Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 30:3
For the day [is] near, even the day of the LORD [is] near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
3. the day is near ] The “day” of the Lord is never in the prophets a mere calamity or judgment from God. It is the time of Jehovah’s final interposition in the world to do judgment, to chastise evil, and give the crowning victory to his own cause. This day has a universal bearing: particularly, it falls in terror and calamity upon the heathen, the foes of Jehovah’s kingdom, but also upon the sinners in Zion, those who are at ease and settled on their lees (Zep 1:12), on the proud and the oppressors of the poor (Isa 2:12). The presentiment of this day is common to all the prophets, and the knowledge of it exists among the people (Amo 5:18). The feeling of its nearness, however, was awakened in various ways: either by great convulsions among the nations or calamities, in which Jehovah was so visibly operating that his final interposition seemed at hand (Isaiah 13; Zep 1:7; Joe 2:1); or, by a moral condition of the world which it was felt he must intervene to chastise and put an end to (Isaiah 2, 3). Naturally the convulsions or calamities which awakened the presentiment of the nearness of the day passed over and the day was deferred, but this does not justify the supposition that the prophets mean merely a great calamity or judgment by the day of the Lord.
the time of the heathen ] the nations, the foes of Jehovah’s kingdom and people, when Jehovah shall be revealed to them and they shall be judged. Isaiah 2, 3, Isa 13:22; Jer 27:7; Eze 7:7; Eze 22:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The time of the pagan – The time when the pagan (Egyptians) shall be judged.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The day; the time of such distresses, as never the like known by you.
Near; it will begin in your overthrow in the Cyrenian and Libyan deserts in very little time next it will continue in your civil war, and finally end in the Babylonish conquest: some two years, and you shall be miserably routed in the deserts of Libya; immediately after the civil war for eleven years together shall waste you; and then Nebuchadrezzars forces will be upon you; so that, whereas there may be about sixteen or eighteen years between the prophecy and its fulfilling, here is thirteen or fourteen of them taken up with sorrows and afflictions, forerunners of the last.
The day of the Lord; of the Lords sore displeasure against Egypt and its allies.
Near; within two years, as is said.
A cloudy day; a dark day, so times of trouble are called, whereas prosperity is a day of light. Troubles, like violent storms, are black.
Of the heathen; of the Egyptians to be wasted, and of the Babylonians to waste them; the day of pride, cruelty, and revenges to the one, the day of falling, spoil, and destruction to the other.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. the time of the heathennamely,for taking vengeance on them. The judgment on Egypt is the beginningof a world-wide judgment on all the heathen enemies of God (Joe 1:15;Joe 2:1; Joe 2:2;Joe 2:3; Oba 1:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the day is near,…. The day of Egypt’s destruction, the time fixed for it:
even the day of the Lord is near; the day appointed by him, and in which he would make himself known by the judgments he executed: Kimchi observes, that, the same year this prophecy was delivered, Egypt was given into the hands of the king of Babylon:
a cloudy day; or; “a day of cloud” e; which was seldom seen in Egypt in a literal sense, rarely having any rain, their country being watered by the Nile; but now, in a figurative sense, the clouds would gather thick and black, and threaten with a horrible tempest of divine wrath, and of ruin and destruction:
it shall be the time of the Heathen: both when the Heathen nation of the Chaldeans should distress and conquer others; and when Heathen nations, as the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and others, should be destroyed by them. The Targum is,
“it shall be the time of the breaking or destruction of the people.”
e “dies nubis”, V. L. Pagniaus, Montanus, Cocceius, Starckius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(3) The time of the heathen.The judgment upon Egypt is but an individual instance, and is symbolic of general judgment upon all merely worldly power. Her fall is one step in the general overthrow of whatever exalts and opposes itself to God. Very similar to Eze. 30:2-3 are the prophecies in Isa. 13:6; Isa. 13:9; Joe. 1:13; Joe. 1:15; Joe. 2:2; Oba. 1:15; Zep. 1:7; Zep. 1:14.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 30:3. The day is near The day of the Lord implies a day of sacrifice and vengeance upon his enemies. The destruction of Babylon, described in such awful terms, as if all nature suffered by the shock, is represented as the day of the Lord, Isa 13:6. So is the destruction of Bozrah and Idumaea, Isa 34:8. See also Jer 46:10. Joe 3:14. Zep 2:2-3. When the figurative day is used in general to express the period of any one’s existence, then it denotes time; but when it is used to express any particular thing or employ, then it signifies some characteristical circumstance. Thus that signal catastrophe in the fortunes of the Jews, both spiritual and temporal, is called their day, Hos 1:11. See Div. Leg. vol. 4: Sharp on the Rise and Fall of Jerusalem; and Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 30:3 For the day [is] near, even the day of the LORD [is] near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
Ver. 3. A cloudy day. ] Heb., A day of a cloud, which was rarely seen in Egypt.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the day of the LORD. See notes on Isa 2:12; Isa 13:6; and Rev 1:10.
the time of, &c.: i.e. the season in which their power shall be judged and broken.
heathen = nations.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the day of the Lord Day (of Jehovah) (See Scofield “Isa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the day is: Eze 7:7, Eze 7:12, Psa 37:13, Oba 1:15, Joe 2:1, Zep 1:7, Zep 1:14, Mat 24:33, Phi 4:5, Jam 5:9, Rev 6:17
a cloudy: Eze 30:18, Eze 32:7, Eze 34:12, Exo 14:20, Exo 14:24, Isa 19:1, Joe 2:1, Joe 2:2, Amo 5:16-20
the time: Eze 29:12, Psa 110:6, Psa 149:7-9, Isa 24:21-23, Isa 34:2-17, Jer 25:15-29, Joe 3:11-14, Zep 3:6, Zep 3:7, Zec 14:3-19, Rev 19:13-21
Reciprocal: Job 3:5 – let a cloud Isa 13:6 – for the day Eze 13:5 – the day Eze 21:25 – whose Joe 3:12 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 30:3. The events just predicted are to take place in the near future from the time Ezekiel is writing this. Time of the heathen means the time when the nations are to come together in the manner alluded to in the predictions just made by the prophet.