Ezekiel 32

Chap. XXXII. Ver. 1—18. Farther prophecies against Egypt and Assyria.—In this chapter the Prophet resumes the poetical style, and describes to Pharaoh the fall of the king of Nineveh, (see Nahum, Jonah, and Zephaniah,) under the image of a fair cedar of Lebanon, once tall, flourishing, and majestic, but now cut down and withered, with its broken branches strewed around. He then concludes with bringing the matter home to the king of Babylon, by telling him that this was a picture of his own fate. This beautiful cedar of Lebanon, now cut down and destroyed, gives a lively image of the glory and ruin of both the Assyrian and Egyptian monarchs. The manner in which the Prophet has smoothed his subject is very pleasing, and the moral highly important: God delighteth to abase those that exalt glory.”

(Isaiah 23:9). Chap. XXXII. Ver. 1—32. A lamentation for Pharaoh and for Egypt.—Pharaoh is here compared to the lion, the monarch of the forest; and to the crocodile, the tyrant of the Nile: it is yet declared that he shall be taken in the snare of the Almighty, (for even lions and crocodiles may be snared;) and his flesh given to the meaner beasts; that is, his kingdom divided into petty states, and his riches plundered by the roving tribes of Arabia, properly compared to birds of prey. This person, and his army is described as consisting of “the terrible among the nations;” and such is the terror inspired by them, that not only is the country immediately deserted, both by man and beast, but the lights of heaven are poetically represented as extinguished, and the skies clothed with blackness.

In another prophecy, introduced ver. 17, the fall of Egypt is related in terms very similar to those used by Isaiah (ch. xiv.) in describing the subsequent fall of Babylon. This lamentation opens in terms very similar to those in the preceding chapter (ver. 2;) “‘Whom art thou like in thy greatness?’” So here, “Whom dost thou pass (that is, surpass) in beauty?” However great, however beautiful, “Go down” to the grave, “and be thou laid with the uncircumcised” in the field of battle — unpitied and unburied. The king is then introduced below the grave, into the region of shades, to take his station among the mighty shades of former ages: where their weapons of war, now done with, are laid in silence beneath their heads.

But wherefore are they here deposited? Is it not as the witnesses of their crimes? They “bear their shame,” and their iniquities lie “upon their bones” till the great day of retribution. Ver. 14. Rivers to run like oil.—[The neighbouring countries shall be in a Chap. XXIII. Ver. 1—33. Prophets, watchmen of the house of Israel, their duty stated and enforced.—The same doctrine which had been advanced in chapter iii. is here repeated and amplified. God’s ministers are like sentinels on the walls of Zion, who, with the trumpet of the Gospel in their hands, are ordered to warn men of their danger, and to guard them against the consequences of their sin. Not to repeat the observations we have made on the chapter just referred to, we may here remark:—1.

It is required of a watchman, as well as of a steward ((1 Corinthians 4:2).) that he be found faithful; and God’s ministers fulfilling both characters, under the New Testament, as well as under the Old, are under a double obliga- tion to fidelity toward their people—2. Though men are commanded to do works of righteousness, they are utterly forbidden to trust in them; for, as Jeremiah says, ((Ezekiel 23:6).) ‘“The Lord is our righteousness;” and, as Isaiah teaches us, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”’ ((Isaiah 64:6).)—3. Confidence in our own righteousness leads to a false security, and opens the door to apostacy and ruin.

On the other hand—4. Transgression, however provoking, will not be punished after being repented of and forsaken. Lastly—Punishment, in itself, is so far from affording pleasure to the Almighty, that it is his delight to see sinners turn from their evil ways; and for this end he beseeches and conjures them to repent and to return; but warns them against hypocrisy, in imagining that they are righteous or religious, merely because they are charmed with the eloquence of a preacher, while (alas!) “their heart goeth after covetousness.” It is plain that what is here said of watchmen, and of the duty of attending to their warning, must have been delivered prior to the fall of Jerusalem; yet the latter part of the chapter, from verse 20, was evidently subsequent to that event.

It is so difficult to account for the effect elapsing after that event, ere the news should be brought to Babylon, that some read the eleventh year for the twelfth; but a learned and sensible writer, after remarking that this address was delivered to the captive Jews in Babylon, adds: “In order then that this address might make the stronger impression on them,…. he immediately subjoins an information which here presents itself, as having been just then received, of the actual capture of Jerusalem, agreeably to his foregoing prophecies against it: the accomplishment of which prediction against the Jews; [with those already fulfilled against the heathen,] would completely establish the credit and veracity of his predictions against Egypt and other nations; and also prove as a conspicuous example, the truth of that maxim, with which he had concluded his late address to the captive Jews—that God will judge every one after his ways, both Jews and heathens.”

(See Newcome in loc.)

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXXII. Ver. 1. Twelfth year.—On Wednesday, March 22, A. M. 3417, the 12th year of Jeconiah’s captivity, about a year and a half after the destruction of Jerusalem, and at a time when Pharaoh was in power and prosperity. Ver. 2. Thou art as a whale.—Heb. “Tanim,” or sea-monster. Margin, “a dragon;” i.e. a crocodile. See (Isaiah 27:1).—Camest forth with thy rivers.—Newcome, “Breakest forth in thy rivers;” i.e. to seize the prey.—And troublest the waters with thy feet.—This applies to the crocodile, but not the whale, which has no feet. See (Job 41:31). D’Herbelot cites an Eastern poet, who, celebrating the prowess of a Persian prince, said, “He was dreadful as a lion in the field, and not less terrible in the water a crocodile.” Orient. Lit, No. 1032. Ver. 3. I will spread out, &c.—In Egypt one had several ways of taking the crocodile. In Siam it is accomplished by laying several nets, at proper distances, across a river. Orient. Cust. No. 1124. s. Ver. 4. I will fill the beasts, &c.—Newcome, “I will satiate (or fill) with thee the beasts of the earth.” Ver. 5. I will lay thy flesh.—(To represent the power, rapaciousness, and cruelty of Pharaoh, he had been compared to a fierce young lion, and also to an immense, overgrown sea-monster, or crocodile; and here it is predicted that God would cast a net over him, by which many companies of people should drag him out of his rivers, and cast him into the open field, mountains, valleys, &c.

to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey; that is, his ruin would complete, and attended with terrible miseries to the Egyptians, and afford a large booty to their enemies.)—Bagster. Ver. 6. The land wherein thou swimmest.—[Egypt, so called because interspersed by numerous canals, and overflowed annually by the Nile.]—Bagster. Newcome, and others, render this verse more poetically: “I will water the earth with thy gore; Thy blood shall be on the mountains, And the streams shall be filled with thee.” Ver. 7. When I shall put thee out.—That is, extinguish thy light. Compare (Isaiah 13:10).—Stars.—[Overwhelm the dependant states.]—Sun.—The king—Moon.—The queen, or some state less than the kingdom.—Bagster.

Ver. 8. Set darkness.—{Involve the whole land in desolation and woe.}—B. state of quietness, like a river that smoothly glides along, having no longer a political crocodile to foul their waters, or to disturb their peace.}—Bagster. Ver. 17. Of the month—That is, “Of the first month.”—Newcome. (That is, of the 12th month, just a fortnight after the preceding prophecy.)—Bagster. Ver. 18. Cast her down.—(That is, predict, that they shall be cast down.—The daughters.—The cities and colonies of the celebrated nations afterwards enumerated.)—Bagster. Ver. 19. Whom dost thou pass (or surpass) in beauty?—This we think best agrees with ver. 2 and 18 in the preceding chapter. Abp. Newcome, and others, however, on the authority of some ancient versions, render this line very differently; “Come down from the pleasant waters;”

meaning those of the Nile, which were the boast of Egypt. Ver. 21. The strong, &c.—{Pharaoh is here represented as descending into the regions of the dead, whither many mighty warriors and potentates had gone before him, who welcome him to their dreary mansion.}—B. Com. (Isaiah 14:9-10). Ver. 24. Graves.—(The niches in the sides of the subterranean burying place.) Ver. 25. A bed.—[A cell, or bier, in the sepulchral vault, in which the corpse was deposited.]—Bagster ch.—[Supposed to be the Moschi, a people between Iberia and Armenia, from whom, probably, the Muscovites descended.—Tubal.—] Ver. 26.—Probably the Tibarenians, a people of Pontus, west of the Moschians.]—B. Ver. 27. The uncircumcised.—The priests and principal persons among the Egyptians, it may be recollected, practised circumcision.—They are gone down to hell (Sheol) with their weapons of war.—(That is, to the grave; and are buried in their armour, with their weapons lying by their sides, as was a very ancient practice in various nations.

Sir J. Chardin, in a MS. note on this place, observes, “In Mingrelia they always sleep with their swords under their heads, and their other arms by their sides: and they inter them with their arms placed in the same manner.”—This practice seems to have arisen from the belief that they attended them into a future state of existence. Virgil describes his heroes thus in the Elysian fields: “These pleasing cares the heroes felt alive, For chariots, studs, and arms, in death survive.”]—Bagster. Ver. 30. The Princes.—(The kings of Media, Armenia, and other nations, north of Chaldea, or of the Syrians and others north of Judah, with “all the Zidonians,” kings of Zidon, Tyre, and other cities of Phoenicia.)—Bagster.

Ver. 31. Pharaoh shall see them.—{Pharaoh, who said he was a god, shall be found among the dead.—Shall be comforted.—Shall console himself, when he sees all these mighty nations and proud conquerors in the same condition as himself.}—Bagster. Chap. XXXII. Ver. 8. Thou shalt surely die.—Heb. “Dying thou shalt die.” So ver. 14. Ver. 10. If our transgressions.—(The impenitent Jews seem to have charged the prophet’s messages with inconsistency; for whilst he warned them to repent, and assured the penitent of forgiveness, he also predicted that the people “would pine away in their transgressions.” The prediction, however, merely implied, that God foresaw that the people in general would be impenitent; though some individuals would repent and be pardoned.)—Bagster. Ver. 13, He shall surely live.—Heb. “Living he shall live.” So ver. 15. Ver. 15. Restore the pledge.—[“The sin is not forgiven, unless that which is taken away be restored,” says Augustine.]—Bagster. Ver. 21. Twelfth year.—(This was on Wednesday, January 25, A. M. 3416 or 3417. According to the date here given, this escaped Jew did not come to the prophet, with intelligence of Jerusalem being smitten, till about 18 months after the event.)—Bagster. Syriac and eight MSS. read “eleventh year,” which is approved by Doderlein, and others.—City is smitten.—{This was the very message which God had promised the prophet, ch. xxiv. 26.)—B. Ver. 22. Until he came—That is, his mouth continued open until, &c.

Ver. 24. They that inhabit those wastes of the house of Israel.—{That is, the small remnant which continued in the land under Gedaliah, after the desolation of Jerusalem, flattered themselves, notwithstanding all their crimes, that they should inherit the whole land.}—Bagster. See Newcome, who thinks this was spoken to Ezekiel (ver. 23 to 33) before the messenger came; if so, it must be considered a distinct prophecy. Indeed these predictions seem to be arranged (as before mentioned) with little or no regard to the order of delivery, which, in many cases, can now be only guessed at. Ver. 25. Ye eat with the blood.—This was not only contrary to the Mosaic, but to the patriarchal law, (Genesis 9:4). which shows their utter neglect of the divine commands. Ver. 26. Ye stand upon your sword.—Newcome, “With your sword.” This is supposed to refer to some idolatrous rites performed with swords drawn; or else it means, to govern with the sword; that is, by might, and not by right. Ver. 28. Most desolate.—Newcome, “Desolation and an astonishment.” Ver. 30. Against thee.—See margin. The prophet was a subject of curiosity and even of admiration, though his precepts were utterly rejected. Ver. 32. A very lovely song.—Among the Hebrews, singers generally accompanied themselves upon the harp, as the Greeks did upon the lyre.