Ezekiel 30

29: 1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of 2 the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, 3 and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst 4 of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. And I will put books in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales; and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, with all the fish of thy rivers which 5 stick unto thy scales. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open field; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the earth and to the fowls of the 6 heaven. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they 7 have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and didst rend all their shoulders: and when they leaned upon thee, thou 8 brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Be- 9 hold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and will cut off from thee man and beast. And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: 10 because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it. Therefore behold, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, 11 from the tower of Sevench even unto the border of Ethiopia. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. 12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are deso- late, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 13 For thus saith the Lord God: At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from 14 the peoples whither they were scattered: and I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall 15 be there a base kingdom. It 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 16 the nations. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God. 17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of 18 the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the 19 service that he had served against it: therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multi- 20 tude, 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 recompence for which he served, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God. 21 In that day will I cause an horn to bud forth unto the house of Israel, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 30: 1, 2 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and 3 say, Thus saith the Lord God: Howl ye, Woe worth the day! For the day is near, even 4 the day of the LORD is near, a day of clouds; it shall be the time of the heathen. And a sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. 5 Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. 6 Thus saith the LORD: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall, and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Sevench shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the 7 Lord God. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and 8 her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. And they shall know that I am 9 the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed. In that day shall messengers go forth from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh. 10 Thus saith the Lord God: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of 11 Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and 12 fill the land with the slain. And I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken it.

13. Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Noph; and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt: and I will put

14 a fear in the land of Egypt. And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan,

15 and will execute judgements in No. And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strong hold of

16. Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. And I will set a fire in Egypt; Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up: and Noph shall have adversaries in the day-

17 time. The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities

18 shall go into captivity. At Tehaphneches also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for her, a

19 cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus will I execute judge- ments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

20. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the

21 month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it hath not been bound up to apply healing medicines,

22 to put a roller to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and

23 that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. And I will scat-

24 ter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly

25 wounded man. And I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into

26 the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

31:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the 2 month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king

3 of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness? Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high

4 stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters nourished him, the deep made him to grow: her rivers ran round about her plantation; and she sent out her channels

5 unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long by reason of many

6 waters, when he shot them forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his

7 shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his

8 branches: for his root was by many waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the plane trees were not as his branches;

9 nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, en- vied him.

10. Therefore thus said the Lord God: Because thou art exalted in stature, and he hath set his

11 top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven

12 him out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are

13 gone down from his shadow, and have left him. Upon his ruin all the fowls of the heaven

14 shall dwell, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up in their height, even all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the chil- dren of men, with them that go down to the pit.

15. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went down to hell I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the rivers thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for

16 him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all

17 that drink water, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain by the sword; yea, they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

18. To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

32:1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the 2 month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations: yet art thou as a dragon in the seas; and thou brakest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. Thus saith the Lord God: I will spread out my net over 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 fowls of the heaven 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 swimmeat, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of thee. And when I shall extinguish thee, 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 God. 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. For thus saith the Lord God: 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 spoil 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 God. 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 the LORD. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith: for Egypt, and for all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, saith the Lord God. It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD 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 hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are round about him: 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, 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, 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 round 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 be slain. There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude; her graves are round about her: 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, which are gone down to hell 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. There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, which 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 be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are ashamed; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are 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 God. 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 God.

Chap. 29. With this chapter commences a series of prophecies against Egypt, filling four chapters. The first begins with the date of “the tenth year, tenth month,” etc., one month and eighteen days earlier than the date of the preceding prophecy against Tyre. Both fall within the period of the siege of Jerusalem.

The grounds assigned for these judgments upon Pharaoh and Egypt are: 1. That he had been very proud, had practically disowned God, and put himself in His place. 2. That he and his people had been a frail, treacherous staff of help to the Jews—enticing them away from their sworn allegiance to the Chaldeans, to their own ruin. 3. To reward Nebuchadnezzar for his unpaid service for the Lord against Tyre. H. C.

Ezekiel delivered seven prophecies against Egypt, all of them having more or less reference to Babylon as the power which was to bring ruin upon the country, and two of them mentioning Nebuchadnezzar by name, as the monarch who was to inflict the chastisement (29 : 18, 19 ; 30 : 10). These prophecies are chiefly remarkable as declaring the complete desolation of Egypt, and as fixing a term of years during which her degradation should continue. In chap. 39 we find among the places which are to suffer, Sin or Pelusium, Zoan or Tanis, On or Heliopolis, Noph or Memphis, Tahpanhes or Daphne, Pibeseth or Bubastis, and No-Ammon or Thebes. In chap. 29 an even wider area is included. There we are told that the land of Egypt was to be “utterly waste and desolate from Migdol to Syene, even unto the border of Ethiopia” (verse 10). The time of Egypt’s affliction is fixed at “forty years” (verses 11-13), after which it is to recover, but to be a “base kingdom,” “the basest of the kingdoms” (verse 15), no more “exalted above the nations,” no more a ruler over nations external to itself. G. R.

Prophecies against Egypt : Isa. 18 ; 19 ; 31 ; Jer. 46 ; Joel 3 : 19. This and the three following chapters uttered (with the exception of chap. 29 : 17 to end) in regular succession predict the downfall of Pharaoh-Hophra and the desolation of Egypt. The form is much the same as in the denunciation of Tyre : (1) A prophecy against Egypt and her allies (29, 30) ; (2) an image of Egypt’s greatness and her fall (31) ; and (3) a dirge over Egypt (32). This prophecy (1-16) was delivered some months before the preceding prophecies against Tyre (see 26 : 1), the prophecies against the nations being given, not in their chronological, but in their geographical order, according to their nearness to Jerusalem.

1. The tenth year. Jerusalem had been besieged, but not taken. It was about the time that Jeremiah delivered his prophecy against Egypt, when the approach of Pharaoh-Hophra’s army caused the Chaldeans for the time to raise the siege (Jer. 37 : 5). This was the solitary instance of Egypt meddling with the affairs of Palestine or Syria after the battle of Carchemish (cf. 2 K. 24 : 7), and it met with a speedy punishment. But for a time there seemed a prospect of help from one like Pharaoh-Hophra, who was evidently disposed to revive the military glory and conquests of Egypt, and regain the footing in Syria which his ancestor Necho had obtained by the battle of Megiddo. B. C.

2. Against Pharaoh. Pharaoh being a common name to all the kings of Egypt, this prince was called Pharaoh-Hophra by Jeremiah (chap. 44 : 30) and Apries by Herodotus. W. Lowth.

3. The great dragon. The crocodile is alluded to. Bochart remarks that the word Pharaoh signifies a crocodile in the Arabic tongue. Among the ancients it was a symbol of Egypt, and appears so in Roman coins. W. Lowth. Michaelis.

The “great dragon” is the crocodile—almost a specialty to the Nile. But the crocodile of course represents here Egypt’s proud king, who lies basking in the midst of his rivers, as this animal is wont to do. It scarcely needs be said that the Nile makes Egypt—is the source of all its fertility ; the channel for all its commerce ; the fountain of all its wealth and subsistence.

10-12. The duration of this desolate condition (“forty years”) would reach forward into the wane of the Chaldean empire, some years later than the death of Nebuchadnezzar, whose reign began with the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and continued forty-three years. But this subjugation of Egypt, if it followed the fall of Tyre, must have been past the middle point of his reign. H. C.

14. A base kingdom. Egypt has sunk to be base among the nations, and to be ruled by foreigners or strangers. That kingdom which was long the most powerful and most honored among the nations of the world has become the helpless victim of successive oppressors. Assyria first rivalled her splendor, and, after lessening her power for a season, humbled her. Three hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, the Persians reduced her to a comparatively degraded condition, and in succession the Macedonians, the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamelukes, and the Turks, have trodden her fertile plains and greatly embarrassed her. W. Fraser.

15. What is said here of the “baseness of this kingdom” as contrasted with its former greatness and glory, and also in chap. 30 : 13, “there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt,” has its fulfilment in history in the fact that “from the second Persian conquest, more than two thousand years ago, until our own days, not one native ruler has occupied the throne.” (See Smith’s Bible Dictionary 1 : 512.) When the prophet wrote, Egypt had been a first-class power from the days of Abraham. Since the fulfilment of this prophecy it has been pre-eminently “a base kingdom”—for long ages past, scarcely known in the world’s history as a kingdom at all. What a testimony is this, not to the truth of prophecy alone, but to the fearfulness of God’s judgments against kings and nations for their proud impiety in disowning their great Creator and King! H. C.

It follows in the next chapter, “there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt” (verse 13). It is now a great deal above two thousand years since this prophecy was first delivered; and what likelihood or appearance was there that the Egyptians should for so many ages bow under a foreign yoke, and never in all that time be able to recover their liberties, and have a prince of their own to reign over them? Bp. Newton.

In Egypt the human mind had made its earliest and most auspicious efforts. It was long the general opinion that there the laws of society had been discovered, and the fountains of science opened. Unquestionably that ingenious people were very early distinguished by an ardent spirit of enterprise and a peculiar happiness of invention. The stupendous monuments of art which lie scattered over the banks of the Nile attest the vastness of their designs and the extent of their power. The earliest professors of literature, and the first founders of civil polity in Europe and in the more western provinces of Asia, travelled into Egypt, and there acquired a knowledge of the fundamental principles of science and government. Egypt was possessed likewise of natural advantages, while its uncommon fruitfulness promised to secure the country which it enriched from poverty, baseness, and subjection. Yet after a long course of grandeur, and in contradiction to its natural advantages, Ezekiel pronounced that “the kingdom should be the basest of kingdoms,” and that “there should be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.” Richards.—As is the prophecy, so is the event. For not long afterward Egypt was conquered by the Babylonians; and after the Babylonians, by the Persians; and after the Persians, it became subject to the Macedonians; and after the Macedonians, to the Romans; and after the Romans, to the Saracens; and then to the Mamelukes; and is now a province of the Ottoman Empire. Bp. Newton.

Rome made her a province with a certain separateness, under regulations which were peculiar. Under the Mohammedans, whether Arabs, Saracens or Turks, she has still for the most part been secondary, either an actual dependency on some greater State, or at any rate overshadowed by rivals of superior dignity. A veil hangs over the future; but, so far as human sagacity can forecast, there seems to be little likelihood of any vital change in her position. With peculiar characteristics and an isolated position, she must almost of necessity maintain her separate and distinct individuality, even though she become a dependency on a European power. On the other hand, she has exhibited under recent circumstances no elements of greatness, and remains emphatically “a base kingdom”—if not even “the basest of the kingdoms.” There seems to be no elements out of which her revival and reconstitution as a great kingdom could be possible. G. R.

17-20. Second prophecy against Egypt. A special prediction of the ruin of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. In putting together the various prophecies which he had delivered against Egypt, the prophet places this out of chronological order, that he may point out that which had not been stated in the foregoing prophecy—viz., that the agent which should strike the first blow on Egypt should be the Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar. Compare a similar order in chap. 26: (1) a general prophecy against, (2) a special prophecy that Nebuchadnezzar should effect the ruin. B. C.

18-20. The fact of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Tyre having lasted thirteen years throws considerable light on this passage of Ezekiel. The extraordinary length of the siege, in which men grew old and wore themselves out, explains the phrase: “Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled;” and at the same time accounts for the fact that Nebuchadnezzar was considered to have received no wages—i.e., no sufficient wages, for his service, which had been very inadequately repaid by plunder found in the exhausted city. G. R.

18. The “hard service” in which “every head was made bald and every shoulder peeled” is accounted for by the manner in which the work was done—viz., by building immense mounds as near the city walls as possible, and high enough to enable the assailants to dismantle or breach the walls, or at least throw their missiles into the city. In the state of the arts at that time, the transportation of stone and earth for building these mounds was done on the heads and shoulders of men—reason enough why “every head should be made bald” and the skin of “every shoulder be peeled” and worn. The Lord speaks of this service as being done for Himself—quite in keeping with those passages in which He calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant.” (See Jer. 25: 9; 27: 6; 43: 10.)

The Lord wished the Jews to understand that He had important ends to answer by this great king of Babylon, as was indeed the case. He was God’s instrument for a fearful retribution, not on Judea and Jerusalem alone, but on all the nations of Western Asia and upon Egypt. H. C.

Yet had he no wages, nor his army. This was literally true; for when the Tyrians saw that the works for carrying on the siege were perfected, and the foundations of the walls were shaken by the battering of the rams, whatsoever precious things in gold, silver, clothes and various kinds of furniture the nobility had, they put them on board their ships, and carried them to the island; so that the city being taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labor. Bp. Newton.

20. Because they wrought for Me. The destruction of cities and countries is a work of God’s providence, for the effecting of which He makes use of kings and princes as His instruments. Upon this account He calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant (Jer. 25:9), because “he wrought for Him,” as it is here expressed—that is, executed His judgments upon Tyre and the other cities and countries which God delivered into his hand. W. Lowth.

In this service God owns that they wrought for Him (verse 20). He set them at work for the humbling of a proud city and its king; though they meant not so, neither did their heart think so, who were employed in it. Even great men and bad men are tools that God makes use of, and are working for Him, even when they are pursuing their own covetous and ambitious designs; so wonderfully does God overrule all to His own glory. For this service he had no wages, nor his army. He was at a vast expense to take Tyre; and when he had it, though it was a very rich city, and he promised himself good plunder for his army from it, he was disappointed. The Tyrians sent away by ship their best effects, and threw the rest into the sea, so that they had nothing but bare walls. Thus are the children of this world ordinarily frustrated in their highest expectations from it. He shall have the spoil of Egypt to recompense him for his service against Tyre. God will be behindhand with none for any service they do for Him, but, one way or other, will recompense them for it; none shall kindle a fire on His altar for naught. The service done for Him by worldly men with worldly designs shall be recompensed with a mere worldly reward, which His faithful servants, that have a sincere regard to His will and glory, would not be put off with. This accounts for the prosperity of wicked men in this world. God is in it, paying them for some service or other in which He has made use of them. Verily they have their reward. Let none envy it them. The conquest of Egypt is spoken of as Nebuchadnezzar’s full reward, for that completed his dominion over the then known world in a manner; that was the last of the kingdoms he subdued; when he was master of that, he became the head of gold. H.

21. Egypt being the antagonist of the people of God, her overthrow inaugurated the triumph of good over evil. The prophet as usual sees the fruit in the germ, the perfect building in the ruin of the edifice cleared away to make room for the new structure. The destruction of heathen powers was leading up to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom.

I will give thee the opening of the mouth. When these things should begin to come to pass the prophet’s mouth should be opened to declare their meaning, and to make known the end to which all was tending. B. C.

Chap. 30. In this chapter the one theme is judgment on Egypt, yet there are two messages of diverse date; the first comprising verses 1-19; the second, verses 20-26. The date of the latter is given definitely (in verse 20); probably that the reader might locate it shortly after the defeat of Pharaoh-Hophra, when he approached to aid his Jewish friends by an effort to raise the siege of their city, then in progress by the army of Nebuchadnezzar. Critics are not agreed as to the date of the first portion, some connecting it in time with the message (chap. 29:1-16)—viz., in the tenth year and tenth month, etc.; others connecting it with the message (chap. 29:17-21)—viz., in the twenty-seventh year.

4,5. Not Egypt alone, but her allies, those powers on the south and west that had been usually associated with her in her great conflicts with the Asiatic powers, now suffer in her fall. Ethiopia on her southern border; Libya and Lydia on her western, are well known as her ancient allies. H. C.

5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia. The names in the Hebrew are “Cush, Phut and Lud,” who are mentioned together as the Egyptian allies (Jer. 46:9). Cush probably signifies Ethiopia here (see chap. 29:10) as being joined with Phut and Lud, who were people of Africa. W. Lowth.

13-17. From general statements, the prophet comes to particulars, specifying the several cities that are to feel the weight of this crush-

ing calamity. This is designed and well adapted to strengthen the impression of the fearful facts. The principal cities of Egypt are here enumerated. They are known by other names also—Greek or Egyptian. These are mostly Hebrew. “Noph” is also called Memphis; the great city of Lower Egypt, near the pyramids. “No,” or No-Ammon, is Thebes or Diospolis; the great city of Upper Egypt, celebrated for its hundred gates, and even now great in the ruins of its magnificent temples of Luxor, Karnac, etc. “Pathros” is the Egyptian name for Upper Egypt, as Mizraim was sometimes for the lower province. “Zoan” is known in Greek as Tanis, one of the cities of Lower Egypt. “Sin,” known by the Greeks as Pelusium, was in the northeastern extremity of Egypt, the point where their Asiatic enemies would naturally strike first. Hence it was fortified so as to become “the strength of Egypt.” Its Hebrew name means a marsh, and such it was, and perhaps the stronger therefor. “Aven,” doubtless the city “On” of Gen. 41:45, 50, from which word it differs only in its vowel points, received this form from the Hebrews in contempt for its idols, nothings, or vanities—which is the significance of the word thus pronounced. The Greeks called it Heliopolis, city of the sun, which the Hebrews sometimes translated into Bethshemeth, house of the sun. “Pi-beseth,” by the Greeks, Bubastis, was on the lower waters of the Nile. Tehaphnehes, the Daphne of the Greeks, was near Pelusium, and seems to have been in these times the residence of the king and his court. (See Jer. 43:8-13.) Jeremiah has a prophecy (chap. 46) somewhat analogous to this of Ezekiel, H. C.