
Eze 32:14. , when this takes place. What follows is explained by Hitzig to mean, that the Niles fulness of water, which hitherto had overflowed the land and made it fruitful, should no longer have any aim (Eze 30:12); Kliefoth: that God Himself would change the nature of these streams. But this would imply too much, while the wordsthough not to be understood as Hvernick thinks, who applies Eze 32:13 improperly to troubling through hostile armieswould still express nothing more than the reference back to Eze 32:2 already indicated in Eze 32:13; namely thus: that instead of the breaking forth in thy streams there, now a depression takes place, their waters sink, that is, those waters which in the former state of prosperity man and beast troubled, but which in particular Pharaohs haughtiness rendered turbid; i.e., the well-being of Egypt, as this is represented by its Nile, is now gone, and shall no longer give occasion for abuse. The position of Egypt as to power must henceforth be of another description. (Eze 32:2), their, of the waters, which through Pharaoh go in a confused manner, Hitzig: flowing softly and slowly, keeping within the prescribed path. The latter does not lie in the comparison, after the manner of oil; and that they do not as hitherto rush forth in impetuous volumes of water is not the contrast; although the citation in Hitzig from Isa 8:6 corresponds, for, as with Asshur there, so was the case here with Pharaoh. Hengst. rightly: that the comparison with oil has respect to the soft flowing. Comp. Eze 29:14. There needs only the sentence of the Lord, and then the proud waves subside, and that which fancies itself so high becomes low. (Now, inasmuch as such a state can be taken as a contrast to the ruin of Eze 32:13, some modern expositors, after the example of earlier ones, have found a promise here in relation to other peoples; Targum, Grotius: that they should be left in peace; Hv., Keil: that for Egypt a time of divine blessing shall follow, the Nile shall flow with oil; Ewald even: then first might the Messianic times come also upon Egypt, where the waterfloods should no longer be desolating and troubled, by reason, namely, of the true knowledge to which the chastisement conducts.)
Eze 32:15. Here is combined together, through a double parallel, the divine judgment and its result,the giving up of the land of Egypt to desolation, and the realization of what this implied instead of its former fulness (Eze 12:19).Rosenm., Hengst., translate : and the land wasted. It might also mean: when I give, etc., then the land is wasted.The killing of all the inhabitants, and the knowing of Jehovah. According to Hitzig, must be subordinated to the declaration.
Eze 32:16. Comp. Eze 19:14. The lamentation (Eze 32:2) comes here to a close. Its female singers, as this was laid upon women (Jer 9:16 [17]), will be the heathen nations themselves represented as such (daughters), or the mourning women of those nations mentioned in Eze 32:9. So certain is the matter.
Eze 32:17-32. Dirge upon Egypt.
Eze 32:17. The indication of the month is wanting here; according to Hitzig and others, from oversight. Comp. on Eze 26:1. Hengst, and many derive it from Eze 32:1, therefore the twelfth month, so that what here follows falls only fourteen days later. It is the last word upon Egypt, save one after the conquest of Jerusalem, for Eze 29:17 sq. is absolutely the last; consequently a conclusion with respect to Egypt, and indeed in the manner of a doutre tombe.
Eze 32:18. Here we have a , distinguished from the going before, in particular, through its character (gloomy, sorrowful grave-song, Ewald), and its six windings, its strophe-form.What is meant by the tumult has been already said in Eze 32:15-16 : it is those who dwelt in Egypt, and are now slain. Besides, in what follows there is a leaning on Eze 31:16 sq.To wail over any one after the manner of our section is as much as to throw him down with the word. By such a juxtaposition, also, we prevent a false explanation of the , confounding the prophet with hired howling women, after the manner of Egyptian funerals, when as such even the daughters of mighty nations should figure. (Ewald: while the same are let down; as a grave-song, therefore, at the interment. Hv.: identity of the divine will with the prophetic announcement.)The fem. does not resume again the regular masc. , nor is it shown from the question in Eze 32:19 that we are to take it as (Hitzig, Ewald); but it is very simple, grammatically correct, and logical,an impressive ranking of Egypt, as a land, beside the daughters, etc. What Hitzig says to the contrary is not worthy of consideration. Egypt, as the party referred to, is the more natural, as it also was what in the preceding context determined the .The daughters of the glorious heathen peoples must, according to Dereser, Ewald, Hitzig, be those meant in Eze 32:16a view that will scarcely commend itself; according to Rosenm.: the populations subject to the Egyptians, or in league with themof whom there has been no discourse here; according to most: those specified in Eze 32:22 sq. If these last are already in Sheol, as in reality is the case, then is to be understood as if it stood thus: like those, etc., who have gone down conformably to the prophetic word. The process must in no way, as Hengst. expresses himself, be repeated anew; for, according to Eze 32:21 sq., the parties concerned speak out of hell to the Egyptians, therefore are not sent down with these as it were a second time. The representation on occasion of the throwing down, which plainly has respect to Egypt, includes those already thrown down (the daughters, etc.) in order to render the certainty of the fate of Egypt the more indubitable by patent facts, with which also the immediately following question in Eze 32:19 accords. The designation of the peoples as daughters is the more appropriate, as adornment and attractiveness, splendour and grace, would shine forth in them. For the rest, comp. at Eze 26:20; Eze 31:14.
Eze 32:19. The question with which our dirge beginsto supply or is superfluous, the address is more energetic without such an additionis spoken either to the tumult of Egypt (Eze 32:18), or to Pharaoh and all his tumult (Eze 32:32). The , to be lovely, is indeed conceded, but it is held from the first to be a vain conceit that it was beyond any other, namely, the glorious heathen peoples, more lovely, therefore, than one of them. Ewald translates: before whom wert thou more prosperous? Which would not be so suitable as his allusion to the meaning of uncircumcised for Egyptians, and even also for Tyrians (Eze 31:18; Eze 28:10). (Hitzig declares himself in favour of the Sept. on the weakest grounds.)Hence, as they, so also thou, go downin which remembrance is made of the cast down of the prophet in Eze 32:18, as also of those going down with whom Egypt must go down. Besides, comp. Eze 28:10; Eze 31:18.
Eze 32:20. Of the sword it was already spoken, Eze 32:11. They who should fall are the Egyptians, Pharaoh and his tumult. Targum Jon. takes as of Egypt, but understands that it is given up to the sword., either 3 pret. or imperat. for . Of whom it speaks or to whom it is addressed is clear from ; they are those to whom the sword is already given. And since they must fall, must fall in the midst of the pierced through, the seizing and dragging away is not to be regarded as of evil-doers to the judgment-seat; but if the death-blow is to be considered, and if there is a carrying out of the falling among the pierced through, still, there remains as that to which they are to be dragged, indirectly as well as directly, if not precisely, Sheol, at least the grave.
Eze 32:21. To the question above corresponds the speaking below. What they speak is not said, and confessedly with does not need to be said. If is to him, as Hengst. thinks, then the speaking is as much as: they greet him (Hv., with malignant welcome) as a colleague (comp. Isa 14:10-11); and his helpers is to be viewed as connected with to himtogether with his helpers. Rosenm. connects his helpers with the strong of the heroes, so that also his helpers address him. If is to be translated of him, then the discourse takes place with the helpers, who, besides, are the parties that remained to the last with himch. Eze 30:8; Eze 30:5 sq. comp. Eze 31:11which Gesen. renders: the strongest of the heroes. Ewald calls to remembrance in how high consideration a quiet natural death stood, with a correspondingly quiet burial, accompanied by the proper solemnities.The words: they go down, etc., might serve less as a closer description of the strong heroes (Hengst.), than as a ground for their being in the midst of Sheol. But if they are taken as the address of the strong heroes, for which also the tone of the words speaks, treating scornfully the Egyptians like other heathens, then the uncircumcised must be applied to the Egyptians; and it will hence be understood that they fall in the midst of the uncircumcised (their helpers), appear like these. By Eze 32:19 we are not obliged to take the speakers from hell as the uncircumcised. In Eze 32:22 follows their mention by name. Asshur, primarily on account of the comparison in Ezekiel 31, but especially on account of its so great, still recent experience, which also gave occasion to the beginning of the Chaldean ascendency, ever in Ezekiel appearing as the foil of the other, and, finally, on this more general account, from its importance as compared with the other nations to be named, opens the dark muster-roll.In respect to gender, the kingdom, which is feminine, interchanges with the king, masculine, because in point of fact the one runs into the other.The ruler, or his grave, is surrounded by the graves which might be called his, because they are those of members of his people; or refers to . This will import: Asshur is only a field of graves, and thereby indicate that the sword which threatens Egypt has already fallen upon it.
Eze 32:23. In order, however, to bridge still more completely the contrast between this hereafter and the preceding here, the graves of Asshur (, perhaps a play upon ; anyhow, not: because) are still more particularly characterized. , dual, the two divergent sides, therefore the extreme part, here by means of determined to be the innermostthe point, namely, to which the pit turns off with its two walls. (Gesen.: the hindermost, farthest.) As much as: buried in the deepest place.The graves are in Sheol; the latter, therefore, comprehensive of the former. The distinction is a fluctuating one.Again , certainly a play of words., antithesis to , for that which was given to them, that which they previously had given! The land of the living, as at Eze 26:20, contrast to their deepest graves.
Eze 32:24. Elam appears in the earliest times among the inhabited countries lying on the farther side of the Tigris, to the east of Babyloniaa Semitic people, nearly related to the Assyrians. On this account alone it might here be made to follow immediately after Asshur; comp. Gen 10:22; Gen 14:1 sq. From the commencement warlike, ambitious of conquest, the Elamites continued to the last true to this character. Strabo makes mention of their expeditions against Susiana and Babylonia. Originally settled in the valleys between the Zagrus range and the mountains which bound the Assyrian plains on the east, they are mentioned along with other marauding tribes. The Assyrians subdued Elam, so that its dreaded bowmen (Jer 49:35) figure in the Assyrian army (Isa 22:6). This explains Elams position immediately after Asshur. And agreeably to such a relation to Asshur, the utterance concerning Elam is almost, entirely similar.The designation their terror makes it more expressive: the terror before them. With such a past their future laden with shame contrasts quite as expressively, just as the description: those that go down to the pit, stands related to: in the land of the depths.
Eze 32:25. The couch in the midst of the pierced-through is an ignominious one, because implying their conquest, their fall by the sword. And after all the tumult this idle lying now!, the subject undetermined; or if any one is to be thought of, then Asshur lies not less near than Nebuchadnezzar, by whom Hengst. maintains that Elam was vanquished (comp. at Eze 8:16; Eze 30:5)., in company with.Round about the king (him) the graves of Elam ( as in previously).For, wild lovers of the sword, a terror to the living, their end consequently becomes associated with terror, their state in death takes the form of like to like. against . Elam himself now, not: his couch. He is laid by the sword with the dead, while formerly the terror before him and his would not be allayed among the living.
Eze 32:26. For similar reasons, probably, as in the case of Elam, the Moschi and Tibareni now followcomp. at Eze 27:13linked as by a hyphen into one power. According to Hitzig, these represent the Scythians, whose numbers had recently been much reduced. Ewald takes the Chaldeans to be meant by the Scythians (!); Keil, here as in Ezekiel 38, understands by them a northern power, that should succumb, and here prophetically represented as having already succumbed.The description as formerly, only instead of previously , which Hitzig refers to God. The ground of procedure here turns more expressly on the guilt of the parties.
Eze 32:27. Corresponding to such a presentation of the matter is , which by many expositors is taken for a question indicated merely by the tone, as often in lively discourse: and should they not, etc.; that is, they especially could expect no better fate, among whom the significant custom prevailed of burying their fallen warriors with their slaughter-weapons, so that guilt and punishment are still combined together in the grave! (Hengst.: to the dead is ascribed what took place by their order, since they, like the race of Cain, placed therein their honour, saw in the murder of their brother a piece of bravery.) Others take it differently, as indicating that they were not to participate in the honour of resting with those for whom, because they had fallen gloriously, their armour was deposited in the grave. With the interrogatory mode of explanation the affirmative rendering of the Sept. seems to agree; but the other mode has this decidedly in its favour, that manifestly there is meant to be expressed, only in a different way, what was expressed in Eze 32:23 respecting Asshur by the humiliating words: whose graves were given in the innermost of the pit, and in Eze 32:24-25 regarding Elam, through the repeated: and they bear their shame namely, that they are the conquered, pierced through by the sword, ignominiously fallen under the victors hand, as was always again declared. With this agrees the mention of the heroes (comp. Eze 32:12; Eze 32:21), in particular the latter passage, where these in a manner boast themselves over the Egyptians. The meaning therefore is: that their hereafter is not that of heroes, though these also have fallen from among the uncircumcised, and hence were likewise guilty., therefore not the Moschi and Tibareni, as Hengst. thinks, they who, etc., but a description of the heroes., in their weapons of war, in armour of defence, and offence, that is, as conquerors of whom one can win no triumph, such as is done by those who carry forth in triumph the equipments of the vanquished.And they gave, etc., as much as: and men gave; the survivors honoured their heroes after such a manner.And their iniquities were, etc., is undoubtedly a continuation of the immediately preceding context, since to the marks of honour and judgment given on the part of men, there is very fitly added the judgment of God,that their iniquities were upon their bones, or came upon their bones, though their swords were no longer on but under them, as also is presently said. To suppose, with Keil, that there is here a continuation to will scarcely do, as they were not to lie down with the heroes, nor could they be named terror of heroes. Hengst. translates: heroes of terror. Ewald, with a threatening reference to the Chaldeans: because the terror of tyrants reigns in the land, etc. (?). Hv. makes Gen 6:4; Gen 10:9 sq. swim before the eyes of the prophet. Hitzig accepts simpliciter the translation of the Sept. But it may be regarded as a question whether Ezekiel did not think of the mode of burial among the Scythian princes, which has been similarly described by Herodotus.
Eze 32:28. An address to Egypt (Hitzig: the tumult of Egypt); but certainly without an underlying word of threatening to the Chaldean king, as Ewald supposes. (Hengst.: thou art broken and liest down, etc.) for Eze 32:29. either = , as a sort of variation, or thither, which Hv. takes prophetically (in like manner belong) of such as it stands before. Hengst. on the other hand, as he makes Meshech and Tubal to have been probably conquered with the Assyrians, supposes that the Chaldean storm had swept over Edom immediately after the downfall of Judah, certainly as to the beginning only.The kings, who were elective, are distinguished from all his princes (comp. Gen 36:15 sq., 40 sq., 31 sq.), the tribal heads or chiefs of the greater race-stems, who according to Keil probably chose the kings., corporeal strength, bravery; very suitable where heroes had just been spoken of. We might understand: in proof and trial of the same, or: notwithstanding it. Hitzig points to the olden time (Num 20:14 sq.; Gen 36:35), and the wars with David.
Eze 32:30. , from , to pour out, scarcely to be understood as = anoint, hence: anointed, as , but, according to a derived signification: to inaugurate, or to place forth, the former in the sacrificial libation (drink-offering), the latter through a casting of metal.The princes of the north, who are conjoined with , a collective singular, are thereby, according to Hvernick, more exactly defined as the many rulers of the biblical Aram (Damascenes, Syrians). In Jer 25:26 we have: all the kings of the north, near and afar off. Comp. Eze 28:20 sq. The Zidonians, therefore, may have already fallen. Tyre is not mentioned, so (Hengst. thinks) it still stood, although the siege had commenced. The mention of the Zidonians appears obviously designed to suggest that by the north is meant not the high far north, but that in relation to Palestine, therefore distinguishing them from Meshech and Tubal, formerly noticed. Perhaps also the significant number of seven must be made out for the peoples.In their terror, etc., merely as much as, notwithstanding the terror before them, which their strength produced., so that they bear their shame (Eze 32:24-25).
Eze 32:31. There is now the express application to Pharaoh. Hitzig gives : and will make himself be sorry for all his host, namely, that those in Eze 32:27-30 still have on their clothing and equipment, as contrasted with those who had gone down with himself naked !! Hengst.: he sighs. It is here the case of Eze 31:16. Hav. thinks it is spoken ironically.
Eze 32:32. The reason assigned has respect to the overthrow of the military force of Pharaoh, in so far as he could inspire terror only after Gods will. He was not by reason of his own power an object of dread for a time on earth, but through the operation of Gods providence, which made use of him as its instrument. In conclusion Kliefoth remarks very well: People are wont to visit the pyramids of Egypt or its catacombs for the purpose merely of seeing that the glory of the Pharaohs is one that has its abode in Sheol; even to the new Ptolemaic Egypt, the old Egyptian existence was a complete riddle, a thing forgotten and incapable of being understood.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. Although the prophecy in Ezekiel 29 is of a general character, yet by the reference to Nebuchadnezzar, and especially from Eze 29:17 onwards, it gets a more specific character. We have therefore to hold by a fulfilment through the Chaldeans, and, indeed, in connection with what is said respecting Tyre. Apart from the circumstance that we have here to do with a prophet of God, we could not judge otherwise simply on this account, that a little reflection upon the inevitable disgrace of such a self-deception as would have been the case in respect to Tyre must alone have kept Ezekielinstead of merely suppressing the prophecy in question while the book was still in his own handfrom wishing now to compensate for the mistake by awakening like inconsiderate and rash expectations concerning Nebuchadnezzar in regard to Egypt. For one to whom the prophet is nothing but a writer must still at least credit him with this much of worldly prudence in respect to his literary honour. And if Ezekiel must needs prophesy ex eventu (as Hitzig, for example, conceives), then prophecies like those contained in Ezekiel 26 and some following ones are purely unthinkable, so far as they remained unfulfilled; since it cannot but be supposed, that when our prophet closed his book, matters must have stood before him widely different from what they are presented in his prophecy. The dogmatic criticism, however, cannot once admit now that a prophecy has been fulfilled,a limitation of the standpoint which is not improved by the circumstance that the truth of the divine word (2Pe 1:21) is made dependent on the statements or the silence of profane writers, and even of such as have given notoriously imperfect reports. The false prophet, he whose word did not come to pass, has by Gods word (Deu 18:22) been as clearly as possible excluded from the canon.
2. The reward for work, which, as Hitzig rightly enough says, had still to be given to Nebuchadnezzar, raises no question as to the conquest and, as could not fail to happen after a thirteen years siege, the destruction of Tyre. If the booty might have been thought of for the army, for Nebuchadnezzar it is necessary to think of Egypt. The song of triumph demanded by Hitzig for the fulfilment of the prophecy against Tyre is the double lamentation which we find in Ezekiel 27, 28. Every one has his peculiar manner. But as regards the so-called historical witnesses, who should speak the decisive word on the fulfilment or non-fulfilment particularly of the prophecy of Ezekiel in respect to Egypt, they are the Greek historians, at the head of whom stands Herodotus, and they know absolutely nothing of a Chaldean invasion of Egyptnay, their narration is opposed to anything of the kind (Hitzig). This is imposing; let us reflect, however, that Herodotus had also learned nothing from his Egyptian informants of the defeat at Carchemish. We need only mention farther, that this Greek historian himself reproaches the priests of Egypt, and precisely in regard to this particular time, with embellishing the history of their country. Now, according to Herodotus, Pharaoh Hophrain consequence of the defeat which his army sustained from the Cyrenians, against whom it was to have rendered help to the Libyans, and of the revolt which in consequence thereof, and of the foreign mercenary troops retained in Egypt, broke forth on the part of the Egyptian warrior-class against Amasis, who, instead of bringing back the rebels to obedience, suffered himself to be proclaimed king by themlost freedom and his throne, and by the infuriated people was even murdered. Tholuck, who, if the cattle with the ark of the Lord should once turn aside, would not obstinately drive forward, remarks that as a witness Herodotus alone comes into consideration; before whom, however, the testimony of Ezekiel, himself a contemporary of the events, has no need to be abashed. If Herodotus readily received intelligence of the prosperous battle fought by Necho at Megiddo, but none respecting the much more important defeat sustained by him on the Euphrates from the Chaldeans, should it be thought strange if the priests observed silence also regarding the irruption of the Chaldeans into their own land? yea, if the miserable end which Hophra suffered through the foreign conqueror should have been rather represented by them as the deed of his own people? (So also Rawlinsons Herod. B. ii. appen. c. 8.) With a fair appreciation of the historical representation of Herodotus, the cause there assigned, especially the revolution among the warrior-class of Egypt, might suffice for the overthrow of Hophra. Yet the hatred of the Egyptian people, not only expressed in Herodotus, but confirmed by monumental evidence (Rossellini points in this connection to a by-name of Hophra on the monuments: Remesto)such a hatred as is described in Herodotus toward Hophra (ii. 161169), manifested in respect to a native ruler, is scarcely to be explained from what is stated, if it did not come into some sort of connection with a Chaldean invasion of Egypt, whereby the haughtiness of Hophra might well appear all the more hateful to the Egyptian people, as the misery of the land and the inhabitants, occasioned by him, stood in sharpest contrast to the previous prosperity and splendour. The grudge of the Egyptian warrior-class against the foreign mercenaries could not be of such moment as some have supposed, since even Amasis, who thereafter held possession of the throne till his death (forty-four years), and was succeeded in it by his son, took lonians for his bodyguard, and generally granted to the Greeks still greater favour and privileges than his predecessor. Besides, as generally held, there is also the outline of the prophecy against Egypt in Ezekiel 29, which exhibits a distinction between Eze 29:6 sq. and Eze 29:4 sq.in the one, the sword constitutes the figure (Eze 29:8); in the other, overthrow with reference to the wilderness. Especially if Hitzigs interpretation of the fish (Eze 29:4) as denoting Pharaohs men of war is accepted, and under the wilderness there is couched an allusion to Libya, what is said in Eze 29:4 sq. might be explained by the narration which is reproduced by Herodotus, and Eze 29:6 sq. would, with the sword of Nebuchadnezzar, be such a supplementing as the conquest of Tyre to the siege of that city, also given elsewhere. Out of the miserable condition in which Hophra perished, Amasis would then have raised Egypt. Anyhow, as Tholuck brings out, the death of Hophra falls exactly into the time in which the occupation of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar must have occurred; and thus the position of matters approaches to that which is wont to be extracted from Josephus in confirmation of our prophecycontr. Ap. i. 19. It is there stated that Berosus reports of the Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar) that he conquered Egypt, Syria, Phnicia, etc. Again, in Ezekiel 20, he states that Megasthenes placed Nebuchadnezzar above Hercules, since he had subjected to himself a great part of Libya and Iberia (comp. Antiq. x. 11. 1, and Strabo xv. 1. 6; see also Hv. Comm. p. 435, against Hitzigs remarks). In the 10th book of the Antiq. Eze 9:7, Josephus expresses himself to this effect, that in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the twenty-third of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he made an expedition against Clesyria; and when he had got possession of it, he made war against the Ammonites and Moabites; and when he had brought these nations into subjection, he fell upon Egypt in order to overthrow it, and did indeed slay the king who then reigned, but set up another; after which he took those Jews that were there captive, and brought them to Babylon, etc. The ten years time, which Hitzig doubts as the period of the earlier warlike expeditions, is maintained by Tholuck. The fifth year after the taking of Jerusalem would be 581; the thirteen years siege of Tyre would fall into the period 586572 or 573. For the different actions which were in part parallel as to time, we have only to suppose various divisions of the army employed, so that the whole might of Nebuchadnezzar did not at the same time lie before Tyre. The forty years of the Egyptian oppression, Tholuck, like Niebuhr, extends over the entire space that lies between the disaster at Carchemish and the overthrow of Hophra (thirty-six years), during which Egypt, through the continued and in great part unfortunate warlike enterprises of Hophra, must have been much depopulated and extremely weakened, till at length the inroad of the Chaldeans consummated the oppression. Tholuck thinks that, as the prophets in the beginning of the fulfilment comprehended the future (Jer 13:18; Eze 30:24), in the last and completed fulfilment they also comprehended the earlier incomplete ones. The symbolical explanation of the forty years is not thereby denied (see the exposition). The worth of the statements of Josephus may be questioned, as is done by Hitzig; but for the relation of profane history to our prophecy, it suffices that Hophra miserably perished (Eze 29:4 sq.; Jer 44:30 sq.), and that Egypt again revived, as took place under Amasis, although as a kingdom it was fit to be compared neither with its ancient glory nor with other great monarchies (Eze 29:13 sq.). As regards the resuscitation of Egypt, Duncker mentions that, according to a return of the priests, it then reckoned 20,000 country towns and cities (Herzogs Realencyc. 1 p. 150), though it was the last period of Egypts glory; and Lepsius says of the same, that Egypt succumbed to the first pressure of the Persian power, and remained from 525 to 504 a Persian province; that afterwards it became again for a short time independent, until in 340 it was reconquered by the Persians, and in 332 fell under Alexander the Great, etc.
3. Upon the importance of Egypt for the revenge of Nebuchadnezzar, see the exposition of Eze 29:18. Also generally for the Chaldean policy the transition to Egypt is rendered plain to us from Eze 29:17 sq. (Hv.: if Nebuchadnezzar would make the possession of Phnicia once for all sure, Egypt must be completely broken.) Of the importance of Egypt by itself, its characteristic importance, some notice has already been taken, toward the close of the introductory remarks to Ezekiel 25; as also of the distinction, indicated with correct feeling by Keil, between Egypt and the other nations mentioned by Ezekiel. But what Egypt signifies in its connection here, this must be discerned from its relation to Israel. It is quite true that the charge laid against Ammon, Moab, etc., also against Tyre, for spiteful joy, hostility, envy toward Israel, is not mentioned in respect to Pharaoh and Egypt. It may be said that Egypts guilt in regard to Israel was that rather of a false, treacherous friendship. If, on the other hand, the excess of proud self-sufficiency must be regarded as the characteristic of Egypt, the same sort of self-elation meets us in the king of Tyre (Ezekiel 28); and in this respect Tyre formed a fitting transition-point to Egypt. The distinction between Tyre and Egypt might perhaps be found in this, that while in particular the kingdom of Tyre had had its time of sacred splendour and past greatness, as we have seen, in its former connection with the kingdom of David, Egypt on its part acquired importance on account of the sojournings of the pilgrim-fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and still more on account of the formation of their descendants into a people. Above all, the idea of redemption was associated with the land of Egypt. Here, therefore, the inverse relation holds good: Tyre has gone with Israel to school; Israel, on the other hand, was at school in Egypt, as was evidenced in manifold agreements and contrasts exhibited in their peculiarity as a people, without our needing on that account to ride off on the Spencerian principle [namely, of a servile borrowing from the institutions of Egypt]. More than from anything else, may be understood from Israels reminiscences as a people, and the impress of Egyptian style and manner even upon their sacred things, their abiding sympathetic turning back toward Egypt. That Israel could not let Egypt go out of sight had its root in human nature; we must learn even from the children of this world (Luk 2:6). But it had also its dangerous side. It was Israels worldliness, relapse, since Israel had been delivered by Jehovah from this world, and Jehovah had through Moses threatened them in connection with Egypt with the greatest evils (Deu 28:68). We have tribulation in the world, and we may have fear before the world; such fear, however, may be salutary in its operation. But dangerous is the stay that is sought in Egypt, trust and confidence therein. In this respect Egypt is designated a remembrancer of iniquity (Eze 29:16), since for Israel it had, and not as of yesterday, but from of old (comp. also Eze 16:26; Eze 23:8; Eze 23:19), the fatal significance of a pride which resists Jehovah and leads away from Him, of a consciousness of worldly power, which amid the characteristic Pharaonic arrogance expressed itself just as distinctly (Eze 29:3; Eze 29:9) as in Exo 5:2, and had this the more seductively, as a self-conscious abiding worldly power is in fact fitted to impose on people. Friendship with Egypt is the most contemptuous relation in which Israel can be thought of, on account of the indifference which it necessarily implied on the part of the Israelitish people not only in regard to their former house of bondage, but also to the mighty deliverance obtained from it, and generally in what concerned their relation to Jehovah, on whom, as their own and their fathers God, they had been thrown from their state of childhood. To make account of this specific historical position in respect to each other, according to which the growth, bloom, and decay of Israel were closely interwoven with Egypt, the prophecy of Ezekiel dwells at greater length on Egypt than on the other nations (Hv.). Still more, however, it serves to explain the representation of the judgment upon Egypt as strikingly parallel with that on Israel, and to the last carried out (comp. Eze 29:5; Eze 29:9 sq., 12, 13, etc.). Not less remarkable, because singular, is the prospect and declaration in regard to the resuscitation of Egypt, and of it alone, which have been introduced into the prediction of our prophet; by this also is Egypt quite expressly kept parallel with Israel. The reminiscence which brings up Egypt so distinctly is not simply that of the house of bondage, or of iniquity, but it is Josephs post of honour, and the corn granaries of Jacob, together with his family. Comp. also Deu 23:7.
4. The interpretation of Neteler strikes out what is certainly a quite different path, strikingly reminding one of Cocceius, only with a specially Catholic tendency. According to him, the prophecies against the foreign nations constitute four groups, each of which contains four pieces: the first, Ezekiel 25; the second, the overthrow of the Canaanitish culture – development, standing in contrast to the higher calling of Jerusalem, and reaching its culmination in Tyre. The prophecy against Sidon he severs from Tyre, in the interest of this fourfold division; it belongs to the Egyptian group, inasmuch as Sidons bloom falls into the time in which Egypt was the bearer of the Hamitic power and culture, and the Sidonian development was a shoot of the Hamitic-Egyptian. The promises for Israel in this third section (Eze 28:20 to Eze 30:19) must stand parallel with those of the same kind in the first group, wherein punishment is threatened to the four nations with reference to Israel; as the first group, through Ezekiel 21 (Ammon), is placed in connection with the first destruction of Jerusalem, so the third stands, through the opening of the mouth which occurs in it, in closer relation to the symbol of the second destruction of Jerusalem. The four last prophecies against Egypt are mere symbols, according to Neteler. As Ammon drove the surviving remnant, after the destruction of Jerusalem, out of Judea, so had Moab decoyed Israel into gross idolatry before their entrance into Canaan; and so, in the prophecies against Ammon and Moab, the beginning and end of Israel in regard to Canaan are connected together. The punishment of Edom and the Philistines must point to the re-establishment of the house of David. In regard to Tyre Neteler expresses himself thus: The command given to Israel to root out the Canaanites, but by them neglected to their destruction, God will execute on Tyre through Nebuchadnezzar; and this command must stand in a noteworthy relation to the historical development of the last period of 800 years before Christ, in which those to the west (Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans) brought a real advance, while those to the east (the Hamitic kingdoms of Ethiopia and Egypt, the Semitic kingdoms of Assyria and Chaldea, the Japhetic Medians and Persians) repeat the development of the two earlier periods in smaller measure, yet as if thereby the problem of the western circle should be solved. He says: If Israel, through the extirpation of the Canaanites, according to Num 36:6-9 (!), had entered into the place of the Phnicians, it would have formed the first member in the development of this period, and would have shown the right path to the Greek culture which came forth in the second third of it. To retrieve as much as possible that which was neglected (! ?), Nebuchadnezzar must subject the Hamitic Tyre, even to the pillars of Hercules, and unite the eastern circle to the monstrous Chaldean kingdom, so that the externally insignificant Israel might be set in the centre of this gigantic Semitic power, which extended its sway even over the Turanian tribes in the high north. This contrast between the Semitic and Hamitic races (already occurring in the prophecy of Noah) must be of great importance for the understanding of the symbolical representation of Ezekiel in the prophecies relating to Tyre and Egypt. Upon the third group which Neteler distributes, and which reaches to Eze 30:19, we learn that, first of all, in the prophecy against Sidon, the second possession of the land is associated with the first, as in Ezekiel 20 the first deliverance from Egypt is made parallel with a deliverance in a higher sense. As Israel did not fully carry out the extirpation of the Canaanites, whose place, according to Num 33:54, it was their part to occupy, these were turned for them into thorns and briers. With the second possession, on the other hand, the servitude of Canaan, which was announced even by Noah, was after a sort realized, since the Canaanitish history becomes extinct. The second piece in this section, namely Eze 29:1-16, connects the end of the first Israelitish sojourn in Canaan, brought about by Egypts iniquity, with the end of Egypt; and the humiliation of Egypt is such an elevation of Israel, that Christianity will not be under temptation to lean upon a decaying heathenism. The forty years occurring at Eze 29:11 sq. must not be distinguished from the forty years of Judah, for which the prophet had to lie forty days upon his right side; that is, as Neteler remarks on Ezekiel 4, a symbolical designation of the time, reaching from the destruction of the temple to the return from exile, derived from the sojourn in Kadesh. The two first pieces, Eze 28:20 to Eze 29:16, set forth the world-historical ideas, which were to be realized by the introduction of Christianity, but give, as to the way and manner in which the realization should be prepared for, begun, and carried forward, no informationthis being first introduced by the prophet in the third piece (Eze 29:17-21). The might of Shem, through which God conquered Canaan in the worlds history, must also carry forward the work in regard to Egypt. In the interest of Israel, whose service to God stands in contrast to Canaanitish industry, God will turn the Semitic world-power against Egypt, by which Israel was compelled to do Canaanitish work, and establish for them, on account of their labour in respect to Canaan, claims for compensation, which God would render valid because of the bondage laid by Egypt on the Israelites. The booty which God took from Egypt after the conflict, on occasion of the first deliverance, was only a type of a later plundering, which in a preparatory manner was begun by Nebuchadnezzar, and after the second deliverance from Egypt, that is, after the redemption achieved by the sufferings of the Servant of God was realized, when all power in heaven and on earth was committed to the episcopate of the Church (!!). The consequence of this victory over Egypt (Eze 30:1-19) is given in the form of a judgment upon Egypt, in which is delineated its desolation and the annihilation of its idols and yokes; but the sons also of the covenant – land are smitten by the judgment, which points to a fall that should take place among them. The continuation of this Catholic-theological-historical explanation and interpretation of Ezekiel will be given in No. 9.
5. Cocceius remarks on Eze 29:21 : Evil Merodach gave Jehoiachin freedom, and the first place of honour among the kings. Farther, Daniel was great in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, and under the Persian dominion. Cyrus was called by God to give command to lead the people back, that they might rebuild the temple. Still higher grew the horn of Israel when they became free, and their priests assumed the diadem, as a sign of the freedom of the people, and the Israelites had become greater than their fathers, as announced in Deu 30:5. But most especially was it so, when out of Davids house the horn grew, which set the people free from all slavery, which subdued their enemies, and rendered the Gentiles subject to Israel, Psa 132:13-18.
6. The day of Jehovah, Kliefoth remarks, is not judgment in one point of time and destruction over the whole heathen world; and then he continues: The day of Jehovah is a period of indefinite duration, in the course of which God will punish with judgment and destruction all heathen nations in succession, just as they have shown their hostility to the people of God, and He sees that their time has come. From this point of view, also, is the announcement always to be understood, that this day of Jehovah is at hand. The day continues so long, that it lasts till, in the final judgment, the whole world, in so far as hostile to God, shall be destroyed; but it constantly begins anew, when any particular people, on account of their malevolence manifested to the people of God, falls under the righteous doom of perdition. Hence the day of Jehovah upon the heathen nations has, in the several prophecies, a different terminus a quo, according as they refer to this or that kind of relations. Only it must not be overlooked, that in Eze 30:1 sq. not indeed Egypt alone is contemplated, but Egypt in its connection with heathen nations; and yet, that it is not the day of judgment upon all anti-theocratic powers that is to be understood, as already Hvernick makes the prophet see this general idea obtaining realization; but as the time of Jerusalem was come, the time when judgment had begun at the house of God, so the time must now be near when this judgment of God shall go forth upon the heathen. Hengstenberg finds here the fundamental passage for Luk 21:24, and points to the overthrow of the Roman Empire,the mountain which was to be cast into the sea after the fig-tree of the Jewish people was withered (Matthew 21.), the mulberry-tree which was to be plucked up and removed into the sea (Luk 2:7.).
7. As in the kingdom of Tyre, Ezekiel 28, allusion was made to a time of sacredness upon the holy mount of God, so there was also found there, by way of similitude, a bringing to remembrance of Eden, and especially of the garden of God. This retrospect of paradise furnishes the beau-ideal, the standard for the Old Testament world generally; hence with Assyria, and in connection therewith in reference to Egypt, which had not the same historical position as Tyre, it appropriately comes back again in Ezekiel 31. As in the New Testament all is measured with heaven, so in the Old Testament what is or was glorious upon earth is made to hold of Eden and paradise.
8. On the derivation of the word Sheol there confessedly prevails a great diversity of opinion. For the biblical idea, especially the signification of the word in the Old Testament, this only is to be learned from this matter of etymological controversy, that as well the derivation from , to be hollow (therefore for ), since it points to hollowing, and in so far to the grave, as the derivation which Hupfeld adopts from: to sink down, and: to go apart from one another, therefore: sinking down, depth, abyss, and: cleft, hollow, empty spacesince the burying and the being in the sepulchre can be thereby expressedboth alike avail for the affirmation, that Sheol and the grave more or less run together. The derivation, on the other hand, from to demand, expresses as to Sheol only what constitutes generally the power and manner of death to demand for itself with insatiable desire all living beings (comp. Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; Pro 27:20; Pro 30:16). As to form an infinitive verbal substantive, the use of the word belongs predominantly to the poetic language of the Old Testament, whence also is to be explained the circumstance that it never stands with the article. Sheol appears as the aggregate of all graves. Who could venture to deny this aspect of the matter, at least for the 31st and 32d chapters of Ezekiel? It is the universal grave, which calls down to itself all earthly life, how high soever it may have reached, however magnificent it may have been, however valiantly it may have fought. But much, also, as Sheol and the grave () sometimes appear to approach (comp. also Isa 14:11; Isa 14:15), to cover one another, it must still not be overlooked that the grave, more exactly considered, is only the entrance into Sheol (Psa 16:10), which certainly, as it is commonly represented, keeps the hue of the grave, in generals as well as in particulars ( , Eze 32:23); it is the carrying over of the grave to the future state (while the grave as such is still always something here). It is quite reconcilable with this representation when Sheol is conceived of as a locality, and indeed as a deep abyss, just as the standing form of speech: to go down, to be thrown down, is thence explained as equivalent to being consigned to the dead. The occasional poetic delineation of this future must only not be formally dogmatized into an actual under-world with gates, rivers, etc. (Job 38:17; Psa 18:5 sq.) The going down of the company of Korah (Num 16:30) is often what is floating before the writers mind; and not so much the locality of Palestine, which was rich in grottoes and caverns, or the darkness of the Hebrew family tomb-vaults, the stillness of the Egyptian catacomb-world. The interior and inmost part of the earth (Eze 26:20; Eze 32:18), however, is not the earths inner region as such, but is the Sheol beneath (the underground, Eze 31:14); that is, partly the contrast to heaven as the region of the divine life, partly the distinction from the surface turned toward heaven, the face of the earth. Out of that contrast, in which, however, the earth also and its life have their place, and still more in accordance with this distinction from the earthly life, must Sheol and what is connected therewith be understood. The death to which one is surrendered (Eze 31:14) is not simply a going down, not annihilation, but as punishment for sin, the necessary consequence of the negation of God. Considered as a state, it is the contrast in respect to God, as curse, as judgment upon the sinner; hence the contrast in respect to life as divine, as salvation and blessedness, even to eternal perdition; and so Sheol posits a concrete, individual prolongation of life: the dead are represented in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 31.) as living on individually and in space. Passages such as Psa 104:29; Psa 146:4, and others, certainly have respect to the earthly life in the body, with its purposes and undertakings, doing and thinking, knowledge and wisdom together, Ecc 9:10 (so our Lord Himself in Joh 9:4 makes account of it for His diligence in working while in the flesh). As life on earth in a mortal body is for all men a troublesome, poor, and sorrowful thing, so certainly the advancing decay of the powers of life, with the dissolution of the union between soul and body, necessarily becomes quiescence, impotence, and withdrawal of their life-energy in regard to the appointed sphere of action. But passages like Job 26:5 sq., Eze 38:17, Pro 15:11, Psa 139:8, testify to the presence of the living God, through whom the subsisting and passing away of all beings is conditioned, as is said also in the made parallel with Sheol (comp. Mar 12:27; Luk 20:38). The contrast, therefore, to the heavenly upper world as the proper region of the divine life is not that of not-being and being; and just as little is the continued existence in Sheol an unconscious shade-existence, at least not according to Ezekiels representation: the heroes in Sheol speak and know themselves as such over against others, feel, etc. As the designation of shades () for the dead in the Old Testament times cannot be proved, so the appearance, for example, of Samuel (1 Samuel 28.), so entirely accordant with the spirit and address of Samuel as he actually lived, is not at all brought forward as an exception, somewhat after the manner of the Theban seer Tiresias (Odyss. x. 492 sq.). In the Old Testament, also, we read nothing of an instinctive repetition and continuation of the past life connected with the possession of blood. The representation of Sheol, into which there has often been greatly too much imported of heathen elements, is in no respect the localizing of the image, which, as Meier says, remains like a blanched, bloodless, shadowy form, in the spirit of the living, of their dead and buried fellow-men. Life in Sheol cannot, indeed, run counter to the conditions that prevail in respect to human life. Man is soul, but he has spirit, which for him constitutes the power wherein the life of the individual consists; while the soul is plainly the seat of that, as the body is its organ. If the life connected with the body appears as life in the flesh, when separated therefrom it will become an existence of the spirit, and departed men will necessarily have to be thought of as spirits, and can only in so far be termed souls as a retrospective sense of the earlier corporeal life has place. On this side the description of Sheol is certainly, and especially as contradistinguished from the earthly upperground life, kept in due regard to the state of things existing there. With the going down into the grave, the bright joyful sunlight vanishes for men; hence Sheol is the land of darkness and of the shadow of death (Job 10:21). While the world of light is an organized one, the midnight region of Sheol appears as a confused intermingling of substances, chaotic (Job 10:22). Busy life, so repeatedly designated tumult in this chapter of Ezekiel, becomes motionless in the grave; so in Psa 115:17 the dead go down to silence, to stillness (comp. Psa 104:17; Psa 31:18). The expression, however, of land of forgetfulness, Psa 88:12, must not be overstretched, though the reference is to be held fast in which it is said that, as God has given the earth to the children of men (Psa 115:16), so the manifestation of His wonder-working power and righteousness is promised to them on the earth while they are in the flesh. Not in the heathen materialistic sense, but Christologically, however still on the temporal side, the thought as to its form was presented in the Old Covenant. And thence are such passages as Psa 6:5; Psa 30:10 [Psa 30:9], Psa 88:10-11, Psa 115:17, Isa 38:18, to be understood. The dead, accordingly, are done (Psa 88:5); their state, Sheol, is without a history (on the other hand, comp. 1Co 15:19). But to complete our knowledge of the Old Testament Sheol, the ethical side is not to be overlooked, that is, the idea of recompense comes therein likewise into consideration (comp. Eze 32:23 sq.). The godly are there gathered to their fathers (Gen 25:8; Gen 35:29, etc.). It is a mode of representation which incidentally receives a very touching illustration in Luk 16:22 for the poor, who has no brother in the world, who is an abject, forlorn, when he is said to be received into Abrahams bosom. The righteous snatched away enters into peace, and rests therein upon the foundation of the grave (Isa 57:1). How far with the soul, when unclothed of the body, there takes place an ineffectual tormenting effort to consolidate itself corporeally (Beck)the spirit, however, being incapable of being contemplated apart from the soul, which conditions its individuality, therefore also not to be thought of as sunk after death into the corruption of the fleshmay be left undecided. It is enough that the rich man found himself in torment. With justice, however, Lange presses the thought that for the wicked Sheol is still not hell.
9. Neteler (comp. 4) maintains concerning Eze 30:21 to Eze 32:32, that is, the fourth of the groups set off by him, that through four symbols the overthrow of a power standing in antagonism to the Church is exhibited, and that what is said is to be taken eschatologically in a wider sense. Egypt is considered by him as a symbol of the power of Magog, and under the Chaldeans is found a combination of Romans and Germans. And here Netelers book dwells on the Russian Panslavism. The two last symbols must be fulfilled in the overthrow of Magog only provisionally, so that their complete fulfilment belongs to a still later future.
HOMILETIC HINTS
On Ch. 29
Eze 29:1-5. The close is made with Egypt, as Egypt was the beginning in respect to Israel.Egypt is with Ezekiel the oldest country of his peoples disgrace (Umer.).How clear is what God causes to be said to us! The address is plainly written, and can occasion no doubt to whom the word is directed; and not less clearly does it shine forth whose subscription stands under it, and who, therefore, will look after the punctual execution of the things spoken. It will not proceed according to mans sayings and opinions, but as God the Lord has said.The prophetic word so much the surer as the fulfilment of it now lies completely before us.What still survives of the Pharaohs lies in the midst of the wilderness; they are ruins to which the sand has still refused burial!Where can a mortal say: This is mine, or: This remains to me? But prosperity, where it is not understood as Gods blessing, makes people stupidly proud. See there, too, the blessing of tribulations, which demonstrate before our eyes, that nothing is our right, and nothing our abiding property (Stck.).Those who do not seek after the things which are above regard the Nile, which flows on the earth, with precisely such eyes.But that there is also a spiritual Egypt may be seen from Rev 11:8, and that is a people, kingdom, and dominion which holds in fetters the people of God and makes them slaves. Now, as under the great dragon in the sea Antichrist also comes to be considered, together with his scales and members that stick to him, and are in a manner innumerable, so shall this power also after the prince of Tyre receive his doom, with all his adherents, who by overbearing conscience have done so much wrong to the faithful. Then also will appear the vain help which the house of Israel has sometimes assumed as belonging to the reed of the fleshly arm (B. B.).Satan says to Jesus: All this will I give thee, all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, though still there was not an atom thereof in reality his (Luther).Oh how vain is man in prosperity! (St.)
Eze 29:4-5. Higher still than the highest is the Most High. He who comes from heaven is higher than all.It is bad when only amid loss people come wisely to learn that they had all of God, of which they were so proud and boasted themselves (Stck.).Pharaoh in the wilderness, and Jesus in the wilderness.They who set themselves up above others may readily observe that they are thrown off and away before they are themselves aware of it!The judgment of Jehovah upon the Pharaohs!Jehovah at the Pyramids, a very different object from Napoleon before them.The overthrow in the wilderness an image of a desolate ruin.
Eze 29:6-7. God punishes not those only who rely upon flesh, but those also who are flesh and yet wish others to find comfort in them.No knowledge of God and no knowledge of selfthis is what gives false self-confidence, and false confidence in man.The love of God in discovering the false and rotten props.A reed is everything that is in this world, as mans favour, temporal prosperity, beauty, yea, the corporeal life itself; from without it appears like a staff, and as if many were walking with it, but within it is hollow and brittle (Stck.).But for none is such a reed more suspicious than for the people to whom God has pledged Himself, and therewith all His wisdom and His omnipotence.It is certainly the same with the deceit and show of ones own righteousness, good purposes, and pious works. One cannot keep hand and shoulder far enough from these.How many a one has such like splinters in his conscience!The false reed-splinters in our bones, which make our going so feeble and our holding so insecure.The soldiers give to Christ a reed in mockery, Matthew , 27. (Luther).
Eze 29:8-16. The judgment of God by the sword in its significance for enemy and friend, warrior and conqueror, land and people.Desolation is always a mark of punishment. First men become waste, then their place is laid waste.Where the people become waste as regards God, there God causes the land to be waste of its people.Whosoever will have it that he has made himself to be what he says that he is, with him God must make an end, so that he may learn what he himself is, and how still God can do all.The mine and thine, as the grand controversy which moves the worlds history.So the sin of the people is their ruin; but though ancient history is full of examples, those who now live are not disposed to profit by them.Should one not be ashamed of such a speech, since it must so soon be changed into a pastit has been mine; and this often with much sorrow? (B. B.)The description of the earth is also a description of divine justice.By means of fragments and arrow-heads in the yellow sands of the desert, and obelisks which still point heavenwards, people now read the names of men, of kings, and such like; but the feci of God is likewise to be read there.The divine seasons of respite.The years of humiliating in their significance for Egypt and for us all as punishments and deliverance from high-mindedness.To stand low is to stand more secure than to go beyond bound and limit.All changes in the world have their bearing ultimately on the Church (St. ).God knows how to withdraw from the eyes of His own what dazzled their eyes and held them captive.Such is the aim of all the judgments that are inflicted, to withdraw the body of the faithful from confidence in what is human, and to supplant it by a firm trust in God (B. B.).
Eze 29:17-21. Warrior service hard service. He who serves God does not serve without pay.The recompense of our works is never made on the ground of merit, but is always of grace.The downfall of the world is the deliverance of the chosen (H. H.). Therefore lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh (Luk 21:28).When the world becomes poor, then the bones of the righteous flourish.The new life out of ruins.Upon silence to speak is better than to be silent upon speech.It is God who must open the mouth for us, and He also can do it.Immortality in the world and the eternal life in the sanctuary, Psa 23:6.
On Ch. 30
Eze 30:1-9. The judgments of God pass from His own people to other peoples; hence the day of the heathen could not be far off (Cocc.).Despair howls, hope waits.A day in clouds is also the day of death; the earth is shrouded from the eye, and especially when first the heaven has been covered to the spirit. Darkness then reigns below and above. How dark, then, is the grave!Bad times are met by watchfulness; howling merely goes before them as the loud blast before the outburst of the thunderstorm.
Eze 30:4-5. Many others are carried along with the fall of one. In every judgment that takes place in the world, behold a type and prelude of the judgment which is to be executed on the world.If not with the sinner immediately, yet on the sinner, and therefore through the sinner his companions shall be punished.Where God strikes the blow, there not only is the stir which a people makes, and with which it makes such a noise, its work and gain brought down, but also law and order and that whereon all rests are overthrown.
Eze 30:6-7. How helpless with all his appliances may one that was helpful to us prove in a night! May God be our help, who has made heaven and earth.
Eze 30:9. Everything does service as a messenger for God; in particular His word, which hence cannot be bound, but accomplishes that whereto it is sent.Gods seat of judgment stands always among mankind, and the worlds history is Gods judgment.The terrors in the history of the world.As there is a false security in individual men, so is there also a bad security with whole peoples.The national security a national loss.
Eze 30:10-19. When men do not sanctify God on holidays, God makes their bustling activity to keep holiday.When God wills, a mans name can cause terror to the world. But only One Name is given under heaven to men wherein we can happily exult before all terrors.Upon deeds of violence come still more violent ones, and tyrants are precipitated through tyrants.Whosoever sells himself to sin has already in doing so sold himself to his enemy (Stck.).Gods blessing fills, His curse impoverishes a land.
Eze 30:13. The hand of God alights some time upon all idols.From the overthrow of heathenism is seen the vanity of idols.Where are the famous cities of the olden times? Why do they lie buried in disorderly stone-heaps? Sinner, behold what sin may effect (St.),how it may build very high indeed, yet not for continuance, and still more may destroy.Gods and princes combined the common delusion of idolatry, at first in splendour, so afterwards in ruin!Terror is the opposite of courage, but not the fear of the Lord.Where God kindles a fire, it is always for judgment; the old is consumed therein, but a new springs forth out of the ruins.Without casting down, no progress in the life of humanity.
Eze 30:16. Must not man always be engaged in conflict?
Eze 30:17. With its youth the human future of a people goes down. Even the youth should be the chosen of God; instead of this, Satan at no period has so much of his nature in men as in the season of youth.
Eze 30:18-19. Walk in the light while ye still have the light,we, that is, who have the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.The judgment of God may, through the dogmas of men and a false philosophy, veil to us also the sun of truth, and wrap in darkness to mens view heaven and eternity.When at length, with the authority of God, the authority also of the law over men gives way, then, where superstition gives place to unbelief, there falls upon them yoke for yoke, one in the room of another; there is only an exchange of tyrants.How much old and high renown have the gravediggers of the worlds history already buried under the sod among other sweepings! What is gloria mundi?a transit.The new plagues of Egypt.The spirit of Pharaoh continued to be the spirit of the Pharaohs.Self heights are no heightsnone, at least, that stand in the judgment of God, and remain above though all else should go down and disappear; but a height in the true sense is that simply whereof it is said, As high as heaven is above the earth, Psa 103:11. This ought to be recognised, and that not merely at the last, amid howlings and gnashings of teeth, but betimes, when it may still serve for peace, with the calm open eye.The most wretched of all thoughts is that of having no part in God. How many an evil-doer has readily presented his head to the sword, in the conviction that through the punishment he should become a partaker of God! (H.)
Eze 30:20-26. How many the things are that men prize as an arm, and how easily these arms are broken!The arm of the Lord (Isaiah 53.), and the arm of man, and the armies of princes.More easily is an arm broken than healed; but now first of all the conscience, how Gainfully does it sting, and how long is it in healing! (Stck.)What God has broken, God only can heal.
Eze 30:22. But man never has enough by a fracture; so long as he can still move and stir otherwise, he must show himself. Therefore shall there come to be a destruction without mercy, if we will not submit to God on the footing of grace.Sickness breaks one arm, death both arms (Stck.).Every breakage which we must suffer is a call to repentance.
Eze 30:23. He who will not fear God in his fatherland has no injustice done him, if in a foreign land he is made to experience all sorts of misfortune (St.).
Eze 30:24-26. Strength and weakness come both from God (W.).Upon whose side Jehovah stands, that man prevails in the conflict; to him there is prosperity in life; he enjoys a blessing with his work. But this favour has the Lord promised to the righteous. Without God all ends unfortunately, mournfully, and in perdition (Stck.).What serves God, that serves also the kingdom and the power of the Spirit; just as at the last, all the kingdoms of this world shall become Gods and His Christs.
On Ch. 31
Eze 31:1-2. The greatness of Egypt was the presumption against the warnings of the prophet. But greatness is no security against destruction; no greatness upon earth can withstand the strokes of God (H.).With justice are kingdoms compared in Scripture to trees, as well on account of their form, the protection and shadow they afford to men and beasts, as also on account of their fruits; and still farther in this respect, that kingdoms, like trees, flourish and again cease to exist, torn up by the wind, or cut down by the hatchet of man (L.).It is very well for people to compare themselves with others, though not for the purpose of thinking better of themselves than others, as the Pharisee in the temple over against the publican, or in order to envy others; but humbly to learn that we are a part of mankind, and that what is human may befall us, and shall at last take place without exception. Also to make each one more contented with his lot, a comparison with others is, as a rule, fitted to be serviceable.Both the one and the other inference is right: As God has elevated that humble one, so can He, in His own time, elevate me; as God has abased that proud one, so may it also be done with me (Stck.).
Eze 31:3-9. The histories of the world might teach great lords much, that they should not rely upon their own powers (Lg.).Rulers and princes should be shady trees to the righteous.God has done good also to the heathen, that they might seek Him, if haply they might find Him, Act 17:26-27 (Stck.).Oh, what streams of grace flow upon the unthankful, if they would only perceive them! The waters are indeed not of one sortone portion swims in pure felicity, another in tribulation and adversity; but the aim is uniform, and the divine loving-kindnesses which are concealed under the latter are certainly greater than the former, in the eyes of those who know to estimate things aright (B. B.).But their favourable condition and the friendliness of God only serve with many to puff them up, and render them proud and arrogant,an end for which certainly all this was not given.He with whom it overflows should make it trickle over upon others.
Eze 31:7. To be radical in the proper sense is a good thing, namely, that one should know that his root is in God.The true comeliness of a prince stands in comely virtues, which adorn every man, especially a prince,clemency and justice above all; to afford protection and solace to the persecuted; to spread forth as it were his branches to the miserable; to have about him servants resplendent with his own virtues, so that, as in every branch the nature of the tree, so in every servant the character of the prince, may appear reflected. He and they must not be terrible to the good, nor oppressive to his subjects. The love of the people is a good root for a race of princes (Cocc.).
Eze 31:8. Better to be envied than commiserated. God makes man beautiful, as He alone also makes him good; the latter is the divine nature, the former the divine form, of a man.
Eze 31:10-13. I have given thee into the hand of such and such an onethis explains much darkness.The haughty spirit going before, the key to the fall afterwards.Now, however, we are all in Adam inclined to pride of soul; and the perishing things of this world, riches, honour, splendour, beauty, knowledge, etc., nourish our natural inclination, being all things which we overestimate. However, even a plain smockfrock often covers a repulsive arrogance. But kings are through their flatterers nourished in this vice, which is the root of all others (L.).One must grow in order to be able to lift the top so high; this is not so quickly reached;on the other hand, to arrive at the lowest depth there needs only one overthrow, which may take place in a single moment.One falls more quickly down a stair than one mounts up again.God cannot suffer pride; I am meek and lowly in heart, it was said by Him who was God manifest in the flesh, Mat 11:29.Out of the heart of man proceed also all high things that are offensive to God, which need not always wear a crown, but may have merely a pen behind the ear, or a pair of spectacles on the nose.
Eze 31:12-13. From the foreign land comes much sufferingfirst foreign sins, then punishment through foreigners.A shameful fall into sin, and a frightful fall into misfortuneboth invite to study.There must also fall into the valleys branches that have been broken off, that poor people may not think the great ones of the earth are freed from death and judgment.When the punishments of God break forth, then such as can flee gladly make off, while they were not to be enticed out of the shadow of sin, in which they delighted themselves.God shakes the luxurious tree from top to bottom, and then all that stuck to its branches fall off; and so they are struck off, since they did not allow themselves to be warned off.How does the shadow of the rich vanish with the sun of prosperity, and with the shadow depart also the flatterers and panegyrists ! (Stck.)He who chooses to be forsaken must become poor.Fate can keep up the interest, but a rich man who has become poor is a woe-begone phenomenon for the world.How often do the goods of a rich man become scattered over the world after his death! (Stck.)Discern false friends in adversity!To cut, and peck, and aid in plundering the very person in whose prosperity men formerly basked, and whom they hardly knew how to laud highly enough!So deeply is the friendship of the world rooted, and its caresses. So long as all goes well, friends and worshippers are readily found. But when that changes, all goes otherwise(B. B.).
Ver.14. Precautions must be taken that the trees do not grow into the heavens.All are born nakedno one comes in purple into the world; but that is far from working so powerfully as the thought that the king must die as the beggar.Death the moral of the human fable.A mighty lesson for our time (Richt.).Somewhat for People who would see clearly upon the death of Napoleon.That there is to be a general judgment after this life is evident alone from death, which strikes all, even great men.The consideration of the inevitable exit of all who live should beget moderation in pretensions. We take nothing with us of that which so many desire with such eagerness (L.).
Eze 31:15-18. Great fates cast forth also great shadows.If our terrors did but lead us to the knowledge of our misery, as well as of the glory of God!The grave unites all at the last.The glory of the earth must become dust and ashes, etc.But who believes our report may be said also here: he who exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.Thus God throws the loftinesses of men into one heap (B. B.).And so circumcision makes a distinction in deathnot, of course, that which is done in the flesh, but the circumcised heart; so that a circumcised person may have his place also among the uncircumcised, as, on the other side, uncircumcised persons, who are not so in heart, may be counted as circumcised. At the close, however, the prophet writes the name Pharaoh on the lid of the coffin (Cocc.).
On Ch. 32
Eze 32:1-2. How far otherwise have the court-poets ever and anon elegized !The comparison with lions and dragons withdraws much that is human in respect to Pharaoh.This robberfish (?) and dragon, which with his feet troubles the streams, is like the beast that should ascend out of the sea (Revelation 13.). Pharaoh is hence the enemy of the chosen, a roaring lion, which troubles the waters of heavenly wisdom with the slime of human additions, so that they provide no proper drink for those who thirst for salvation (H. H.).Should Christian kings be like lions and dragons? They ought to be the fathers of their country, caring day and night for the welfare of their subjects (St.).Tyrants and the covetous are insatiable, and cannot be at rest (Stck.).Ah! how much misfortune can be brought about by a restless ruler! Therefore pray for a peaceful government of the kingdom (St.).
Eze 32:3-10. The godless hasten to meet their destruction, without being afraid of it, but often secretly driven thereto by God (H. H.).God is the supreme hunter and fisher; He can throw upon the lions His toils, and upon the whales His net, to catch and destroy them (W.).God knows how to tame the untamed, to humble the proud, and to curb the fierce; who can resist His power? (Stck.)To be rejected, if not thrown entirely away, is the end of the mighty after the flesh.Corruption the last strophe also in heroic poetry.How mournful is it to be cast away by God! (Stck.)Even the ass will plant his footstep on the wounded dying lion.What the rich boast themselves so much of is but a carcase, which those who live after them will divide among themselves.After death, shame and reproach overtake the wicked and shameless (H. H.).
Eze 32:5-6. Overflowing for overflowing; for the waters of Egypt, now the blood of the hosts of Pharaoh.They who formerly swam in pleasures, shall by and by swim in their own blood (Stck.).
Eze 32:7. The greatness of the calamity is described by the prophet from the sense of those whom the tribulation affects, to whom it seems as if the whole world were enveloped in darkness (H. H.).The lights of heaven truly shine only for the happy; the sun exists not but for the sunlit eye (H.).The godly sustain themselves in such circumstances by the thought that the Lord is their light, and therefore will not suffer the light of their heart to go out (L.).But he who despises the light of grace, for him the light of glory also shall not shine (Stck.).It is also dark, and the stars even fall from the heaven, when great, noble, important, eminent men, heroes, sages, lawgivers, governors, teachers, are carried off by deathor worse, when they fall away into superstition or unbelief, ungodliness, injustice, and violence.
Eze 32:9. Many a fall leads to the elevation of others (St.).To be frightened is still not to be awakened, and awakening without enlightenment is spiritual tumult without spiritual life.The grave, too, is an unknown land, and thither we are all journeying. Yet for faith there is a sun which rises upon it, that never goes down.So the Lord loves to inspire terror, that He may break fleshly confidence (H. H.).Happy for him whom a sincere conversion has made secure against the terrors which seize upon the whole earth!He who still has to fear for his soul, let him consider that the whole world can profit him nothing!Every moment are we in danger of death, and consequently in sight of eternity.
Eze 32:11-16. If no other cure proves effectual, then God betakes Himself to the sword.The method of salvation through blood and iron; but what is the state of society presupposed in connection with it!The guillotine and the sword both do their work quickly, and bring what is before as it were under them.
Eze 32:13. It touches a miserly man much more nearly if his beast dies, than if his children are taken from him by death (St.).A stock of cattle a state of peace.
Eze 32:14-15. The stillness of the desert is indeed stillness, but it is not peace, any more than to flow like oil is the soft nature of the spirit.There is rest in the grave, but much unrest thereafter, yea, more unrest, and of a worse kind than existed before.There go the waters softly, as in mourning (Umbr.).But God knows how to set at rest a land and its creatures which have been plagued and misused by men. Where have the oppressors gone? They also lie still.Lamentation does not take away the pain, but in the lamentation it lives on.
Eze 32:17-32. Whoever would gain a thorough insight into the dominions and powers of the earth, he must look down into hell.The instructive glance into hell.The song of hell.La divina comdia of Ezekiel.The doctrine of Sheol as the doctrine of the state after death.What does the Sheol of the Old Testament signify? (1) According to its name, the demand of death on all persons and things, therefore the power of death over every individual person and thing; therefore that death is the wages of sin, the judgment of Gods wrath which takes effect on the flesh. (2) As to the thing, it is the state after death as existence in a spacious grave; that is, notwithstanding the dissolution of the body and the separation of soul and body, a continuous life of the spirit, and that with consciousness and recollectionhence, according to the character of this, in peace or disquiet.Woe to him whom the doom of death precipitates into condemnation in death!One can strike up no song to the living more unacceptable, yet at the same time none more profitable, than one about dying; should any one refuse to accompany it, it will still be sung upon him.He to whom the earth was all, when he sinks into the grave, all sinks with him. It is thus easily comprehensible how death stretches into the future, even into the grave, and how all appears as grave and graves.People and princes, Sheol demands both.Only to the pious is the tomb a chamber where they softly sleep, a resting-place without pain and commotion, a mothers bosom (as we are from the earth), a place of repose to lie down in (Stck.).
Eze 32:19. It will be so much the worse if one has been nothing but fleshly, for death seizes in a rough and frightful manner.
Eze 32:20. The sword cuts into the life, severs from life, sadly if also from God. For to die is what still goes on, to corrupt also; but to become lost for ever, that is the death without end, to die for evermore.
Eze 32:21. The salutation of the dead toward the living when they die.
Eze 32:22 sq. What is received into the human heart, finds its grave also there; so round about the prince of death are his grave-places, wherein after a spiritual manner he is buried (Gregory).The grave for the unconverted, the condemned, the perspective of the future world.The grave is very deep, even though in a material point of view it may be but a few feet down: it is deep enough to shroud all glory (H.).Powerfully seizes the mind and humbles the pride the ever-recurring There, when the subject of discourse has respect to a fallen king and his hosts. We look upon a limitless field of graves, and it is remarkable and peculiar to our prophet, that he transfers the graves also to the lower world (Umbr. ).As the elect come from the east and the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, so the cast off find their way to the uncircumcised, to the pierced by the sword, in the depths below (H. H)Here many graves, in the house of the Father many mansions.The counterpart of the fellowship of believers upon earth, of the elect in heaven.The lowest Sheol and the heavenly Jerusalem.The earth is everywhere indeed the Lords, but not all the dead die in the Lord.
Eze 32:27. Men take with them into the state of the dead their knowledge, and along therewith the judicial sentence due to their manner of life.Nothing is forgotten before God which is not forgiven.The wrath of God remains on them, it is said in John.
Eze 32:31. It is a wretched consolation which is derived from the circumstance that people see in others the same torments which themselves experience. And yet misguided mortals do really comfort themselves with it. It is a common necessity, they say; others have experienced the same, and are experiencing it daily, etc. (H. H.)The word of God, however, brings home to every man at last the application: this is such and such an one; as we find written on the tombstones: Here lies N. N.The Pharaohs prepare to swallow up without mercy: Jacobs Shepherd laughs at them, etc. (Hiller.)
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This chapter is but a continuation of the former. The burden of it is still Egypt, for whom the Prophet is commanded to take up a lamentation.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I cannot but believe, though the thing is not plainly revealed, that the Lord hath in this place a spiritual meaning, and which is principally intended by these scriptures. Surely Ezekiel ministry would not be directed, in so large a part of it, to the relation of other nations in their sins, and judgment, and punishment, but with an eye to the people of God for their improvement from them. And what can open an higher improvement than spiritually to contemplate the destruction of all those monarchies for the rejection of God’s covenant in Christ? Indeed, from what is said in the book of the Revelation by St. John, we have some authority to look at the subject at least under this view, though not perhaps enough to draw positive conclusions therefrom. There we read that the court which is without the temple is given to the Gentiles, and the holy city they were to tread under feet forty and two months. And as the same scripture proceeds to tell us, that this great city is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, we cannot but be led to conclude, that somewhat of this nature is intended from these scriptures. Rev 11:2-8 . And still more from what is said to be the general intention of the Lord in those chastisements of Egypt, namely, that when the Lord hath made Egypt desolate, and smitten all them that dwell therein, then (he saith) shall they know that I am the Lord. It should seem to be the ultimate object of all visitations, that when Israel is gathered, the Gentile Church also shall be called. So speaks the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah: The Gentiles shall come to thy (Church’s) light, (in Jesus,) and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isa 60:3 . Indeed the whole purport of prophecy is to this effect. Isa 2:2-4 ; Isa 4:1 etc. Hag 2:6-7 etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 32:1 ; Eze 32:17
Calling to mind my ordination this day eleven years ago, I spent some hours in the afternoon in the wood, reviewing the past, confessing sin, seeking mercy through the blood of the Lamb, who has a fold of righteousness to spread over a minister’s sins. Some brokenness of heart and some power to cry for future blessing. I see Ezekiel got some of his messages in his twelfth year! May the Lord God of Ezekiel remember me!
Dr. A. A. Bonar’s Diary, p. 143.
References. XXXII. 1. J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul’s Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 178.
Eze 32:8
‘This in good measure,’ said Newman, quoting the verse in a sermon preached in 1841, ‘has fallen upon us. The Church of God is under eclipse among us. Where is our unity, for which Christ prayed? Where our charity, which He enjoined? Where the faith once delivered, when each has his own doctrine? Where our visibility, which was to be a light to the world? Where that awful worship, which struck fear into every soul? And as the Jews shortly before their own rejection had two dark tokens the one, a bitter contempt of the whole world, and the other, multiplied divisions and furious quarrels at home so we English, as if some abomination of desolation were coming on us also, scorn almost all Christianity but our own; and yet have, not one, but a hundred gospels among ourselves, and each of them with its own hot defenders.’
Eze 32:24
The Duke of Weimar told his friends always, To be of courage: this Napoleonism was unjust, a falsehood, and could not last. It is true doctrine. The heavier this Napoleon trampled on the world, holding it tyrannously down, the fiercer would the world’s recoil against him be, one day. Injustice pays itself with frightful compound interest.
Carlyle, Heroes, vi.
References. XXXIII. 1-20, 30, 33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2286. XXXIII. 5. Ibid. vol. iv. No. 165. XXXIII. 7. A. Rowland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxv. 1904, p. 324.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
XVII
PROPHECIES AGAINST THE FOREIGN NATIONS
Ezekiel 25-32
Ezekiel has grouped his prophecies in regard to the foreign nations that came in contact with Israel, as Jeremiah also groups his prophecies in Ezekiel 46-51. Isaiah also groups his, in reference to the foreign nations, in Ezekiel 13-23. These three greatest of the prophets had oracles on the nations with whom Israel came in contact during that period of their history. Amos also devotes the earlier part of his prophecies to utterances regarding these same nations. Nahum devotes his prophecy to predicting the downfall of Nineveh and the Assyrian Kingdom. Obadiah’s entire prophecy relates to the downfall of Edom.
Some may ask the question, Why these prophecies against the foreign nations? Let us endeavor to find some reasons why Ezekiel should give these oracles against the foreign powers. They were written during the siege of Jerusalem, at a time when Ezekiel was perfectly sure that the city would fall, as he had been preaching for many years that doctrine to the exiles. Jeremiah had been preaching the same thing to the people in Jerusalem and Judah. The fall of Jerusalem at the hands of foreign and heathen powers would seem to establish the triumph of heathenism. The nations would conclude from this fact that because Jehovah’s kingdom, city, and Temple had fallen and the great heathen powers had triumphed, therefore Jehovah was inferior to the heathen gods.
On this point the prophets of Jehovah had something to say, and such was apparently the occasion for these prophecies. They would serve to confirm the sentence of God upon Israel in showing that God dealt with the foreign nations as he did with Israel; that he punishes sin as surely and as severely among the heathen as he does in Israel, and although the heathen nations seem to survive for awhile, they are no exception to the rule of righteousness with Jehovah. Again, the downfall of these nations at the hand of Jehovah and the prophecies regarding them, would have their influence upon Israel for the future. With the heathen nations out of the way, Israel would be free to return to her land and set up the everlasting kingdom that Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel had prophesied. The enemies, the old hereditary enemies of Israel, shall be destroyed utterly and absolutely, therefore the kingdom of God shall have free course to be glorified.
Ezekiel speaks of seven nations; five of them are small, but two of them are large nations. He says nothing of Babylon except by way of inference. He is living in Babylon and doubtless that was sufficient reason for refraining from speaking against that great empire.
The prophecy against Ammon is found in Eze 25:1-7 . Ammon bordered on the tribe of Reuben, and when that tribe was deported by Tiglath-pileser, Ammon seized the territory of Reuben contrary to what was right. Ammon had suffered at the hands of Jephthah, and also David through his general, Joab. Ammon bore hatred against Israel, but along with Judah he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, out of no friendship to Judah, but with the possible hope of freedom for himself. When Judah was destroyed, Ammon rejoiced and because of that Ezekiel hurls his denunciation against him: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity; therefore, behold, I will deliver thee into captivity; thou shalt be utterly destroyed and thy capital, Rabbah, shall be a stable for camels and thy territory shall be possessed by the roving Bedouin Arabs of the desert.” He holds out no hope for the future whatever. Jeremiah did prophesy a future for Ammon, but Ezekiel does not.
Ezekiel’s prophecy against Moab is recorded in Eze 25:8-11 . Isaiah and Jeremiah also have oracles against Moab. Moab had, like Ammon, seized a part of the territory of Reuben and was famous for her pride, an inordinate, selfish pride. When Jerusalem fell Moab also scorned her and rejoiced over her fall and said, “Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the nations.” Because Moab said that Jehovah’s people, with their king, was just like other nations, “therefore,” says Ezekiel, “Moab shall be overwhelmed and destroyed forevermore.” No hope for the future is held out for Moab by Ezekiel. Jeremiah did give some hope to Moab, but none is given by Ezekiel.
Then follows the prophecy against Edom (Eze 25:12-14 ). The country of Edom lies south of the Dead Sea and north of the Gulf of Akabah. Edom had borne hatred against Israel since the days of Esau. It was born in her, and she was nourished in animosity toward her neighbor. David almost exterminated the Edomites, and they were brought into subjection time and time again. They never forgave Israel, and when Judah and Jerusalem were overwhelmed, Edom also rejoiced and took captive all the fleeing Israelites she could and sold them into slavery. Because of that Ezekiel pronounces an irretrievable doom: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will stretch out my hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even unto Dedan shall they fall by the sword.”
The prophecy against Philistia (Eze 25:15-17 ): These were likewise the old, hereditary foes of Israel. They were very much like the Edomites in their feelings against her. They were revengeful, filled with an everlasting enmity, and rejoiced when Jerusalem went up in smoke. Because of that Ezekiel hurls his denunciations against the Philistines: they were to be crushed by the yoke Nebuchadnezzar. They had already been almost wiped out by the Assyrians. They were destroyed as a nation by the Babylonians, and at the time of the Maccabees they were completely exterminated as a nation.
Tyre was one of the greatest commercial nations of the old world, corresponding to the English nation in the modern world. The date of this prophecy is 586 B.C., the first day of the first month of the siege of Jerusalem. The prophet devotes three chapters to his oracles against Tyre. That city had achieved great commercial importance. She traded with every known nation in the world; she had lent her influence to every nation; she was the envy of almost every nation. She was the most active, the most aggressive, had the greatest commercial power, in some respects the greatest wisdom and the greatest skill, as well as the greatest colonizing power, of any nation at that period. From the thirteenth century Tyre was the commercial center. She had been friendly to Judah and Jerusalem under David and Solomon and some later kings, but for a century or two her relations to Judah had been changed; she had grown jealous of Judah’s commercial advantages, and was now exhibiting the same hatred and jealousy toward Judah that all the other nations were manifesting. She rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem the same as the other nations. Her business rival was now destroyed; her own chances were enhanced and, with the true spirit of commercial greed, she was glad that her sister nation had perished.
The destruction of the city of Tyre is described in Eze 26 . In Eze 26:2 the prophet gives his reason for hurling this denunciation and prophecy of destruction against Tyre: “Son of man, because that Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gate of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste.” Therefore, he denounced her and predicted her fate.
It was by Nebuchadnezzar, and in predicting her fall and end, Eze 26:5 says, “She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and she shall become a spoil to the nations.” He would scrape the great rock, the island upon which Tyre was built, so that the very dust itself would be taken off and there would be nothing there but a bare rock for spreading and drying the nets of the fishermen. That is almost literally true today and has been for centuries.
From that verse on, he predicts the siege of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. Tyre was built upon an island rock a short distance from the shore and was one of the strongest forts of the world. Nebuchadnezzar had to build a causeway from the mainland to reach the city. Ezekiel describes his mode of attacking the city in verse Eze 26:9 : “And he shall set his battering engines against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers,” and he continues with a full description of the rushing of the chariots over the streets and the indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants, with a sack of the great city.
From Eze 26:15-19 we have the consternation of the various nations over the fall of this great commercial center. If New York, that center of commercial life, were to be destroyed, it would not send a greater thrill of consternation throughout the civilized world and would not more seriously affect the industrial life of America than did the fall of Tyre shock every nation and affect the commerce of every people of the world. They are represented as being in a state of consternation and it says in Eze 26:17 , “They shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, that caused their terror to be on all that dwelt there.” In the last two verses of that chapter he describes the inhabitants of Tyre as sinking down into Sheol, the pit, or abyss, the abode of the dead, and there abiding in darkness forever.
We have a magnificent description of Tyre by Ezekiel under the figure of a great ship in Eze 27 . In this chapter we have one of the finest passages in the Old Testament and one of the best opportunities for the study of ancient commerce to be found anywhere. Tyre is pictured as a gallant ship, a splendid big ship, one of the great merchantmen of that age: “They have made all thy planks of fir trees from Senir [Hermon]; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for thee. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; they have made thy benches of ivory inlaid in boxwood, from the isles of Kittim [Cyprus.”] Her sail was made of fine linen from Egypt, and it was an ensign. Ships did not carry flags in that age, but they had colored sails and figures marked upon them which served the purpose of a flag. Thus the purple of Egypt served as an ensign, or flag. Blue and purple linen of Elishah [which refers to Peloponnesus] furnished the awning for the ship.
The men of Sidon, a town about twenty miles north, and the men of Arvad, a town still farther north on the Mediterranean coast, were its mariners, or rowers. Ships in that age had one or two sets of rowers. The ship in which Paul sailed had rowers, and the mariners in Jonah’s ship rowed hard. The men of Tyre, the wisest of the world, as they thought, and the best seamen and navigators of the world, were their pilots. The elders of Gebal, the best carpenters, were their calkers, literally, the leak-stoppers. Look at the army on board to guard this magnificent ship: They were men of Arvad; “Persia and Lud, and Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness . . . and valorous men were in thy towers.”
Then he goes on in (Eze 27:12-14 ) to describe the sea commerce of the great city of Tyre. To Tarshish, away on the western coast of Spain, the Strait of Gibraltar on the Atlantic Ocean her trade extended. “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares.” From Javan, Tubal, (south of the Black Sea) and Meshech, they brought vessels of brass and slaves. Togarmah is supposed to be modern Armenia, probably bordering on the Black Sea also. They reached this country by ships through the Black Sea and the straits. What did they get there? Horses and mules. So much for the sea commerce.
Now he gives the land commerce (Eze 27:15-25 ). Dedan was the Arab tribe bordering on the southern and eastern boundary of Palestine and Edom. Here they got horns of ivory and ebony which indicates that these merchants either went into Africa and made use of the elephant tusks, or went into India and obtained the ivory and ebony there.
Syria, round about Damascus, supplied them with emeralds, purple and broidered work, fine linen, coral and rubies.
Judah supplied them with wheat of Minnith, and Pannag (perhaps a kind of confection), honey, oil, and balm.
Damascus supplied them with the wine of Helbon, the finest and best wine of the world at that time; also with white wool.
Vedan and Javan supplied them with bright iron, cassia, and calamus.
Dedan supplied them with precious clothes for riding. When the ladies would go out riding, the fine clothes they wore came all the way from Dedan, probably located in southeastern Arabia.
Arabia and the princes of Kedar supplied them with lambs, rams, and goats.
Sheba and Raamah supplied them with all kinds of spices, precious stones, and gold.
Haran, Canneh, Eden, Asshur, and Chilmad supplied them with blue cloth and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar.
Now that is a magnificent description of the commerce of Tyre. It is the analogue of that marvelous description which we find in Rev 18:1-20 , where John pictures all the merchants of the earth mourning over the fall of the great city, Babylon. Many things there are identical with the articles of commerce here.
Next we have the fate of this magnificent ship (Eze 27:26-36 ): “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the seas. Thy riches, and thy wares, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the dealers in thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, with all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of thy ruin.” Her rowers had rowed into dangerous waters, and the divine powers broke upon her. The east wind, or divine judgment, produced the fall of the great city of Tyre. In Eze 27:28-36 there is the lamentation of the nations over the fall of this great city, just as John pictures all the merchants of the world lamenting over the fall of the great mystical Babylon, Rome.
The pride and fall of Tyre are represented in Eze 28:1-19 . This is a representation of what he had already said, only here he takes the prince of Tyre as a personified spirit of the city, the prince, representing the people, and gathering up in himself, as it were, the spirit of the people. He directs his lamentation against the prince. He represents the prince of Tyre as saying, “I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas.” That was the spirit of Tyre and is the spirit of every great commercial center where the commercial spirit rules and reigns.
Babylon said, “I am, and there is none else beside me.” Self-glorification, self-deification, idolizing self, is the besetting sin of every great commercial city. It has been and is today, and because of this great commercialism and inordinate pride, the prince of Tyre was doomed to destruction. They had great wisdom, worldly wisdom; they had great power, great wealth, great glory, but they were great idolaters and as such they perished. In Eze 28:11-19 he pictures the prince of Tyre as a cherub in the garden of God, or on the mountain of God, clothed in all the magnificence of the finest and most precious and costliest stones that could be found. This cherub, this angelic being, fell prey to sin and was destroyed.
There is also a prophecy against Sidon in Eze 28:20-24 . (For the prophecies of this passage see the text.) Sidon was an important city a few miles north of Tyre and her fate was involved in the fate of Tyre. When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed one he destroyed the other, with all the villages and towns adjacent to it.
Then follows another wonderful prophecy of the restoration of Israel and the blessings upon her after her return (Eze 28:25-26 ).
Egypt was a great nation, one of the greatest nations of the world, and Ezekiel devotes four chapters to her fall. The date of it was during the siege of Jerusalem, 587 B.C. The following is a summary of the prophecy against her:
1. A general statement of the fall of Egypt (Eze 29:1-16 ). Egypt is compared to a dragon, a crocodile, a huge alligator floundering around in the river Nile and boasting, as he says in the latter part of verse Eze 29:3 : “My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.” That was the spirit of Egypt. That great dragon-crocodile shall be taken with hooks in his mouth and Jehovah will pull him up and drag him forth and all the little fishes that belong to him will hang onto his scales, and he will be taken out into the wilderness and there he will be meat for the beasts and fowls of the air. This means that Egypt shall be destroyed from one end to the other, from the tower of Seveneh unto the border of Ethiopia. “Yet thus saith the Lord God: At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered; and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom.” After that Egypt shall be the basest of the kingdoms; “neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.” From that time until this, Egypt has been a poor, weak, and worthless power.
2. The reward of Nebuchadnezzar for failure to get booty at Tyre (Eze 29:17-21 ). The prophecy against Tyre that we have been studying was uttered in the year 586 B.C. Shortly after the fall of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre and continued the siege for thirteen years. We are not told whether he succeeded in capturing and destroying the city or not. Now, this prophecy came from Ezekiel in the year 570 B.C., the first month, first day of the month, sixteen years after he had written the previous prophecy. During those sixteen years Nebuchadnezzar had been besieging Tyre for thirteen years and had apparently destroyed the city as Ezekiel had prophesied, but had taken no spoil. Ezekiel had definitely prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would utterly and completely overwhelm Tyre, and he had seemingly done it. This prophecy throws some light upon the situation. Eze 29:18 says, “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service he had served against it.” How extremely hard was this thirteen years of toil I Now that plainly indicates that Nebuchadnezzar did not succeed in securing the wealth of the Tyre.
The truth seems to be that the people of Tyre spirited away by ships all their wealth and most of their inhabitants, and capitulated to Nebuchadnezzar at the end of about thirteen years, and when he entered the city he had nothing to destroy nor any wealth to take. Such seems probable, though we have no history that would justify the statement.
Now, because Nebuchadnezzar had performed this service for Jehovah against Tyre and had received no wages (Eze 29:19-20 ), God says, “Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God.”
3. The terror and dismay of the surrounding nations (Eze 30:1-19 ). The fall of a nation sends a thrill of horror and dismay through the world, and the fall of a great nation like Egypt struck terror into the hearts of all the surrounding nations, Arabia, Ethiopia, Crete, etc.
4. The broken arm of Egypt (Eze 30:20-26 ). Egypt had had one arm broken, probably by Nebuchadnezzar. Now Ezekiel prophesies that Egypt shall have both arms broken, and her power shall be destroyed.
5. Pharaoh represented as a lordly cedar cut down (Eze 31:3 ), “Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon.” He is using Assyria as an example for Egypt. He goes on with his magnificent description of the cedar. It is cut down. The Babylonians and Medes lay the ax at the roots and the cedar falls, crashing among the nations. In Eze 31:16 he pictures them as going down into the nethermost part of the earth into the pit of Sheol to abide forever.
6. Lamentation over the fall of Egypt (Eze 32:1-16 ). Here we have the picture of the dragon again, destroyed and left for a prey of the birds and beasts.
7. The welcome to Sheol, or Hades, by the nations (Eze 32:17-32 ).
This has been said to be the most weird piece of literature in all the world. All the people of Egypt, the princes, the mighty men, the soldiers, who were slain in these wars, go down into Sheol, the underworld, the place of the departed, and there existing in their shadowy and weak existence, grouped together and with them is Assyria and all her hosts that were slain with the sword: grouped together also and with them, Elam and all her hosts; grouped around them Mesheck, Tubal, and all her multitude; Edom, her kings, and all her princes, and all the Sidonians grouped together in Sheol. These are all in the shadowy world below, surrounding Egypt. In Eze 32:31 , Pharaoh and his hosts and all these foreign countries and their hosts, are said to be in Sheol where light is as darkness, and are gathered together in groups and Pharaoh shall see them and shall be comforted over all this multitude of slain ones. It is a picture of their conception of the underworld, Sheol, which is the place of the dead who have passed through what we know to be the grave, down into the spirit world. Thus Ezekiel leaves these nations in Sheol, the place where there is no light.
QUESTIONS
1. What prophets prophesied against foreign nations and what can you say of the grouping of their prophecies?
2. Why these prophecies against foreign nations?
3. What and why the prophecy against Ammon? (Eze 25:1-7 .)
4. What and why the prophecy against Moab? (Eze 25:8-11 .)
5. What and why the prophecy against Edom? (Eze 25:12-14 .)
6. What and why the prophecy against Philistia? (Eze 25:15-17 .)
7. What can you say of Tyre’s commercial importance and her attitude toward Judah and Jerusalem?
8. How is the destruction of the city of Tyre described in chapter 26?
9. Give the magnificent description of Tyre by Ezekiel under the figure of a great ship (27).
10. How is the pride and fall of Tyre represented in Eze 28:1-19 ?
11. What is the prophecy against Sidon in Eze 28:20-24 , when fulfilled and what prophecy relative to the children of Israel?
12. Summarize the prophecy against Egypt (Ezekiel 29-32).
13. What is the added prophecy concerning Tyre in Eze 28:17-21 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 32:1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. In the twelfth month. ] About a year and a half after the city was taken.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezekiel Chapter 32
It was not enough to have set forth the fall of the Assyrian as a pattern of Egypt’s ruin. The Spirit of God adds in conclusion a fresh message in two parts: one, in the first half of this chapter, setting forth the impending catastrophe of Pharaoh under the figures of a lion and a crocodile, (or a river dragon, not “a whale”) once the terror of nations, now caught, slain and exposed before all, and this under the king of Babylon; the other a developed picture of that which had been more curtly sketched in the preceding chapter, the once mighty monarch with his multitude pitiably weak now in the lower parts of the earth, yea in Sheol like all that were fallen before himself, consoling him with no better solace than that he and his were sharing the inevitable doom of princes and people.
“And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas; and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net. Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee. And I will flay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee. And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord Jehovah. I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations into the countries which thou hast not known. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Jehovah. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 1-16) The prophet announces that the king of Egypt should be an object of horror and pity, and an occasion of mourning, no longer of fear and envy. Pharaoh should be like the sea-monster disabled on shore, captured by a crowd of men, deluging with blood the land of its swimming, a prey to all birds and beasts, its flesh on the mountains and the valleys filled with its height, the rivers also.
It may help the reader to compare Rev 8:12 , Rev 8:13 with verses 7, 8. The political destruction of Egypt is compared to the darkening of the stars, the clouding of the sun, and the withdrawal of the moon’s light. The notable difference in the Revelation is another and distinct feature, which appears to mark that it was to be only in the west (comp. Rev 12:4 ), the eastern empire not being involved in this judgment, but bearing its own afterwards. Here the gloom has for sphere the land of Egypt.
Then, in verses 9, 10, we hear of the effect produced, dropping symbol for ordinary language, when countries which Egypt had not known should know of its destruction, and many people and their kings should be amazed and violently troubled at its fall, trembling each for his own life in that day.
Verses 11-16 proclaim the coming conqueror who should destroy Egypt’s pride as well as its multitudes a source of grief among the nations. There lie the ruins in witness of both, of old splendour, and of utter sudden desolation, to the extinction of once busy trade and even of agriculture celebrated over all the world. In verse 14 it does not mean “deep,” as I conceive; but the waters were to sink or subside and so become clear, with which agrees the rivers flowing like oil, instead of being turbid as of old by the demands of commerce. How manifest Jehovah’s hand! Egypt itself should know that it was He.
In the latter half the dirge, a fortnight after, is still more profound, as unveiling the unseen world, the most solemn elegy over a heathen people ever composed. “And it came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword: whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living. There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit. They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain. There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword. There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit. There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 17-32)
The heart of the pious Jew, who knew from God the judgments of the nations before and why they came, was not to be insensible, still less to insult their fallen foe and snare, old and recent. The Christian feels for men in view of eternity, but, thank God, he is charged with the gospel, with the ministry of reconciliation founded on the atonement of Him who once was here revealing God in perfect grace, but despised and rejected of men, most of all and most guiltily by the Jews themselves.
Here it is the judgment that sweeps off the earth after long patience and sends down the vain-glorious to the pit. There lie the fairest, without a token of relationship to God, “with the uncircumcised.” There in abject weakness and humiliation lie Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal (though with a peculiarity to be explained more fully in Ezekiel 38, 39), Edom, Zidon and others north of Palestine, ashamed of that might of which they were erst so proud, bearing their confusion with those that go down to the pit. Jehovah’s terror abides, and for those most who most inflicted terror here with the sword. What can be more graphic? Whose irony so keen as the prophet’s?
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 32:1-2
1In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him,
‘You compared yourself to a young lion of the nations,
Yet you are like the monster in the seas;
And you burst forth in your rivers
And muddied the waters with your feet
And fouled their rivers.’
Eze 32:1 See note at Eze 29:1. This date would be about one year after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
Eze 32:2 The four-chapter litany of judgment against Egypt continues (i.e., chapters 29-32).
take up a lamentation This was a well known form of poetic beat (3-2, BDB 884, cf. Eze 2:10; Eze 19:1; Eze 19:14[twice]; Eze 26:17; Eze 27:2; Eze 27:32; Eze 28:12; Eze 32:16; Jer 9:10; Jer 9:20). This chapter, like Eze 19:1; Eze 27:2; Eze 28:12, starts with a command for a funeral dirge (take up, BDB 669, KB 724, Qal IMPERATIVE, cf. Jer 7:29). Isa 14:4 has the same VERB in Qal PERFECT, but with taunt or proverb (BDB 605).
You compared yourself to a young lion of the nations Again this is a reference to Pharaoh’s pride and arrogance (cf. Eze 29:3; Eze 30:6; Eze 31:2-10; Eze 32:12). He was not a lion, but a water creature.
Yet you are like the monster in the sea See note at Eze 29:3. This may be an allusion to Canaanite mythology where Ba’al defeats Yam, or Babylonian mythology where Marduk defeats Tiamat, see Special Topic: Ancient Near East Creation and Flood Myths . The OT alluded to these myths without acknowledging their reality (e.g., Isa 27:1).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the twelfth year. See the table on p. 1105.
twelfth month. About one year and a half after the fall of Jerusalem.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 32
Now in chapter 32, because this is his sad destiny, he takes up this lamentation. A lamentation is a wailing or a crying for the Pharaoh. You lament, or you wail.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year ( Eze 32:1 ),
So this was a year later from the previous prophecy. Actually, a year and six months later, eighteen months later.
It came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a ( Eze 32:1-2 )
A whale is a poor translation. You are really like a
[crocodile] in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and you troubled the waters with thy feet, and you fouled the rivers ( Eze 32:2 ).
A crocodile or a dragon.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net ( Eze 32:3 )
You’re like a crocodile. You’ve muddied the waters; you’ve stirred things up, but I’m going to spread out a net.
over you with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net. Then will I leave thee upon the land, and I will cast thee forth on the open field, and will cause all the fowls of heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the earth with thee. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. And I will also water with thy blood the land wherein you swim, even the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee. And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; and I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light ( Eze 32:3-7 ).
Now as we get into this part of the prophecy where God speaks of the day when He puts her out, the heavens being covered, the stars dark, the sun will be covered with a cloud, and the moon will not give her light, brings into mind the prophecy of Joel concerning the time of the Great Tribulation, when the moon would be… the sun would be darkened, the moon would be turned to blood, and the stars would not shine. Jesus, of course, quoted this in Mat 24:1-51 , as again, a part of the Great Tribulation of those days. And we find it recorded also in the book of Revelation, in the cataclysmic judgments that take place in the sixth seal. So, it is possible that this prophecy against the Pharaoh is one of those prophecies with a dual fulfillment. That he was talking about what would happen when Nebuchadnezzar conquered him, but also the going out and the judgment against Egypt in the day of the Great Tribulation. So there is that real possibility of a dual aspect to the fulfillment of this particular prophecy, and it not only spoke of the condition of the Pharaoh then, but as history repeats itself, when the Lord judges the earth these same conditions do take place in the time of the Great Tribulation.
All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD. I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. Yes, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall. For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. And by the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, and the terrible of nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. And I will destroy all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, then I shall smite all of them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD ( Eze 32:8-15 ).
And again in all of these prophecies, the Lord declares when they are fulfilled then they shall know that I am the Lord. One of the purposes of prophecy, speaking of things in advance, is to give proof that God indeed has spoken. Jesus said, “I have told you these things before they come to pass so that when they come to pass you might believe.” And so one of the strong apologetics of scripture is prophecy and the fulfillment of prophecy. And so over and over again as the prophecies are made, the Lord said, “And then shall ye know that I am the Lord.” And, of course, when we get into Ezekiel our study next week, as it speaks of Russia’s invasion with this massive army from all of her allies, including Libya and Ethiopia and all, Iraq, Iran and all, when they are all defeated in Israel, he said, “Then shall the nations of the world know that I am God. I will be sanctified before the nations of the world.”
I was talking with a very wealthy Jewish friend about the Bible and about the Lord, and I was asking him what it was going to take to make him a believer. Because his whole thing was, “Where was God when my parents were gassed in Germany?” For his parents, both of them, killed by the Germans during the war. And I said, “But what will it take to make you a believer?” I said, “Here God said that He was going to make Israel a nation once again, and Israel is now a nation. Doesn’t that say something to you?” He said, “No.” He said, “It’s very obvious we have had that in our heart from the beginning. You know, one day it was gonna be a nation again. We were going to take it again.” He said, “We’re tough people.” I said, “Well, it says when Israel becomes a nation again that they will become a troublesome stone to all of those that are round about them, and if any nation tries to come against them, that they are really going to be hurt.” And this was right after the ’67 war. And I said, “Doesn’t… look what’s happened how Israel struck out against Jordan, Egypt and Syria, all at the same time and defeated all three. Took the Sinai, took the West Bank, and the Golan Heights, doesn’t that cause you to believe?” He said, “No, I told you we were tough people.” I said, “Well, the Bible says that Russia then will head an invasion against Israel, and will come with all of her allies to destroy this new nation. And that Russia is going to be totally defeated.” He said, “When that happens, I’ll become a believer.” I said, “Paul, you might be just a little bit too late to escape the Great Tribulation that will follow.” But we’ll be getting into that more next week as we move on in this exciting prophecy of Ezekiel, as he gets into these… the re-gathering of the nation of Israel and the events of these last days.
Now as we get into verse Eze 32:17 , we have a whole new prophecy. The lamentation against the Pharaoh is over with verse Eze 32:16 . This is the lamentation. He is told to take up a lamentation for the Pharaoh.
And this is the lamentation wherewith they shall all lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and all of her multitude. It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month ( Eze 32:16-17 ),
This first prophecy came in the first day of the month, so fifteen days later he had another word from the Lord for Egypt.
saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down to the pit. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all of her multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Asshur is already there and all of her company: his graves are about him: all of the slain, fallen by the sword ( Eze 32:17-22 ):
Egypt is going to fall and go into hell where Asshur has already been slain.
Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, her company is round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror for the land of the living. Elam is there and all of her multitude ( Eze 32:23-24 )
And verse Eze 32:25 :
They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all of her multitude: her graves are round about ( Eze 32:25 ):
And so Egypt is to be cast down with these other nations. Meshech and Tubal, those nations from the north, along with Sidon, and then Edom is also there, verse Eze 32:29 , and her kings and princes. And then verse Eze 32:30 , the Zidonians.
And Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all of the multitude, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 32:31-32 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Eze 32:1-10
FINAL CHAPTER AGAINST EGYPT WITH ORACLES
Eze 32:1-16 AND Eze 32:17-32
This chapter has the final two of seven oracles against Egypt in Ezekiel 29-32. The first of these, Eze 32:1-16 is a prophecy of the, “Monster of Egypt, caught, slain and devoured. There are two parts of this, (a) the allegorical representation of it (Eze 32:1-10), and (b) a literal explanation of what that meant (Eze 32:11-16).
The final oracle recounts the transfer of Egypt and his multitude to Sheol, the realm of the dead, a remarkable paragraph which constitutes the most extensive discussion in the Old Testament on the subject of the Underworld. “It has the most graphic portrayal of the Pit, or Sheol, in the Old Testament.
Cooke stated that it illustrates more vividly than any other passage in the Old Testament the notions of the Underworld current in those times.
(1) It is international and universal. Great and small, foreign and remote peoples are all there.
(2) It is conceived of as “in the depths of the earth.” The grave is only six feet deep; but in the sense of its significance it indeed goes to the “heart of the earth,” as Jesus stated in Mat 12:40.
(3) The dead lie there prostrate, harmless and extinct.
(4) Such distinctions as race and rank so visible on earth seem still to be retained in death.
(5) Isaiah even conceived of the dead as being capable of emotions, and even of speech (Isaiah 14), using such a conception to teach spiritual truth, but perhaps not intending that we should understand that there is any capability whatever pertaining to the dead.
Two dates are given for the chapter: March 15,586 B.C. from the LXX, and March 3,585 B.C. from the text here. Brace preferred that in the LXX; and Keil vigorously supported our text in ASV. At this time, Jerusalem had already fallen.
THE CROCODILE CAPTURED;
SLAIN; AND DEVOURED
(Eze 32:1-10)
Eze 32:1-10
“And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations: yet thou art as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth with thy rivers, and troubleth the waters with thy feet, and foulest thy rivers. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will spread out my net upon thee with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring thee up in my net. And I will leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the field, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle upon thee, and I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with thee. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of thee. And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord Jehovah. I will also vex the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring thy destruction upon the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known. Yea, I will make many peoples amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.”
“Thou wast likened unto a young lion …” (Eze 32:2). Pharaoh probably looked upon himself as `a young lion among the nations’; but God here told him what he was really like.
“Yet thou art as a monster in the seas …” (Eze 32:3). “The seas here, as in Eze 29:3 where it reads `monster in the midst of the rivers,’ is the Nile and its spangled delta exits. The `monster’ is the crocodile.”
It is a totally unchristian viewpoint that drags Babylonian mythology into this prophecy. See our comment in the previous chapter regarding the errors involved in seeking evidence of mythological connections in the prophecies of God.
Bunn’s allegation was that “the monster” of this passage, “May stand for the great dragon Tiamat in Babylonian mythology, or perhaps Apophis, the primordial god of chaos in Egyptian mythology … more likely it is the latter.
If such imaginary characters had been intended by Ezekiel, would he not have named them? On the contrary, he used a word which in Hebrew means any large sea-creature, including the crocodile. Or, could Bunn possibly have meant that Jehovah himself, mentioned in the same breath as the author of this statement, recognized the actual existence of mythological creatures like Apophis or Tiamat? Whatever he meant by this, his comment must be disallowed as inaccurate and untrustworthy.
As Keil noted, “Pharaoh is here compared to a crocodile, which stirs up the streams, muddying and fouling them, doing so with his mouth and his feet, rendering turbid all that was pure.
“And I will leave thee upon the land …” (Eze 32:4). The picture of what would happen to the crocodile was thus described by Pearson, “He would be taken in a great net, dragged out of his river retreat and left to die, out of his element, on the dry land, and his dead carcass would be left to provide food for the birds of the heavens and the wild beasts of the earth.
The darkening of the sun, moon and stars is a figure often encountered in the Scriptures. It carries the meaning of the destruction of all of the great leaders and public officials of a nation or kingdom.
In the following verses (Eze 32:11-16), “All metaphors are abandoned, and the desolation of Egypt is announced in literal language as something to be accomplished by the sword of Babylon, `the most terrible of the nations.’
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The sixth prophecy followed the fifth after an interval of nearly two years, but was closely associated with it, in that it consisted of a lamentation for Pharaoh whose doom was first described as the taking of a dragon in the seas and casting him forth on the land. The effect of this downfall would be widespread, bringing desolation to his own land, supplying booty to other lands, and making men everywhere tremble in the presence of the judgment of Jehovah.
This prophecy was uttered almost immediately after the fall of Jerusalem, just when certain of the people of God were turning their faces toward Egypt in the hope of help. It is quite evident that the intention of the prophet was not merely to foretell the doom of Egypt, but preeminently to warn those people of God who in the day of His judgment of them were hoping for succor and relief from Egypt.
The seventh and final prophecy against Egypt was uttered about two weeks after the sixth, and consisted of a wail for the multitudes of Egypt, in which the descent to death was portrayed, and all the companies of the dead from among the nations were represented as companions of Pharaoh and his hosts in the underworld. This was a terrible and awe-inspiring message, being, in effect, a funeral song in which the prophet in imagination watched the descent of Pharaoh and his hosts to the underworld. The proud head of the ancient enemy of the people of God is described as going out through death into corruption. As he passes into the dark and awful underworld he finds himself in the company of the slain multitudes of Asshur, and Elam, of Meshech and Tubal, of Edom and Sidon.
The prophet’s declaration that “Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted,” is appalling, as it reveals that the only comfort that can come to him is the profound sense of the operation of infinite justice in the punishment of all, himself included, who have been guilty of the abominations which have issued in the judgment of Jehovah.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Chapter Thirty-two
Jehovahs Lamentations Over Egypt
Gods judgments are reserved for individuals and nations which refuse to acknowledge His authority. As of old He sent message after message to Pharaoh through Moses, only to have the haughty monarch harden his heart against His entreaties, until at last judgment had to fall, so in the case that we have had before us in these last few chapters, God gave one warning after another through Ezekiel, which we may be certain were conveyed in some way to Pharaoh, the proud, insolent Egyptian ruler; but they brought forth no response, unless indeed, like his predecessor of so long ago, he became all the more set in his attitude of independence of God.
Finally, the last messages were given before the judgment fell; and these messages, it will be noted, take the form of lamentations because Pharaoh, like Israel in a later day, knew not the time of his visitation. Our Lords lamentation over Jerusalem was the expression of the heart of God over an unrepentant people, and such lamentations come before us here.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, take tip a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations: yet art thou as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will spread out My net upon thee with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring thee up in My net. And I will leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle upon thee, and I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with thee. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of thee. And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord Jehovah. I will also vex the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known. Yea, I will make many peoples amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish My sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall-vers. 1-10.
It is noticeable that the first message recorded in this chapter was given in the twelfth year and the twelfth month, considerably more than a year-and-a-half from the time of the last prophecy. Ezekiel was commanded to take up a lamentation over Pharaoh, in which he was likened now not to a crocodile in the river, as previously, but to a young lion rearing himself up in his savage independence of spirit, and seeking to destroy the nations that were leagued against him. He is also likened to a great sea monster, possibly a whale, which had entered into the Nile and was slashing about in its waters, troubling them so that they were foul and unfit for drink. Against him Jehovah was to spread out a net, thus rendering him helpless when the foe came upon him.
It is an interesting fact that even at this present time, various African tribes when hunting the lion, the leopard, and other savage creatures, try to get them into a den or hut of some kind where the hunters can surround them completely with a net; for they have a saying, The beasts know not the wisdom of the net. The beasts become so bewildered and entangled that they are then dispatched easily. Thus it was with Pharaoh. All his efforts to recoup his fortunes were to prove vain; and in due time he was to be ignominiously defeated, and his people subjugated to his foe. The land should be watered with the blood of the slain in that day. God said He would cover the heavens and make the stars dark, veil the sun with a cloud, and so arrange it that the moon should not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven were to be darkened, and the whole land covered with gloom.
This prophecy is very interesting and helps us to understand similar prophecies concerning the judgments that are to fall upon the world in the last days. It is very evident that these words were not to be taken literally, but they indicated the destruction of delegated authority and the gloom that would settle down upon the hearts of men because of the ruin that was to fall upon the land.
Not only would judgment be visited upon the Egyptians, but upon many peoples who were allied with them, destruction was to come. While other nations standing afar off and hearing of the terrible defeat of Pharaoh and his hosts, would be amazed and horribly afraid as they realized the seeming impregnability of such power as Nebuchadnezzars. That it was the power of Babylon which God had in view is evidenced from the definite way in which He speaks in the next section.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nought the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Jehovah. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 11-16.
The sword of the king of Babylon was the sword of Jehovah, for God Himself had commissioned Nebuchadnezzar to subjugate, not only Egypt but also every other nation of the civilized world of that day. Therefore the Babylonians are described as the terrible of the nations who are to bring to nought the pride of Egypt and all its multitude.
Destruction, too, would fall even upon the beasts beside the waters. These were undoubtedly the water-buffalo, the king of Egypt, upon which the people were so dependent. God had decreed that the very means of livelihood should, temporarily at least, come to an end, so that all the nations would realize that He was dealing in judgment with them.
As He lamented over them because of their obdurate and misguided spirit, the voice of lamentation should be heard on all sides, weeping over Egypt and her multitude because God had destroyed them.
It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword-vers. 17-21.
Fifteen days elapsed ere this final message came through the prophet. In it he speaks specifically not only of Egypt but also of various other nations with whom God was dealing at this time. He was called upon to wail for the multitude of Egypt who were to be cast down unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit, as we have seen already. They had forgotten God, and therefore they were about to be turned into Sheol, their day of probation on earth having come to an end. The prophet sees them literally covering the ground as slain with the sword, but beholds the spirit going deeper down even into Sheol, there to lie with all who were unclean in the sight of God.
Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are round about her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword: whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living-vers. 22, 23.
Upon Asshur, or Assyria, as previously noted, the judgment had fallen already. Her graves were openly manifest, and her people who once caused terror in the land of the living, had gone down into the pit. The God who had dealt with this great empire was about to exercise the fulness of His indignation against Egypt.
There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncir- cumcised into the nether parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with them that go down to the pit. They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are found about her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain-vers. 24, 25.
Elam is next mentioned, the ancient name of Persia. Nebuchadnezzar had already conquered this nation, destroyed its armies and slain vast multitudes who, with the others mentioned, had gone down into the lower parts of the earth; that is, into the pit, or Sheol. No longer would Elam be a terror to other nations. She was powerless before the might of Nebuchadnezzars army.
There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are round about them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, that are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are upon their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. But thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain by the sword-vers. 26-28.
Meshech and Tubal, of whom we are to learn more later when we come to chapters 38 and 39, were the names of tribes that had descended from Japheth, as we learn in Genesis 10. According to the most ancient records that have come down to us, they dwelt in the region bordering on the Black Sea, and at one time evidently they were people of some renown, but their encampments had been destroyed, and the slain had gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war. They were buried with these weapons under their heads, as became mighty warriors. But all their might proved unavailing against the Babylonian armies. Those who escaped fled farther north, for later on we find them in history as a nomadic people dwelling north of the Black Sea, and ranging from there to the region of the Caspian Sea. Eventually they were absorbed into the great Russian empire. Some have thought even that the names Meshech and Tubal are practically preserved for us in the two great cities of Moscow in Europe, and Tobolsk in Siberia.
There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with them that are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit. There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit-vers. 29, 30.
Edom, related intimately to Israel as we have seen, descending from Jacobs twin brother Esau, had rejoiced when they saw the sons of Jacob in adversity, but God had punished them by means of the same power that was wreaking vengeance upon the Jews. The princes of Edom, on the southeast of Palestine, and the Sidonians, a Phoenician people on the north, had been destroyed also. Their might availed nothing; they were put to shame, and they lay dead with others who had refused to obey the voice of Jehovah.
Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah. For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 31, 32.
God brought these various nations before Pharaoh, indicating their doom, that he might know the day would soon come when he and his armies would join them in their utter defeat and destruction. They had simply gone into Sheol a little ahead; Pharaoh and his people would soon be with them there. Thus should the judgment of God be visited upon all the nations roundabout Palestine that had refused to heed the voice of His prophets.
With this chapter this particular section of the book of Ezekiel comes to a close.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
twelfth month
i.e. March. Also Eze 32:17.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
am 3417, bc 587
in the twelfth: On Wednesday, March 22, am 3417, the twelfth year of Jeconiah’s captivity, about a year and half after the destruction of Jerusalem, and at a time when Pharaoh was in power and prosperity. Eze 32:17, Eze 1:2, Eze 29:1, Eze 29:17, Eze 30:20
Reciprocal: Jer 44:30 – I will Eze 20:1 – in the seventh Eze 24:1 – the ninth year Eze 40:1 – In the five
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 32:1. Twelfth year is dated from the time Ezekiel was taken to Babylon. This would correspond with the year following the death of Zedekiah who was the last king to sit on the temporal throne of Judah.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 32:1-2. In the twelfth year Namely, of Jehoiachins captivity, about which time Amasis began to set up himself against the king of Egypt, concerning whom this prophecy is. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh To the preceding funeral panegyric over Assyria, the fate of which was past, Ezekiel prophetically subjoins a similar panegyric over Egypt, though its fate was still future; making plainly here a happy variation in the oratorical figure, by which past events are brought down and represented as now present before our eyes; whereas, on the contrary, by this prophetic figure future events are anticipated, and represented as already past. Obs. on Books, 2:188. Thou art like a young lion of the nations Thou art like a beast of prey, devouring far and near. Thou art as a whale in the seas By the word tannim we may fitly understand a crocodile, as has been observed upon Eze 29:3, and the description that follows agrees very well to a crocodile, but cannot be applied to a whale. And thou camest forth with thy rivers, &c. Or rather, Thou rushedst forth through thy streams, and didst trouble the waters, &c.; that is, thou wentest beyond the bounds of thine own kingdom, and didst trouble and tread down, or subdue, the neighbouring cities and nations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 32:2. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh, compose a funeral elegy for Egypt. Send out thy letters to Egypt as Jeremiah wrote to Babylon, and give them a space for repentance. Say, the lion of the gentiles is coming against him. Herodotus in his second book, Euterpe, relates how Egypt fell successively under the power of Babylon, Persia, and Greece.
Eze 32:7-8. I will cover the heavenand set darkness upon thy land. I will eclipse the sun, and all the stars of Egypt. This invasion of Nebuchadnezzar took place about four years after the fall of Jerusalem, and assuredly no scourge could be more severe. The conqueror said in his heart, I will cut off nations not a few.
Eze 32:21-23. The strong among the mighty. The gibborim, the giants, who were destroyed at the deluge. Job 26:4-5. They shall speak to him out of hellthe wicked whose graves are in the sides of the pit. This is repeated from chap. 31:18. Without a doubt, the prophet here means the state of the dead in the world to come. And if the aspects of those men were so murderous on earth, what must their society be in hell. Send Lazarus that he may certify to my brothers that they come not to this place of torment.
Eze 32:25-27. All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Lowth quotes here a manuscript note in Sir John Chardin, an oriental traveller. En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leur epe sous leur tte. In Mingrelia they all sleep with their swords under their heads, and their arms by their sides. They are buried in the same manner, with their arms put in the same position. Herodotus says, that Egypt once had eleven hundred cities, and twenty thousand villages, densely populated; but after those wars, the slaughter being countless, Egypt never recovered the blow.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 32:1-16. The Dirge over Pharaoh.A dirge is now sung over Pharaoh, in which he is likened, as before (Eze 29:3), to a crocodilebrutal and turbulent; but Yahweh will catch him in His net, and hurl his huge dripping carcase over mountain and valley, to be devoured by beasts and birds. Pharaoh, the brilliant luminary (the figure changes here), shall be extinguished; and other nations, when they behold Egypts fate, shall tremble at the thought that the like may happen to themselves. All this means in plain terms (Eze 32:11-15) that Egypt will be devastated by the king of Babylon. (Eze 32:2. The opening words of the dirge are obscure: either thou didst liken thyself to a young lion, etc., but art only a river monster; or a young lion . . . is come upon thee. Rivers should perhaps be nostrils, and the reference to blowing water. Eze 32:6 should perhaps read, I will water the land with thine outflowblood being a correct gloss. Eze 32:9, for destruction read (LXX) captives. Eze 32:14 means that the land, being desolated (Eze 32:15), will be absolutely stillit and its waters).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
32:1 And it came to pass in the {a} twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
(a) Which was the first year of the general captivity under Zedekiah.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
6. A funeral dirge for Egypt 32:1-16
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
This is the first of two messages that Ezekiel received from the Lord concerning Egypt on March 3, 585 B.C. [Note: Parker and Dubberstein, p. 28.] Less than two months had passed since the exiles had learned of Jerusalem’s fall, which had occurred several months earlier (Eze 33:21). The Egyptians had also doubtless heard of Jerusalem’s destruction. This oracle assured both the Jewish exiles in Babylon and the Egyptians, including the Jewish exiles there, that God would bring Egypt down. Jerusalem’s destruction was to be no source of comfort for the Egyptians.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
EGYPT
Eze 29:1-21; Eze 30:1-26; Eze 31:1-18; Eze 32:1-32
EGYPT figures in the prophecies of Ezekiel as a great world-power cherishing projects of universal dominion. Once more, as in the age of Isaiah, the ruling factor in Asiatic politics was the duel for the mastery of the world between the rival empires of the Nile and the Euphrates. The influence of Egypt was perhaps even greater in the beginning of the sixth century than it had been in the end of the eighth, although in the interval it had suffered a signal eclipse. Isaiah (chapter 19) had predicted a subjugation of Egypt by the Assyrians, and this prophecy had been fulfilled in the year 672, when Esarhaddon invaded the country and incorporated it in the Assyrian empire. He divided its territory into twenty petty principalities governed by Assyrian or native rulers, and this state of things had lasted with little change for a generation. During the reign of Asshurbanipal Egypt was frequently overrun by Assyrian armies, and the repeated attempts of the Ethiopian monarchs, aided by revolts among the native princes, to reassert their sovereignty over the Nile Valley were all foiled by the energy of the Assyrian king or the vigilance of his generals. At last, however, a new era of prosperity dawned for Egypt about the year 645. Psammetichus, the ruler of Sais, with the help of foreign mercenaries, succeeded in uniting the whole land under his sway; he expelled the Assyrian garrison, and became the founder of the brilliant twenty-sixth (Saite) dynasty. From this time Egypt possessed in a strong central administration the one indispensable condition of her material prosperity. Her power was consolidated by a succession of vigorous rulers, and she immediately began to play a leading part in the affairs of Asia. The most distinguished king of the dynasty was Necho II, the son and successor of Psammetichus. Two striking facts mentioned by Herodotus are worthy of mention, as showing the originality and vigour with which the Egyptian administration was at this time conducted. One is the project of cutting a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, an undertaking which was abandoned by Necho in consequence of an oracle warning him that he was only working for the advantage of foreigners-meaning no doubt the Phoenicians. Necho, however, knew how to turn the Phoenician seamanship to good account, as is proved by the other great stroke of genius with which he is credited-the circumnavigation of Africa. It was a Phoenician fleet, despatched from Suez by his orders, which first rounded the Cape of Good Hope, returning to Egypt by the straits of Gibraltar after a three years voyage. And if Necho was less successful in war than in the arts of peace, it was not from want of activity. He was the Pharaoh who defeated Josiah in the plain of Megiddo, and afterwards contested the lordship of Syria with Nebuchadnezzar. His defeat at Carchemish in 604 compelled him to retire to his own land; but the power of Egypt was still unbroken, and the Chaldaean king knew that he would yet have to reckon with her in his schemes for the conquest of Palestine.
At the time to which these prophecies belong the king of Egypt was Pharaoh Hophra (in Greek, Apries), the grandson of Necho II Ascending the throne in 588 B.C., he found it necessary for the protection of his own interests to take an active part in the politics of Syria. He is said to have attacked Phoenicia by sea and land, capturing Sidon and defeating a Tyrian fleet in a naval engagement. His object must have been to secure the ascendency of the Egyptian party in the Phoenician cities; and the stubborn resistance which Nebuchadnezzar encountered from Tyre was no doubt the result of the political arrangements made by Hophra after his victory. No armed intervention was needed to ensure a spirited defence of Jerusalem; and it was only after the Babylonians were encamped around the city that Hophra sent an Egyptian army to its relief. He was unable, however, to effect more than a temporary suspension of the siege, and returned to Egypt, leaving Judah to its fate, apparently without venturing on a battle. {Jer 37:5-7} No further hostilities between Egypt and Babylon are recorded during the lifetime of Hophra. He continued to reign with vigour and success till 571, when he was dethroned by Amasis, one of his own generals.
These circumstances show a remarkable parallel to the political situation with which Isaiah had to deal at the time of Sennacheribs invasion. Judah was again in the position of the “earthen pipkin between two iron pots.” It is certain that neither Jehoiakim nor Zedekiah, any more than the advisers of Hezekiah in the earlier period, would have embarked on a conflict with the Mesopotamian empire but for delusive promises of Egyptian support. There was the same vacillation and division of counsels in Jerusalem, the same dilatoriness on the part of Egypt, and the same futile effort to retrieve a desperate situation after the favourable moment had been allowed to slip. In both cases the conflict was precipitated by the triumph of an Egyptian party in the Judaean court; and it is probable that in both cases the king was coerced into a policy of which his judgment did not approve. And the prophets of the later period, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, adhere closely to the lines laid down by Isaiah in the time of Sennacherib, warning the people against putting their trust in the vain help of Egypt, and counselling passive submission to the course of events which expressed the unalterable judgment of the Almighty. Ezekiel indeed borrows an image that had been current in the days of Isaiah in order to set forth the utter untrustworthiness and dishonesty of Egypt towards the nations who were induced to rely on her power. He compares her to a staff of reed, which breaks when one grasps it, piercing the hand and making the loins to totter when it is leant upon. Such had Egypt been to Israel through all her history, and such she will again prove herself to be in her last attempt to use Israel as the tool of her selfish designs. The great difference between Ezekiel and Isaiah is that, whereas Isaiah had access to the councils of Hezekiah and could bring his influence to bear on the inception of schemes of state, not without hope of averting what he saw to be a disastrous decision, Ezekiel could only watch the development of events from afar, and throw his warnings into the form of predictions of the fate in store for Egypt.
The oracles against Egypt are seven in number:
(1) Eze 29:1-16;
(2) Eze 29:17-21;
(3) Eze 30:1-19;
(4) Eze 30:20-26;
(5) Eze 31:1-18.;
(6) Eze 32:1-16;
(7) Eze 32:17-32.
They are all variations of one theme, the annihilation of the power of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and little progress of thought can be traced from the first to the last. Excluding the supplementary prophecy of Eze 29:17-21, which is a later addition, the order appears to be strictly chronological. The series begins seven months before the capture of Jerusalem, {Eze 29:1} and ends about eight months after that event. How far the dates refer to actual occurrences coming to the knowledge of the prophet it is impossible for us to say. It is clear that his interest is centred on the fate of Jerusalem then hanging in the balance; and it is possible that the first oracles {Eze 29:1-16; Eze 30:1-19} may be called forth by the appearance of Hophras army on the scene, while the {Eze 30:20-26} plainly alludes to the repulse of the Egyptians by the Chaldaeans. But no attempt can be made to connect the prophecies with incidents of the campaign; the prophets thoughts are wholly occupied with the moral and religious issues involved in the contest, the vindication of Jehovahs holiness in the overthrow of the great world-power which sought to thwart His purposes.
Eze 29:1-16 is an introduction to all that follows, presenting a general outline of the prophets conceptions of the fate of Egypt. It describes the sin of which she has been guilty, and indicates the nature of the judgment that is to overtake her and her future place among the nations of the world. The Pharaoh is compared to a “great dragon,” wallowing in his native waters, and deeming himself secure from molestation in his reedy haunts. The crocodile was a natural symbol of Egypt, and the image conveys accurately the impression of sluggish and unwieldy strength which Egypt in the days of Ezekiel had long produced on shrewd observers of her policy. Pharaoh is the incarnate genius of the country; and as the Nile was the strength and glory of Egypt, he is here represented as arrogating to himself the ownership and even the creation of the wonderful river. “My river is mine, and I have made it” is the proud and blasphemous thought which expresses his consciousness of a power that owns no superior in earth or heaven. That the Nile was worshipped by the Egyptians with divine honours did not alter the fact that beneath all their ostentatious religious observances there was an immoral sense of irresponsible power in the use of the natural resources to which the land owed its prosperity. For this spirit of ungodly self-exaltation the king and people of Egypt are to be visited with a signal judgment, from which they shall learn who it is that is God over all. The monster of the Nile shall be drawn from his waters with hooks, with all his fishes sticking to his scales, and left to perish ignominiously on the desert sands. The rest of the prophecy (Eze 29:8-16) gives the explanation of the allegory in literal, though still general, terms. The meaning is that Egypt shall be laid waste by the sword, its teeming population led into captivity, and the land shall lie desolate, untrodden by the foot of man or beast for the space of forty years. “From Migdol to Syene”-the extreme limits of the country-the rich valley of the Nile shall be uncultivated and uninhabited for that period of time.
The most interesting feature of the prophecy is the view which is given of the final condition of the Egyptian empire (Eze 29:13-16). In all cases the prophetic delineations of the future of different nations are coloured by the present circumstances of those nations as known to the writers. Ezekiel knew that the fertile soil of Egypt would always be capable of supporting an industrious peasantry, and that her existence did not depend on her continuing to play the role of a great power. Tyre depended on her commerce, and apart from that which was the root of her sin could never be anything but the resort of poor fishermen, who would not even make their dwelling on the barren rock in the midst of the sea. But Egypt could still be a country, though shorn of the glory and power which had made her a snare to the people of God. On the other hand the geographical isolation of the land made it impossible that she should lose her individuality amongst the nations of the world. Unlike the small states, such as Edom and Ammon, which were obviously doomed to be swallowed up by the surrounding population as soon as their power was broken, Egypt would retain her distinct and characteristic life as long as the physical condition of the world remained what it was. Accordingly the prophet does not contemplate an utter annihilation of Egypt, but only a temporary chastisement, succeeded by her permanent degradation to the lowest rank among the kingdoms. The forty years of her desolation represent in round numbers the period of Chaldean supremacy during which Jerusalem lies in ruins. Ezekiel at this time expected the invasion of Egypt to follow soon after the capture of Jerusalem, so that the restoration of the two peoples would be simultaneous. At the end of forty years the whole world will be reorganised on a new basis, Israel occupying the central position as the people of God, and in that new world Egypt shall have a separate but subordinate place. Jehovah will bring back the Egyptians from their captivity, and cause them to return to “Pathros, the land of their origin,” and there make them a “lowly state,” no longer an imperial power, but humbler than the surrounding kingdoms. The righteousness of Jehovah and the interest of Israel alike demand that Egypt should be thus reduced from her former greatness. In the old days her vast and imposing power had been a constant temptation to the Israelites, “a confidence, a reminder of iniquity,” leading them to put their trust in human power and luring them into paths of danger by deceitful promises (Eze 29:6-7). In the final dispensation of history this shall no longer be the case: Israel shall then know Jehovah, and no form of human power shall be suffered to lead their hearts astray from Him who is the rock of their salvation.
Eze 30:1-19.-The judgment on Egypt spreads terror and dismay among all the neighbouring nations. It signalises the advent of the great day of Jehovah, the day of His final reckoning with the powers of evil everywhere. It is the “time of the heathen” that has come (Eze 30:3). Egypt being the chief embodiment of secular power on the basis of pagan religion, the sudden collapse of her might is equivalent to a judgment on heathenism in general, and the moral effect of it conveys to the world a demonstration of the omnipotence of the one true God whom she had ignored and defied. The nations immediately involved in the fall of Egypt are the allies and mercenaries whom she has called to her aid in the time of her calamity. Ethiopians, and Lydians, and Libyans, and Arabs, and Cretans, the “helpers of Egypt,” who have furnished contingents to her motley army, fall by the sword along with her, and their countries share the desolation that overtakes the land of Egypt. Swift messengers are then seen speeding up the Nile in ships to convey to the careless Ethiopians the alarming tidings of the overthrow of Egypt (Eze 30:9). From this point the prophet confines his attention to the fate of Egypt, which he describes with a fulness of detail that implies a certain acquaintance both with the topography and the social circumstances of the country. In Eze 30:10 Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldaeans are for the first time mentioned by name as the human instruments employed by Jehovah to execute His judgments on Egypt. After the slaughter of the inhabitants the next consequence of the invasion is the destruction of the canals and reservoirs and the decay of the system of irrigation on which the productiveness of the country depended. “The rivers” (canals) “are dried up, and the land is made waste, and the fulness thereof, by the hand of strangers” (Eze 30:12). And with the material fabric of her prosperity the complicated system of religious and civil institutions which was entwined with the hoary civilisation of Egypt vanishes for ever. “The idols are destroyed; the potentates are made to cease from Memphis, and princes from the land of Egypt, so that they shall be no more” (Eze 30:13). Faith in the native gods shall be extinguished, and a trembling fear of Jehovah shall fill the whole land. The passage ends with an enumeration of various centres of the national life, which formed, as it were, the sensitive ganglia where the universal calamity was most acutely felt. On these cities, each of which was identified with the worship of a particular deity, Jehovah executes the judgments, in which He makes known to the Egyptian His sole divinity and destroys their confidence in false gods. They also possessed some special military or political importance, so that with their destruction the sceptres of Egypt were broken and the pride of her strength was laid low (Eze 30:18).
Eze 30:20-26.-A new oracle dated three months later than the preceding. Pharaoh is represented as a combatant, already disabled in one arm and sore pressed by his powerful antagonist, the king of Babylon. Jehovah announces that the wounded arm cannot be healed, although Pharaoh has retired from the contest for that purpose. On the contrary, both his arms shall be broken and the sword struck from his grasp, while the arms of Nebuchadnezzar are strengthened by Jehovah, who puts His own sword into his hand. The land of Egypt, thus rendered defenceless, falls an easy prey to the Chaldaeans, and its people are dispersed among the nations. The occasion of the prophecy is the repulse of Hophras expedition for the relief of Jerusalem, which is referred to as a past event. The date may either mark the actual time of the occurrence, {as in Eze 24:1} or the time when it came to the knowledge of Ezekiel. The prophet at all events accepts this reverse to the Egyptian arms as an earnest of the speedy realisation of his predictions in the total submission of the proud empire of the Nile.
Chapter 31 occupies the same position in the prophecies against Egypt as the allegory of the richly laden ship in those against Tyre (chapter 27). The incomparable majesty and overshadowing power of Egypt are set forth under the image of a lordly cedar in Lebanon, whose top reaches to the clouds and whose branches afford shelter to all the beasts of the earth. The exact force of the allegory is somewhat obscured by a slight error of the text, which must have crept in at a very early period. As it stands in the Hebrew and in all the ancient versions the whole chapter is a description of the greatness not of Egypt but of Assyria. “To whom art thou like in thy greatness?” asks the prophet (Eze 31:2); and the answer is, “Assyria was great as thou art. yet Assyria fell and is no more.” There is thus a double comparison: Assyria is compared to a cedar, and then Egypt is tacitly compared to Assyria. This interpretation may not be altogether indefensible. That the fate of Assyria contained a warning against the pride of Pharaoh is a thought in itself intelligible, and such as Ezekiel might very well have expressed. But if he had wished to express it he would not have done it so awkwardly as this interpretation supposes. When we follow the connection of ideas we cannot fail to see that Assyria is not in the prophets thoughts at all. The image is consistently pursued without a break to the end of the chapter, and then we learn that the subject of the description is “Pharaoh and all his multitude” (Eze 31:18). But if the writer is thinking of Egypt at the end, he must have been thinking of it from the beginning, and the mention of Assyria is out of place and misleading. The confusion has been caused by the substitution of the word “Asshur” (in Eze 31:3) for “Tasshur,” the name of the sherbin tree, itself a species of cedar. We should therefore read, “Behold a Tasshur, a cedar in Lebanon,” etc.; and the answer to the question of Eze 31:2 is that the position of Egypt is as unrivalled among the kingdoms of the world as this stately tree among the trees of the forest.
With this alteration the course of thought is perfectly clear, although incongruous elements are combined in the representation. The towering height of the cedar with its top in the clouds symbolises the imposing might of Egypt and its ungodly pride (cf. Eze 31:10, Eze 31:14). The waters of the flood which nourish its roots are those of the Nile, the source of Egypts wealth and greatness. The birds that build their nests in its branches and the beasts that bring forth their young under its shadow are the smaller nations that looked to Egypt for protection and support. Finally, the trees in the garden of God who envy the luxuriant pride of this monarch of the forest represent the other great empires of the earth who vainly aspired to emulate the prosperity and magnificence of Egypt (Eze 31:3-9).
In the next strophe (Eze 31:10-14) we see the great trunk lying prone across mountain and valley, while its branches lie broken in all the water-courses. A “mighty one of the nations” (Nebuchadnezzar) has gone up against it, and felled it to the earth. The nations have been scared from under its shadow; and the tree which “but yesterday might have stood against the world” now lies prostrate and dishonoured-“none so poor as do it reverence.” And the fall of the cedar reveals a moral principle and conveys a moral lesson to all other proud and stately trees, its purpose is to remind the other great empires that they too are mortal, and to warn them against the soaring ambition and lifting up of the heart which had brought about the humiliation of Egypt: “that none of the trees by the water should exalt themselves in stature or shoot their tops between the clouds, and that their mighty ones should not stand proudly in their loftiness (all who are fed by water); for they are all delivered to death, to the underworld with the children of men, to those that go down to the pit.” In reality there is no more impressive intimation of the vanity of earthly glory than the decay of those mighty empires and civilisations which once stood in the van of human progress; nor is there a fitter emblem of their fate than the sudden crash of some great forest tree before the woodmans axe.
The development of the prophets thought, however, here reaches a point where it breaks through the allegory, which has been hitherto consistently maintained. All nature shudders in sympathy with the fallen cedar: the deep mourns and withholds her screams from the earth; Lebanon is clothed with blackness, and all the trees languish. Egypt was so much a part of the established order that the world does not know itself when she has vanished. While this takes place on earth, the cedar itself has gone down to Sheol, where the other shades of vanished dynasties are comforted because this mightiest of them all has become like to the rest. This is the answer to the question that introduced the allegory. To whom art thou like? None is fit to be compared to thee; yet “thou shalt be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth, thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain of the sword.” It is needless to enlarge on this idea, which is out of keeping here, and is more adequately treated in the next chapter.
Chapter 32 consists of two lamentations to be chanted over the fall of Egypt by the prophet and the daughters of the nations (Eze 32:16, Eze 32:18). The first (Eze 32:1-16) describes the destruction of Pharaoh, and the effect which is produced on earth; while the second (Eze 32:17-32) follows his shade into the abode of the dead, and expatiates on the welcome that awaits him there. Both express the spirit of exultation over a fallen foe, which was one of the uses to which elegiac poetry was turned amongst the Hebrews. The first passage, however, can hardly be considered a dirge in any proper sense of the word. It is essential to a true elegy that the subject of it should be conceived as dead, and that whether serious or ironical it should celebrate a glory that has passed away. In this case the elegiac note (of the elegiac “measure” there is hardly a trace) is just struck in the opening line: “O young lion of the nations!” (How) “art thou undone!” But this is not sustained: the passage immediately falls into the style of direct prediction and threatening, and is indeed closely parallel to the opening prophecy of the series (chapter 29). The fundamental image is the same: that of a great Nile monster spouting from his nostrils and fouling the waters with his feet (Eze 32:2). His capture by many nations and his lingering death on the open field are described with the realistic and ghastly details naturally suggested by the figure (Eze 32:3-6). The image is then abruptly changed in order to set forth the effect of so great a calamity on the world of nature and of mankind. Pharaoh is compared to a brilliant luminary, whose sudden extinction is followed by a darkening of all the lights of heaven and by consternation amongst the nations and kings of earth (Eze 32:7-10). It is thought by some that the violence of the transition is to be explained by the idea of the heavenly constellation of the dragon, answering to the dragon of the Nile, to which Egypt has just been likened. Finally all metaphors are abandoned, and the desolation of Egypt is announced in literal terms as accomplished by the sword of the king of Babylon and the “most terrible of the nations” (Eze 32:11-16).
But all the foregoing oracles are surpassed in grandeur of conception by the remarkable Vision of Hades which concludes the series-“one of the most weird passages in literature” (Davidson). In form it is a dirge supposed to be sung at the burial of Pharaoh and his host by the prophet along with the daughters of famous nations (Eze 32:18). But the theme, as has been already observed, is the entrance of the deceased warriors into the under-world, and their reception by the shades that have gone down thither before them. In order to understand it we must bear in mind some features of the conception of the underworld, which it is difficult for the modern mind to realise distinctly. First. of all, Sheol, or the “pit,” the realm of the dead, is pictured to the imagination as an adumbration of the grave or sepulchre, in which the body finds its last resting-place; or rather it is the aggregate of all the burying-grounds scattered over the earths surface. There the shades are grouped according to their clans and nationalities, just as on earth the members of the same family would usually be interred in one burying-place. The grave of the chief or king, the representative of the nation, is surrounded by those of his vassals and subjects, earthly distinctions being thus far preserved. The condition of the dead appears to be one of rest or sleep; yet they retain some consciousness of their state, and are visited at least by transient gleams of human emotion, as when in this chapter the heroes rouse themselves to address the Pharaoh when he comes among them. The most material point is that the state of the soul in Hades reflects the fate of the body after death. Those who have received the honour of decent burial on earth enjoy a corresponding honour among the shades below. They have, as it were, a definite status and individuality in their eternal abode, whilst the spirits of the unburied slain are laid in the lowest recesses of the pit, in the limbo of the uncircumcised. On this distinction the whole significance of the passage before us seems to depend. The dead are divided into two great classes: on the one hand the “mighty ones,” who lie in state with their weapons of war around them; and on the other hand the multitude of “the uncircumcised, slain by the sword”-i.e., those who have perished on the field of battle and been buried promiscuously without due funeral rites. There is, however, no moral distinction between the two classes. The heroes are not in a state of blessedness; nor is the condition of the uncircumcised one of acute suffering. The whole of existence in Sheol is essentially of one character; it is on the whole a pitiable existence, destitute of joy and of all that makes up the fulness of life on earth. Only there is “within that deep a lower deep,” and it is reserved for those who in the manner of their death have experienced the penalty of great wickedness. The moral truth of Ezekiels representation lies here. The real judgment of Egypt was enacted in the historical scene of its final overthrow; and it is the consciousness of this tremendous visitation of divine justice, perpetuated amongst the shades to all eternity, that gives ethical significance to the lot assigned to the nation in the other world. At the same time it should not be overlooked that the passage is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what was known or believed about the state after death in Old Testament times. It deals only with the fate of armies and nationalities and great warriors who filled the earth with their renown. These, having vanished from history, preserve through all, time in the underworld the memory of Jehovahs mighty acts of judgment; but it is impossible to determine whether this sublime vision implies a real belief in the persistence of national identities in the region of the dead.
These, then, are the principal ideas on which the ode is based, and the course of thought is as follows. Eze 32:18 briefly announces the occasion for which the dirge is composed; it is to celebrate the passage of Pharaoh and his host to the lower world, and consign him to his appointed place there. Then follows a scene which has a certain resemblance to a well-known representation in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah (Isa 14:9-11). The heroes who occupy the place of honour among the dead are supposed to rouse themselves at the approach of this great multitude, and hailing them from the midst of Sheol, direct them to their proper place amongst the dishonoured slain. “The mighty ones speak to him: Be thou in the recesses of the pit: whom dost thou excel in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised, in the midst of them that are slain with the sword.” Thither Pharaoh has been preceded by other great conquerors who once set their terror in the earth, but now bear their shame amongst those that go down to the pit. For there is Asshur and all his company; there too are Elam and Meshech and Tubal, each occupying its own allotment amongst nations that have perished by the sword (Eze 32:22-26). Not theirs is the enviable lot of the heroes of old time who went down to Sheol in their panoply of war, and rest with their swords under their heads and their shields covering their bones. And so Egypt, which has perished like these other nations, must be banished with them to the bottom of the pit (Eze 32:27-28). The enumeration of the nations of the uncircumcised is then resumed; Israels immediate neighbours are amongst them-Edom and the dynasties of the north (the Syrians), and the Phoenicians, inferior states which played no great part as conquerors, but nevertheless perished in battle and bear their humiliation along with the others (Eze 32:29-30). These are to be Pharaohs companions in his last resting-place, and at the sight of them he will lay aside his presumptuous thoughts and comfort himself over the loss of his mighty army (Eze 32:31 f.).
It is necessary to say a few words in conclusion about the historical evidence for the fulfilment of these prophecies on Egypt. The supplementary oracle of Eze 29:17-21 shows us that the threatened invasion by Nebuchadnezzar had not taken place sixteen years after the fall of Jerusalem. Did it ever take place at all? Ezekiel was at that time confident that his words were on the point of being fulfilled, and indeed he seems to stake his credit with his hearers on their verification. Can we suppose that he was entirely mistaken? Is it likely that the remarkably definite predictions uttered both by him and Jeremiah {Jer 43:8-13; Jer 44:12-14; Jer 44:27-30; Jer 46:13-26} failed of even the partial fulfilment which that on Tyre received? A number of critics have strongly maintained that we are shut up by the historical evidence to this conclusion, They rely chiefly on the silence of Herodotus, and on the unsatisfactory character of the statement of Josephus. The latter writer is indeed sufficiently explicit in his affirmations. He tells us that five years after the capture of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, put to death the reigning king, appointed another in his stead, and carried the Jewish refugees in Egypt captive to Babylon. But it is pointed out that the date is impossible, being inconsistent with Ezekiels own testimony, that the account of the death of Hophra is contradicted by what we know of the matter from other sources (Herodotus and Diodorus), and that the whole passage bears the appearance of a translation into history of the prophecies of Jeremiah which it professes to substantiate. That is vigorous criticism, but the vigour is perhaps not altogether unwarrantable, especially as Josephus does not mention any authority. Other allusions by secular writers hardly count for much, and the state of the question is such that historians would probably have been content to confess their ignorance if the credit of a prophet had not been mixed up with it.
Within the last seventeen years, however, a new turn has been given to the discussion through the discovery of monumental evidence which was thought to have an important bearing on the point in dispute. In the same volume of an Egyptological magazine Wiedemann directed the attention of scholars to two inscriptions, one in the Louvre and the other in the British Museum, both of which he considered to furnish proof of an occupation of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. The first was an Egyptian inscription of the reign of Hophra. It was written by an official of the highest rank, named “Nes-hor,” to whom was entrusted the responsible task of defending Egypt on its southern or Ethiopian frontier. According to Wiedemanns translation, it relates among other things an irruption of Asiatic bands (Syrians, people of the north, Asiatics), which penetrated as far as the first cataract, and did some damage to the temple of Chnum in Elephantine. There they were checked by Nes-hor, and afterwards they were crushed or repelled by Hophra himself. Now the most natural explanation of this incident, in connection with the circumstances of the time, would seem to be that Nebuchadnezzar, finding himself fully occupied for the present with the siege of Tyre, incited roving bands of Arabs and Syrians to plunder Egypt, and that they succeeded so far as to penetrate to the extreme south of the country. But a more recent examination of the text, by Maspero and Brugsch, reduces the incident to much smaller dimensions. They find that it refers to a mutiny of Egyptian mercenaries (Syrians, Ionians, and Bedouins) stationed on the southern frontier. The governor, Nes-hor, congratulates himself on a successful stratagem by which he got the rebels into a position where they were cut down by the kings troops. In any case it is evident that it falls very far short of a confirmation of Ezekiels prophecy. Not only is there no mention of Nebuchadnezzar or a regular Babylonian army, but the invaders or mutineers are actually said to have been annihilated by Hophra. It may be said, no doubt, that an Egyptian governor was likely to be silent about an event which cast discredit on his countrys arms, and would be tempted to magnify some temporary success into a decisive victory. But still the inscription must be taken for what it is worth, and the story it tells is certainly not the story of a Chaldean supremacy in the valley of the Nile. The only thing that suggests a connection between the two is the general probability that a campaign against Egypt must have been contemplated by Nebuchadnezzar about that time.
The second and more important document is a cuneiform fragment of the annals of Nebuchadnezzar. It is unfortunately in a very mutilated condition, and all that the Assyriologists have made out is that in the thirty-seventh year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar fought a battle with the king of Egypt. As the words of the inscription are those of Nebuchadnezzar himself, we may presume that the battle ended in a victory for him, and a few disconnected words in the latter part are thought to refer to the tribute or booty which he acquired. The thirty-seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar is the year 568 B.C., about two years after the date of Ezekiels last utterance against Egypt. The Egyptian king at this time was Amasis, whose name (only the last syllable of which is legible) is supposed to be that mentioned in the inscription. What the ulterior consequences of this victory were on Egyptian history, or how long the Babylonian domination lasted, we cannot at present say. These are questions on which we may reasonably look for further light from the researches of Assyriology. In the meantime it appears to be established beyond reasonable doubt that Nebuchadnezzar did attack Egypt, and the probable issue of his expedition was in accordance with Ezekiels last prediction: “Behold, I give to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the land of Egypt; and he shall spoil her spoil, and plunder her plunder, and it shall be the wages for his army”. {Eze 29:19} There can of course be no question of a fulfilment of the earlier prophecies in their literal terms. History knows nothing of a total captivity of the population of Egypt, or a blank of forty years in her annals when her land was untrodden by the foot of man or of beast. These are details belonging to the dramatic form in which the prophet clothed the spiritual lesson which it was necessary to impress on his countrymen-the inherent weakness of the Egyptian empire as a power based on material resources and rearing itself in opposition to the great ends of Gods kingdom. And it may well have been that for the illustration of that truth the humiliation that Egypt endured at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar was as effective as her total destruction would have been.