Ezekiel 30
PATtion of God’s and his church’s enemies, denoted by Tyre, Egypt, and other oppressors of the Jews, (see the note on xxxviii. 17.) the kingdom and state of the Jews should again flourish under the Messias, as it is more clearly foretold, chap, xxxiv. xxxvii. (Compare likewise xxxiii. And I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them.’] When thy prophecies are made good by the evont, this shall add a new authority to what thou speakest. (See xxiv. 27.) See the Argument of the foregoing chapter. same with the city Thebes, famous for its hundred gates. (See the note on Jer. xlvi. 25.)
Ezekiel 30:2
JLXOWLye, Woe worth the day!. The prophet directs his speech to the Egyptians. (Compare Isa. xiii. 6.)
Ezekiel 30:3
The day is near, even the day of the Lord, &c. The time of God’s vengeance. (Sec vii.7. 12.) Tlie cloudy day.] When the calamities that are coming upon Egypt shall make every thing look dark and dismal. (Sec ver. 18. xxxii. 7, 8. xxxiv. 12. Joel ii. 2. Amos v. 18.) It shall be the time of the heathen.] Of the punishment of the Egyptians and their allies: (see ver. 4, 5. vii. 7. 12.) Gods judgments upon particular places and nations, are an earnest of that general judgment, when he shall execute judgment upon all the ungodly. (See the note upon Isa. xiii. 10.)
Ezekiel 30:4
Great pain shall be in Ethiopia. See ver. 5. 9. And her foundations shall be broken down.] Her strong forts and citadels. (Compare Isa. xvi.7. Jer. 1. 15.)
Ezekiel 30:5
Ethiopia, and Lybia, and Lydia. The names in the Hebrew are Cush, Phut, and Lud: who are mentioned together as the Egyptian allies, Jer. xlvi. 9. (See the note there, and compare Nahum iii. 9.) Cush probably signifies Ethiopia here, (see xxix. 10.) as being joined with Phut and Lnd; which were people of Africa. Phut is rendered Lybia by our interpreters here, and in that place of Jeremy; but Phut and Lnbim were a distinct people, as hath been observed upon xxvii. 10. Phut may denote some part of Africa near Egypt, and Lud probably signifies some part of the Abyssines’ country. And all the mingled people.] All their auxiliaries. (Compare Jer. 1. 37.) If we distinguish these from the men of the league which follow, they may mean that mixture of Carians, Ionians, and other nations lying upon the Mediterranean Sea, which Apries got together to encounter Amasis, who, together with him, were destroyed. (See Dr. Prideaux, ubi supra; and the note on Jer. xxv. 20.) And Chub.] The Cubii are mentioned in Ptolemy as a people of Mareotis, a province of Egypt. The men of the land that is in league.] The LXX. translate it, TJie men of my league, or covenant; t. e. the Jews: many of whom flying into Egypt, were destroyed there with the Egyptians. (See the note on xxix. 12.)
Ezekiel 30:6
They also that uphold Egypt shall fall. The governors of the several provinces, those who are called the stay of the tribes thereof, Isa. xix. 13. i. e. of the several nomi, or divisions of Egypt. From tlie tower of Syene they shall fall in it.] The sense would be more complete, if the words were translated, FromMigdolto Syene. (See the note on xxix. 12.)
Ezekiel 30:7
And they shall be desolate in the midst of tlie countries that are desolate, &c. See xxix. 10. #
Ezekiel 30:8
Wlten I have set a fire i£ Egypt. God’s judgments arc often compared to fire. (See xix. 14. xxii. 21. 31. Psal. lxxviii. G3. Jer. vii. 20. Amos i. 4, &c.) And when all her helpers sluxll be destroyed.] All her allies and auxiliaries. (Compare xxxi. 7. xxxii. 21.)
Ezekiel 30:9
In that day shall messengers go from me in sliips, to make the careless Ethiopians afraid. The Ethiopians were the confederates of the Egyptians in former times, and sharers with them in their good or ill fortune. (See Isa. xviii.l, 2. xx. 3, 4. and the notes upon those places.) The verso may be likewise thus rendered; In that day shall messengers go from me to the people in the wilderness, to make the careless Ethiopians afraid. The word tziim is translated the people in the wilderness, Isa. xxiii. 13. and that appellation is particularly given to the Ethiopians, Psal. lxxii. 9. Ixxiv. 14. as the LXX. translate the w r ord. And great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt.~] The Egyptians and Ethiopians being confederates, the ill neAvs of the conquest of Egypt, shall sensibly affect them. (Compare xxiv. 16. xxxiii. 9, 10. xxvii. 35. Isa. xix. 17. xxiii. 5.)
Ezekiel 30:11
Tlie terrible of the nations. See xxviii. 7.
Ezekiel 30:12
And I will make the rivers dry. I will destroy the strength of Egypt; the metaphor is taken from the decrease or failing of the Nile, upon whose overflowing all the plenty and prosperity of Egypt depended. (Compare xix. 3. Isa. xix. 5, 6.) And sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land waste by the hand of strangers.] See vii. 24. To sell, signifies here to deliver up, as men do goods that they sell. (Compare Deut. xxxii. 30. Judg. ii. 14. iv. 9.) *
Ezekiel 30:13
1 will also destroy the idols. Idolatry being one of the principal sins for which God visits the infidel nations, he will take particular vengeance upon the idols, thereby sheAving how much he is superior to them in power. (Compare Exod. xii. 12. Isa. xix. 1. Jer. xliii. 12. xlvi. 25.) And I tvill cause tlteir images to cease out of Noph.] Noph, or Memphis, was one of the principal cities of Egypt, a seat of their kings, where their sepulchres stood; one of which is still remaining: upon which account it is often mentioned in Scripture. (See Isa. xix. 3. Jer. ii. 16. xliv. 1. xlvi. 14.) In Hosea it is called Moph, xi. 6. which comes near in sound to Memphis. This place was famous for the worship of Apis and Osiris; whereupon the prophet, in a particular manner, denounces destruction to the idolatry of that plaice. And thereshall be no more aprincein the landof Egypt.] It shall no more have a natural prince of the Egyptian raco to rule over it, as formerly, but shall be subject to foreigners. (See the note on xxix. 15.) And I will put a fear in Egypt] Will make them fainthearted, and not able to defend themselves. (Compare Isa. xix. 16. Jer. xlvii. 5.)
Ezekiel 30:14
AndlwillmakePathros desolate. See xxix. 14. And I will set fire in Zoan.] Zoan, or Tanis, was ono of the ancient cities in Egypt, (see Numb. xiii. 20.) and the metropolis of the kingdom in Moses’s time. (See Psal. lxxviii. 12. 43.) And I tvill execute judgment in No.] Called tho multitude of No, or Hamon No, in the next verse; and probably the
Ezekiel 30:15
And I will pour my fury upon sin, the strength of Egypt. It is generally agreed, that Sin is the same with Pelusium, one of the seven mouths of the Nile, which was’ commonly called the key of Egypt, as Suidas observes; and therefore was strongly fortified, that no enemy might gain admittance. And I will cut off the multitude of No.] Or Hamon No, as; the original reads. The name is generally supposed to be derived from Hamon, who was the Egyptian Jupiter. Mizraim, the son of Ham, was the founder of Egypt, which is called the land of Ham, Psal. cvi. 22. And this Hamon was probably either Ham himself, or one of his posterity advanced to Divine honours. Plutarch informs us, in his book de.Iside et Osiride, that Ammon, in the Egyptian language, is equivalent to Zcvc in Greek, (p. 354. edit. Francof.)
Ezekiel 30:16
And I will set fire in Egypt. See ver. 8.
Ezekiel 30:17
Tlie young men of Aven and ofPhi-beseth shall fall by the sword. Aven is the same with On, mentioned < Gen. xli. 45. in aftertimes called Heliopolis, as our margin explains it here, because of a temple or image there dedicated to the sun. (Compare Isa. xix. 18. Jer. xliii. 13.) The word is so translated by the Seventy interpreters, both here and Gen. xli. 45. who were very well acquainted with Egypt, and the principal places of it. Phi-beseth was afterward, with very little variation, called Bubastum, and so translated here by the LXX.
Ezekiel 30:18
At Tehaphnehes the day shall be darkened. Compare ver. 3. Tehaphnehes, elsewhere writ Tahapanes, is supposed to be the same place which was afterward called Daphnae Pelusiacae. (See the note on Jer. xliii. 7.) When I shall break there the yokes of Egypt J] When I shall set those at liberty that are oppressed by the bondage of Egypt. (Compare xxxiv. 27.) A cloud shall cover her.] See ver. 3.
Ezekiel 30:21
I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, &c. I have broken his strength, so that he will never be able to recover his former power. (Compare Jer. xlviii. 25.) It is usual for the prophets to speak of a thing future, as if it were already accomplished. (See the note on Isa. xxi. V.)
Ezekiel 30:22
And I will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken. The king of Babylon had before dispossessed the king of Egypt of all his new conquests, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates: (2 Kings xxiv. 7.) so that this part of his strength was already taken away, and never to be recovered; and now God threatens to destroy the remainder of his power, the kingdom of Egypt itself. And I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.] He shall have no more strength to defend himself, than a man hath to use his sword when his arm is broken.
Ezekiel 30:23
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, &c. See xxix. 13.
Ezekiel 30:24
And I will strengthen the arm of the king of Babylon. The same promise God afterward made to Cyrus, Isa. xlv. 1. (Compare Psal. xviii. 39.) And he shall groan with the groans of a deadly wounded man.] His strength shall perfectly fail, as a man’s who is dying of his wounds.