‏ Ezekiel 29

CHAPTER 29

Eze 29:1-21. The Judgment on Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar; though about to Be Restored after Forty Years, It Was Still to Be in a State of Degradation.

This is the last of the world kingdoms against which Ezekiel's prophecies are directed, and occupies the largest space in them, namely, the next four chapters. Though farther off than Tyre, it exercised a more powerful influence on Israel.

2. Pharaoh--a common name of all the kings of Egypt, meaning "the sun"; or, as others say, a "crocodile," which was worshipped in parts of Egypt (compare Eze 29:3). Hophra or Apries was on the throne at this time. His reign began prosperously. He took Gaza (Jr 47:1) and Zidon and made himself master of Phoenicia and Palestine, recovering much that was lost to Egypt by the victory of Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish (2Ki 24:7; Jr 46:2), in the fourth year of Jehoiakim [Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt, 1.169]. So proudly secure because of his successes for twenty-five years did he feel, that he said not even a god could deprive him of his kingdom [Herodotus, 2.169]. Hence the appropriateness of the description of him in Eze 29:3. No mere human sagacity could have enabled Ezekiel to foresee Egypt's downfall in the height of its prosperity. There are four divisions of these prophecies; the first in the tenth year of Ezekiel's captivity; the last in the twelfth. Between the first and second comes one of much later date, not having been given till the twenty-seventh year (Eze 29:17; 30:19), but placed there as appropriate to the subject matter. Pharaoh-hophra, or Apries, was dethroned and strangled, and Amasis substituted as king, by Nebuchadnezzar (compare Jr 44:30). The Egyptian priests, from national vanity, made no mention to Herodotus of the Egyptian loss of territory in Syria through Nebuchadnezzar, of which Josephus tells us, but attributed the change in the succession from Apries to Amasis solely to the Egyptian soldiery. The civil war between the two rivals no doubt lasted several years, affording an opportunity to Nebuchadnezzar of interfering and of elevating the usurper Amasis, on condition of his becoming tributary to Babylon [Wilkinson]. Compare Jr 43:10-12, and see on Jr 43:13, for another view of the grounds of interference of Nebuchadnezzar.

3. dragon--Hebrew, tanim, any large aquatic animal, here the crocodile, which on Roman coins is the emblem of Egypt.

lieth--restest proudly secure.

his rivers--the mouths, branches, and canals of the Nile, to which Egypt owed its fertility.

4. hooks in thy jaws--(Is 37:29; compare Job 41:1, 2). Amasis was the "hook." In the Assyrian sculptures prisoners are represented with a hook in the underlip, and a cord from it held by the king.

cause ... fish ... stick unto ... scales--Pharaoh, presuming on his power as if he were God (Eze 29:3, "I have made it"), wished to stand in the stead of God as defender of the covenant-people, his motive being, not love to them, but rivalry with Babylon. He raised the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a time (compare Eze 29:6; Jr 37:5, 7-10); ruin overtook not only them, but himself. As the fish that clung to the horny scales of the crocodile, the lord of the Nile, when he was caught, shared his fate, so the adherents of Pharaoh, lord of Egypt, when he was overthrown by Amasis, should share his fate.

5. wilderness--captivity beyond thy kingdom. The expression is used perhaps to imply retribution in kind. As Egypt pursued after Israel, saying, "The wilderness hath shut them in" (Ex 14:3), so she herself shall be brought into a wilderness state.

open fields--literally, "face of the field."

not be brought together--As the crocodile is not, when caught, restored to the river, so no remnant of thy routed army shall be brought together, and rallied, after its defeat in the wilderness. Pharaoh led an army against Cyrene in Africa, in support of Aricranes, who had been stripped of his kingdom by the Cyrenians. The army perished and Egypt rebelled against him [Junius]. But the reference is mainly to the defeat by Nebuchadnezzar.

beasts ... fowls--hostile and savage men.

6. staff of reed to ... Israel--alluding to the reeds on the banks of the Nile, which broke if one leaned upon them (see on Eze 29:4; Is 36:6). All Israel's dependence on Egypt proved hurtful instead of beneficial (Is 30:1-5).

7. hand--or handle of the reed.

rend ... shoulder--by the splinters on which the shoulder or arm would fall, on the support failing the hand.

madest ... loins ... at a stand--that is, made them to be disabled. Maurer somewhat similarly (referring to a kindred Arabic form), "Thou hast stricken both their loins." Fairbairn, not so well, "Thou lettest all their loins stand," that is, by themselves, bereft of the support which they looked for from thee.

8. a sword--Nebuchadnezzar's army (Eze 29:19). Also Amasis and the Egyptian revolters who after Pharaoh-hophra's discomfiture in Cyrene dethroned and strangled him, having defeated him in a battle fought at Memphis [Junius].

9. I am the Lord--in antithesis to the blasphemous boast repeated here from Eze 29:3, "The river is mine, and I have made it."

10. from the tower of Syene--Grotius translates, "from Migdol (a fortress near Pelusium on the north of Suez) to Syene (in the farthest south)"; that is, from one end of Egypt to the other. So "from Migdol to Syene," Eze 30:6, Margin. However, English Version rightly refers Syene to Seveneh, that is, Sebennytus, in the eastern delta of the Nile, the capital of the Lower Egyptian kings. The Sebennyte Pharaohs, with the help of the Canaanites, who, as shepherds or merchants, ranged the desert of Suez, extended their borders beyond the narrow province east of the delta, to which they had been confined by the Pharaohs of Upper Egypt. The defeated party, in derision, named the Sebennyte or Lower Egyptians foreigners and shepherd-kings (a shepherd being an abomination in Egypt, Ge 46:34). They were really a native dynasty. Thus, in English Version, "Ethiopia" in the extreme south is rightly contrasted with Sebennytus or Syene in the north.

11. forty years--answering to the forty years in which the Israelites, their former bondsmen, wandered in "the wilderness" (compare Note, see on Eze 29:5). Jerome remarks the number forty is one often connected with affliction and judgment. The rains of the flood in forty days brought destruction on the world. Moses, Elias, and the Saviour fasted forty days. The interval between Egypt's overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar and the deliverance by Cyrus, was about forty years. The ideal forty years' wilderness state of social and political degradation, rather than a literal non-passing of man or beast for that term, is mainly intended (so Eze 4:6; Is 19:2, 11).

12. As Israel passed through a term of wilderness discipline (compare Eze 20:35, &c.), which was in its essential features to be repeated again, so it was to be with Egypt [Fairbairn]. Some Egyptians were to be carried to Babylon, also many "scattered" in Arabia and Ethiopia through fear; but mainly the "scattering" was to be the dissipation of their power, even though the people still remained in their own land.

13. (Jr 46:26).

14. Pathros--the Thebaid, or Upper Egypt, which had been especially harassed by Nebuchadnezzar (Na 3:8, 10). The oldest part of Egypt as to civilization and art. The Thebaid was anciently called "Egypt" [Aristotle]. Therefore it is called the "land of the Egyptians' birth" (Margin, for "habitation").

base kingdom--Under Amasis it was made dependent on Babylon; humbled still more under Cambyses; and though somewhat raised under the Ptolemies, never has it regained its ancient pre-eminence.

16. Egypt, when restored, shall be so circumscribed in power that it shall be no longer an object of confidence to Israel, as formerly; for example, as when, relying on it, Israel broke faith with Nebuchadnezzar (Eze 17:13, 15, 16).

which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them--rather, "while they (the Israelites) look to (or, turn after) them" [Henderson]. Israel's looking to Egypt, rather than to God, causes their iniquity (unfaithfulness to the covenant) to be remembered by God.

17. The departure from the chronological order occurs here only, among the prophecies as to foreign nations, in order to secure greater unity of subject.

18. every head ... bald, ... shoulder ... peeled--with carrying baskets of earth and stones for the siege works.

no wages ... for the service--that is, in proportion to it and the time and labor which he expended on the siege of Tyre. Not that he actually failed in the siege (Jerome expressly states, from Assyrian histories, that Nebuchadnezzar succeeded); but, so much of the Tyrian resources had been exhausted, or transported to her colonies in ships, that little was left to compensate Nebuchadnezzar for his thirteen year's siege.

19. multitude--not as Fairbairn, "store"; but, he shall take away a multitude of captives out of Egypt. The success of Nebuchadnezzar is implied in Tyre's receiving a king from Babylon, probably one of her captives there, Merbal.

take her spoil ... prey--literally, "spoil her spoil, prey her prey," that is, as she spoiled other nations, so shall she herself be a spoil to Babylon.

20. because they wrought for me--the Chaldeans, fulfilling My will as to Tyre (compare Jr 25:9).

21. In the evil only, not in the good, was Egypt to be parallel to Israel. The very downfall of Egypt will be the signal for the rise of Israel, because of God's covenant with the latter.

I cause the horn of ... Israel to bud--(Psa 132:17). I will cause its ancient glory to revive: an earnest of Israel's full glory under Messiah, the son of David (Lu 1:69). Even in Babylon an earnest was given of this in Daniel (Da 6:2) and Jeconiah (Jr 52:31).

I will give thee ... opening of ... mouth--When thy predictions shall have come to pass, thy words henceforth shall be more heeded (compare Eze 24:27).

‏ Ezekiel 30

CHAPTER 30

Eze 30:1-26. Continuation of the Prophecies against Egypt.

Two distinct messages: (1) At Eze 30:1-19, a repetition of Eze 29:1-16, with fuller details of lifelike distinctness. The date is probably not long after that mentioned in Eze 29:17, on the eve of Nebuchadnezzar's march against Egypt after subjugating Tyre. (2) A vision relating directly to Pharaoh and the overthrow of his kingdom; communicated at an earlier date, the seventh of the first month of the eleventh year. Not a year after the date in Eze 29:1, and three months before the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

2. Woe worth the day!--that is, Alas for the day!

3. the time of the heathen--namely, for taking vengeance on them. The judgment on Egypt is the beginning of a world-wide judgment on all the heathen enemies of God (Joe 1:15; 2:1, 2; 3:1-21; Ob 15).

4. pain--literally, "pangs with trembling as of a woman in childbirth."

5. the mingled people--the mercenary troops of Egypt from various lands, mostly from the interior of Africa (compare Eze 27:10; Jr 25:20, 24; 46:9, 21).

Chub--the people named Kufa on the monuments [Havernick], a people considerably north of Palestine [Wilkinson]; Coba or Chobat, a city of Mauritania [Maurer].

men of the land that is in league--too definite an expression to mean merely, "men in league" with Egypt; rather, "sons of the land of the covenant," that is, the Jews who migrated to Egypt and carried Jeremiah with them (Jr 42:1-44:30). Even they shall not escape (Jr 42:22; 44:14).

6. from the tower of Syene--(see on Eze 29:10).

7. in the midst of ... countries ... desolate--Egypt shall fare no better than they (Eze 29:10).

9. messengers ... in ships to ... Ethiopians--(Is 18:1, 2). The cataracts interposing between them and Egypt should not save them. Egyptians "fleeing from before Me" in My execution of judgment, as "messengers" in "skiffs" ("vessels of bulrushes," Is 18:2) shall go up the Nile as far as navigable, to announce the advance of the Chaldeans.

as in the day of Egypt--The day of Ethiopia's "pain" shall come shortly, as Egypt's day came.

10. the multitude--the large population.

12. rivers--the artificial canals made from the Nile for irrigation. The drying up of these would cause scarcity of grain, and so prepare the way for the invaders (Is 19:5-10).

13. Noph--Memphis, the capital of Middle Egypt, and the stronghold of "idols." Though no record exists of Nebuchadnezzar's "destroying" these, we know from Herodotus and others, that Cambyses took Pelusium, the key of Egypt, by placing before his army dogs, cats, &c., all held sacred in Egypt, so that no Egyptian would use any weapon against them. He slew Apis, the sacred ox, and burnt other idols of Egypt.

no more a prince--referring to the anarchy that prevailed in the civil wars between Apries and Amasis at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. There shall no more be a prince of the land of Egypt, ruling the whole country; or, no independent prince.

14. Pathros--Upper Egypt, with "No" or Thebes its capital (famed for its stupendous buildings, of which grand ruins remain), in antithesis to Zoan or Tanis, a chief city in Lower Egypt, within the Delta.

15. Sin--that is, Pelusium, the frontier fortress on the northeast, therefore called "the strength (that is, the key) of Egypt." It stands in antithesis to No or Thebes at the opposite end of Egypt; that is, I will afflict Egypt from one end to the other.

16. distresses daily--Maurer translates, "enemies during the day," that is, open enemies who do not wait for the covert of night to make their attacks (compare Jr 6:4; 15:8). However, the Hebrew, though rarely, is sometimes rendered (see Psa 13:2) as in English Version.

17. Aven--meaning "vanity" or "iniquity": applied, by a slight change of the Hebrew name, to On or Heliopolis, in allusion to its idolatry. Here stood the temple of the sun, whence it was called in Hebrew, Beth-shemesh (Jr 43:13). The Egyptian hieroglyphics call it, Re Athom, the sun, the father of the gods, being impersonate in Athom or Adam, the father of mankind.

Pi-beseth--that is, Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, near the Pelusiac branch of the Nile: notorious for the worship of the goddess of the same name (Coptic, Pasht), the granite stones of whose temple still attest its former magnificence.

these cities--rather, as the Septuagint, "the women," namely, of Aven and Pi-beseth, in antithesis to "the young men." So in Eze 30:18, "daughters shall go into captivity" [Maurer].

18. Tehaphnehes--called from the queen of Egypt mentioned in 1Ki 11:19. The same as Daphne, near Pelusium, a royal residence of the Pharaohs (Jr 43:7, 9). Called Hanes (Is 30:4).

break ... the yokes of Egypt--that is, the tyrannical supremacy which she exercised over other nations. Compare "bands of their yoke" (Eze 34:7).

a cloud--namely, of calamity.

20. Here begins the earlier vision, not long after that in the twenty-ninth chapter, about three months before the taking of Jerusalem, as to Pharaoh and his kingdom.

21. broken ... arm of Pharaoh--(Psa 37:17; Jr 48:25). Referring to the defeat which Pharaoh-hophra sustained from the Chaldeans, when trying to raise the siege of Jerusalem (Jr 37:5, 7); and previous to the deprivation of Pharaoh-necho of all his conquests from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (2Ki 24:7; Jr 46:2); also to the Egyptian disaster in Cyrene.

22. arms--Not only the "one arm" broken already (Eze 30:21) was not to be healed, but the other two should be broken. Not a corporal wound, but a breaking of the power of Pharaoh is intended.

cause ... sword to fall out of ... hand--deprive him of the resources of making war.