Ezekiel 32

To the preceding funeral panegyric over Assyria, the fate of which was past, Ezekiel prophetically subjoins a similar panegyric over Egypt, though its fate was still future; making plainly here a happy variation in the figure. In the former case past events are brought down and represented as now present before our eyes; whereas, on the contrary, by this prophetic figure future events are anticipated, and represented as already past. Abp. Newcome.

3,4. Consequently, with the aid of many people (the Chaldeans), the Lord will take up this monster crocodile, Pharaoh, in his net, and leave him cast out upon the land in the open field, meat for fowls and beasts.

7,8. The figure changes. Calamity is here represented by darkness, perhaps with a tacit reference to the plague of darkness (Ex. 10: 21-23). “When I shall put them out;” meaning, extinguish them from being a light among the nations. Cloud and eclipse combine to shut off the lights of heaven and to doom the land to thick darkness. This figure appears frequently in the poetic portions of the Bible, sometimes in the strong form of “turning the sun into darkness and the moon into blood.” (See Isa. 13: 10; Joel 2: 10, 30, 31; 3: 15.) The general sense is the same throughout all these variations of the figure—viz., exceeding great calamity, fearful ruin. Light is a natural emblem of joy and prosperity; darkness, of whatever is fearful and appalling. H. C.—The downfall and destruction of kingdoms is denoted by the strong figurative language of these verses. Kings and rulers are expressed by the sun, moon and stars. God’s judgments upon particular countries being earnests of a general judgment, they are described in such terms, as if the whole frame of nature were dissolved. Abp. Newcome.

9,10. This is the effect of Pharaoh’s fall upon other nations, even those whom he had little known, lying out beyond the range of his influence. This reference implies that the fall of Egypt would impress the fear of the Chaldean arms upon remote nations.

11,12. The prophecy is here entirely definite. The conquering, wasting power is the Chaldean. They shall spoil the glory of Egypt, waste her treasures, pillage her cities, break down her national strength, and lay her land for the time quite desolate. H. C.

14. Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, etc. The prophet, in the second verse, compared the disturbances the Egyptians gave their neighbors to the troubling and fouling of waters; in allusion to which metaphor he saith here, that when Egypt is made desolate, and the number of men and beasts diminished by their wars and confusions, then their neighbors will enjoy such quietness as a river does, that smoothly glides along and never hath its streams fouled or disturbed. W. Lowth.

17. This entire second message commencing here constitutes another elegy over the fall of Egypt.

21. The sense is, The strongest of his mighty ones shall accost him and his helpers, from the midst of hell. They have already gone down and are lying there, the uncircumcised, slain with the sword. The reference here to Isa. 14 is obvious.

22,23. The general statement, “the strong among the mighty,” here becomes specific, and first names Assyria, the ancient rival and enemy of Egypt. She has been destroyed already, and lies there with her hosts.

24,25. Elam has suffered overthrow; her nationality has been smitten. Let her be added to the list of the great nations in the underworld, ready to meet Egypt when she comes down to the same abode. Elam has had her day of power, a terror to the living nations; but she also bears the shame of those who go down to a dishonored national grave.

31,32. The prophet marks the contrast between the terror he once impressed on the nations, and his utter powerlessness now in his final house in the under-world. This poetic drapery thrown round the idea of an extinct nationality—a nation itself dying out from among the powers of the earth under the righteous judgments of God—is grand and impressive. Its lessons belong to all time. The nations of our own age who become great in military power, magnificent in their wealth and splendor, and then forget God, disown His authority, and plant their foot upon His higher law and oppress His suffering poor, have ample cause for fear and trembling. Let them ponder the lessons He has given them in His holy Word, confirmations of which are written also on all the face of the world’s history since nations began to be, to this hour. Can there be a greater madness than to dare Jehovah’s wrath? H. C.

Of fulfilled prophecies, in these chapters and those of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah, a few suggestive instances may be mentioned. The sceptre has departed from Egypt, the “son of Ham,” and the land has been laid waste by the hand of strangers (Zech. 10 : 11 ; Ezek. 30 : 12). The arm of Pharaoh has been broken and the sword has fallen out of his hand, and all the nations that dwelt under his shadow have been shaken at the sound of his fall (Ezek. 30 : 20 ; 31 : 16). The heart of Egypt has melted, and all that work for hire have been grieved in soul, for in truth she has been for centuries groaning under the hand of a cruel lord. The fishermen lament ; for the canals are emptied and dried up (Isa. 19), and the reeds and flags have withered. The paper industry has utterly vanished, and scarcely a solitary specimen of the papyrus plant can be obtained, even for a museum—according to the specific declaration of the prophet (verses 6, 7). “Moreover, they that work in combed flax and they that weave white cloth” are made “ashamed” in the presence of English merchants who, to-day, monopolize the trade, where, at the date of this prophecy, the Theban looms were sending forth fabrics which were then the pride as they are now the astonishment of the whole earth (Isa. 18 : 9). Truly, this has become “a land destitute of that whereof it was full” (Ezek. 32 : 15). The “cloud” has covered her (Ezek. 29 : 3). She has become the “basest of kingdoms,” no more to “lift herself up above the nations” (verse 15). More than this, every one of the seven original outlets of the Nile has been dried up (the two present outlets being artificial ones), and the tongue of the Egyptian sea has been smitten and the waters of the gulf have been driven back as by a mighty hand a score of miles since the days of Isaiah “according to the Word of the Lord” (Isa. 11 : 15). The “obelisks” and “pillars” of On have fallen ; only one remains upright amid the vast ruins of the “houses of the gods,” which have been “burnt with fire” (Jer. 43 : 13). Of Memphis, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, it was written, “Nepah shall become a desolation and shall be burnt up, without an inhabitant” (Jer. 46 : 19). To-day not even a single obelisk, or prostrate pylon, or shivered temple wall marks the site of that famous capital. It has sunk into oblivion. It is but a pile of dust and crumbled brick. Unlike other ancient cities of Egypt, in a peculiar sense, it has become a “desolation.” “Destruction out of the north is come—it is come !” (Jer. 46 : 19.) Of Thebes also, that wonder of the world, the pen of the prophet wrote : “No shall be rent asunder,” “shattered,” “broken in pieces” (Ezek. 30 : 16), and, as if struck by the fist of the Almighty, those massive columns have been cleft and torn asunder as nowhere else in Egypt. Historically, the cause was an earthquake. But before the earthquake came the solemn warning, “The Word of the Lord is against you.” C. M. Cobera.