Ezekiel 31
Butler13. Although Egypt temporarily revived under the vigorous rule of the Ptolemies, they were “foreigners,” and the predictions held true, “There shall no more be a prince of the land of Egypt;” “The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.” For more than two thousand years the degradation of the kingdom has been painfully visible amid a profusion of nature’s benefits. Its comparatively ignominious state, its acknowledged baseness among nations in the midst of which it is still lingering, enfeebled and paralyzed, so distinctly fulfil the bold prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, that we are justified in demanding the acceptance of supernatural teaching as the explanation of Egypt’s varying history. Every fact which travellers describe, and the past and the present historical photographs by which modern inquiries have assisted the student of prophecy, vindicate and confirm the truth of the predictions. W. Fraser.
20-26. As said above, this prophecy was probably suggested by the defeat of Pharaoh-Hophra when he attempted to force Nebuchadnezzar to raise the siege of Jerusalem. See Jer. 44:30, “I will give Pharaoh-Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies and into the hands of them that seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar,” etc. Suggested by this defeat, it probably followed it closely in time. This was only some three months before the fall of the city of Jerusalem—the latter event being in the eleventh year and fourth month and ninth day (Jer. 52:5, 6), and this, in the eleventh year, first month and seventh day. The breaking of Pharaoh’s sword-arm first, hopelessly past cure; then the breaking of both his arms, and the strengthening of the arm of Nebuchadnezzar and putting the sword into it for the execution of God’s judgments, are the leading figures of this passage. Some critics interpret the two arms of Egypt’s king to be two portions of his territory; others, two royal families; but the general sense, his military power, his means of resisting his great Chaldean enemy, is more natural and probable. The sword is the appropriate emblem of military strength. Here, as often elsewhere, we have the king of Banylon “the servant of the Lord.” The curse of Egypt includes a great slaughter of her people, and their dispersion into foreign lands.
Chap. 31. This chapter is one distinct and entire message, presenting under the figure of a cedar of Lebanon the case of Assyria, as a lesson of warning to Egypt. If Assyria, so splendid and magnificent in her greatness, yet went down with a crash that astounded the nations, what, O Pharaoh, shall be thy doom? This message dates only one month and a fraction before the fall of Jerusalem. The fall of Assyria, referred to here as a fact of past history, occurred n.c. 625—i.e., thirty-seven years before the date of this message. Hence it was still fresh in the minds of Ezekiel’s readers. The figure which is finely sustained throughout the chapter is one of exquisite beauty. The Assyrian power was a noble cedar of Lebanon, lofty and fair, of far outspreading magnificent foliage; his roots reaching out to living waters; all the fowls of heaven nestled in his boughs; all the beasts of the field made their homes under his shade; but he became proud, and God laid him low, and brought him down to the under-world, even as mortals die and go down to the shades beneath. Art thou, O
Egypt, great like this Assyrian cedar? If in thy vanity thou hast compared thyself to proud Assyria, think whether for thy pride thou shalt not suffer an equally terrible fall! H. C.
The Assyrian empire, after having been supreme in Asia for four centuries, had been overthrown by the united forces of the Babylonians and Medes, in the year of the battle of Carchemish (B.C. 606), which had broken the power of Egypt. This gives force to the warning to Egypt from Assyria’s fall. B. C.
6,7. In a few instances the prophet drops his figure and gives his thought in literal terms—e.g., “under his shadow dwelt all great nations”—i.e., enjoying his military protection and paying him tribute. This was the relation sustained in those ages by the smaller powers to the great central one. Assyria, Chaldea and Persia were successively such central powers.
8,9. The prophet thinks of Eden, the garden of God, as a model of superlative fertility and beauty. This and similar allusions (e.g., chap. 28: 13) show that the Jews of that age had some knowledge of the primeval state of man, doubtless as much as has come down to us in the account given by Moses in Genesis. It is safe to assume that they had this. H. C.
16. All the trees of Eden shall be comforted. The deceased princes, his allies and tributaries, described here as so many stately trees and cedars, shall feel some mitigation of their calamity, in considering that this king, so mighty and so powerful, is brought like themselves to the nether parts of the earth; or that he is become their equal in the pit, in the grave, in the place of darkness, from which all distinctions of quality and condition are entirely banished. (Calmet.) W. Lowth.
18. The mighty God before whom great Assyria could not stand is equally able to bring down thy greatness, paralyze thy power, and cast thee into that under-world where the silence of death reigns supreme! So puny are the mightiest nations when they measure arms with the great God! So vain it is for any of them, even the most magnificent in splendor, to lift themselves up against their Infinite Maker and Lord!
Chap. 32. This chapter in two distinct messages—viz., verses 1–16 and verses 17–32, with each its distinct date, completes the prophecy concerning the fall of Egypt before the arms of Nebuchadnezzar. The date of the first portion is a year and seven months after the fall of Jerusalem; the second portion is still fifteen days later; for the month not being mentioned, we must assume it to be the same as in verse 1. The danger to Egypt from the Chaldean arms was manifestly greater and more obvious after the fall of Jerusalem than at any time before. Whether the Chaldeans invaded Egypt near this time and before their long siege of Tyre remains in some doubt. Profane history at this period affords only the most scanty records. That they swept over Egypt with terrible devastation after their work on Tyre was finished admits of no doubt. It is not improbable that they made a raid upon their old enemy before they invested Tyre. H. C.
About one year and seven months after the destruction of Jerusalem. In the mean time had occurred the murder of Gedaliah and the flight into Egypt of the Jews left behind by the Chaldeans under Johanan, the son of Kareah (Jer. 41–43). Jeremiah, who had accompanied them, foretold their ruin (Jer. 44) in a prophecy probably contemporaneous with the present prophecy of Ezekiel, which is delivered in the form of a dirge, as in the case of Tyre (chap. 27). B. C.
The prophet wails over the fall of Egypt, and in vision sees her multitudes in the underworld as one who should walk at nightfall after a battle over a vast and desolate plain covered with the heaps of dead. As he walks onward wailing he reaches that part of the field where the Assyrians lie; then he finds further on the Elamites, then Meshech, Tubal and all her multitude, then Edom, then the Zidonians. Last of all, he returns to contemplate Pharaoh again. In each of these wide regions of death the kings and princes lie with all their slain warriors about them. Their swords lie in soldier fashion under their heads. Even in death and frightfully mangled, the brawny strength and grim ferocity and military prowess that they wore in life is still plain enough. But now they lie vanquished, unburied, horrible. Nothing that Dante ever wrote surpasses the dreary ghastliness of this appalling scene under the murky skies of Sheol. The slow, monotonous movement of the funeral march, which will not be hastened from detailed inspection of a single acre of that limitless Waterloo plain, powerfully enhances the impression of the uncounted multitudes of the dead to be reviewed. “Dull and heavy” (Ewald) we should not call this dirge, but grim as the clank of chains and dreadful as the knell of doom. Ballantine.
1,2. “Take up a lamentation”—prepare a mourning elegy which may be sung as a dirge over his fall. It was appropriate in such a dirge to celebrate the valor and recount the
great deeds of the dead. In the present case the prophet is not excessively eulogistic. God loves truth. H. C.