Ezekiel 30:5

Ethiopia, Lybia, and Lydia,.... Or, "Cush, Phut, and Lud". Cush and Phut were both sons of Ham, from whom Egypt is sometimes called the land of Ham; and Lud or Ludim was the son of Mizraim, the son

Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

Ethiopia, Heb. Cush, which are commonly thought to be the Ethiopians in Africa, but some more inquisitive geographers have found them originally and chiefly in Arabia, which was either subject or ally to Egypt in its prosperity; and these were, as , in a panic that, lest the Babylonian should pass the sea, and take them in his way home. Libya, Heb. Phut; hence the Putaens or Phutaans, who afterwards were better known by Libyans, a part of whose country was near to Egypt. Lydia; Lydians, not the Asiatic, but the Africans, placed between some part of Cyrene and Egypt. All the mingled people; the hired soldiers from all parts, a confused mixture of nations, such as the Libyans had got together; or all Arabia, so the word ; or all that ravenous sort of people, that like crows fly to slaughters; so soldiers of fortune follow the wars, and the Hebrew word is crow, , as well as mixed. Chub; Ethiopians beyond Egypt south, the inhabitants of the inmost Libya, which reached to the Nigritae; perhaps they may be the Nubians at this day, a letter easily changed. The men of the land that is in league; the sons of the land of the covenant: some refer to the Jews, children of the covenant, but this is forced; it is all the people of Egypt’ s league, all the allies of the Egyptian kingdom. With them; with the Egyptians. By the sword; in war by the sword of Babylon.

Ezekiel 30:5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.Ver. 5. Chub.] Certain Africans, who shall be worse put to it than were those succeeding Africans, who had a prophecy (but not of like credit with this of Ezekiel), that when the Romans sent an army into their country, Mundus cum tota sua prole periret, which made them think the world should then be at an end. But afterwards the Romans sent an army thither under the conduct of one Mundus, who in battle was slain, together with his sons, by the Africans, and discovered the illusion of the devil. The Septuagint render Chub Spaniards, which I like the better, saith Lavater, because Strabo saith Nebuchadnezzar came with his victorious army as far as Spain. Lib. xv.

(5) Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia.—Ethiopia and Egypt were closely connected, and during much of their history were often under one government. Ethiopian soldiers served in great numbers in the Egyptian armies. Libya and Lydia are an unfortunate substitution for the original terms, Phut and Lud, which are preserved in Ezekiel 27:10, where see Note. They are there mentioned as furnishing mercenaries to the Tyrian army; and it is known historically that they supplied them to a still greater extent to the Egyptian army. All the mingled people, and Chub.—There is the same expression, “mingled people,” in reference to Egypt, in Jeremiah 25:20. In the connection here it may be understood especially of the foreign mercenaries from various quarters in the Egyptian armies. Chub is a name entirely unknown. Various conjectures have been hazarded, and various changes in the text proposed, but none are supported by sufficient evidence. It evidently denotes some ally of Egypt, possibly Nubia. Men of the land that is in league.—Literally, sons of the land of the covenant. The ancient interpreters, St. Jerome and Theodoret, understood this expression of the Jews who had sought refuge from Nebuchadnezzar in Egypt after the murder of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 42, 43, 44), to whom Jeremiah had expressly prophesied that the sword and famine of which they were afraid should overtake them there (Jeremiah 42:16-18). This interpretation is supported by the translation of the Septuagint, made in Egypt, “land of my covenant.” The objection made to this view, that Palestine is never called “the land of the covenant,” and that this must therefore signify some unknown country in alliance with Egypt at the time, seems rather specious than real. If it happens that this expression is never used of Palestine, yet that was unquestionably the land of the people of the covenant, and a particular expression may very well be used once without occurring again.

Verse 5. Lydia] This place is not well known. The Ludim were contiguous to Egypt, Genesis 10:13. Chub] The Cubians, placed by Ptolemy in the Mareotis. But probably instead of וכוב vechub, "and Chub," we should read וכל vechol, "and ALL the men of the land," &c. The Septuagint adds "the Persians and the Cretans."

5. See on Ezekiel 27:10; Heb. is Cush and Phut and Lud. For Cush LXX. reads Persians as Ezekiel 27:10, for Phut Cretans, and for Lud Lydians. the mingled people] perhaps foreigners. In Jeremiah 25:24 these so named (ereb) are represented as having kings and dwelling in the desert (cf. 1 Kings 10:15), and in Ezekiel 30:20 they are named next to the kings of Uz. On the other hand in Jeremiah 50:37 they are spoken of as being in the midst of Babylon. Hence the sense of “mercenaries” has been suggested. In the present passage some distinct people seems intended. the land that is in league] Lit., children of the land of the covenant. Reference can hardly be to the land of Israel, or to refugees from Israel in Egypt. Either some definite country is meant, the name of which would be suggested by the prophet’s description, or “land” is used collectively—all allied lands. The name Chub does not occur again; LXX. Libyans, and in Nahum 3:9 the Lubim appear beside Cush, Egypt and Phut.

Libya, and Lydia - Or, as in Ezekiel 27:10, Phut and Lud. The mingled people - Foreigners, who settled in Egypt. The Saite dynasty of Egyptian kings were especially favorable to foreign immigrants.

5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia — R.V., “Ethiopia [or, Cush], and Put, and Lud.” (See notes Ezekiel 27:10; compare Ezekiel 38:5.) LXX.