E
Z E K I E L
CHAP. XXX.
In
this chapter we have, I. A continuation of the prophecy against Egypt, which
we had in the latter part of the foregoing chapter, just before the desolation
of that once flourishing kingdom was completed by Nebuchadnezzar, in which is
foretold the destruction of all her allies and confederates, all her interests
and concerns, and the several steps which the king of Babylon should take in
pushing on this destruction, ver. 1-19. II. A repetition of a former prophecy
against Egypt, just before the desolation of it begun by their own bad
conduct, which gradually weakened them and prepared the way for the king of
Babylon, ver. 20-26. It is all much to the same purport with what we had
before.
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Prophecy
against
Egypt
; Destruction of
Egypt
Foretold.
B. C. 572.
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1 The word of the LORD
came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus
saith the Lord GOD;
Howl ye, Woe worth the day! 3 For the day is near, even the
day of the LORD
is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain 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 Libya,
and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men 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 Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the
Lord GOD.
7 And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are
desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are
wasted. 8 And they shall know that I am the LORD,
when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be
destroyed. 9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in
ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come 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 Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the terrible of
the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their
swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 And I
will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I
will make the land waste, 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 their images to cease
out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I
will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 14 And I will make Pathros
desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No.
15 And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off
the multitude of No. 16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall
have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have
distresses daily. 17 The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall
fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity.
18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the
yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a
cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am
the LORD.
The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is here very full and particular, as
well as, in the general, very frightful. What can protect a provoking people
when the righteous God comes forth to contend with them?
I. It shall be a very lamentable destruction, and such as shall occasion great
sorrow (v. 2, 3): "Howl you; you may justly shriek now that
it is coming, for you will be made to shriek and make hideous outcries when it
comes. Cry out, Woe worth the day! or, Ah the day! alas because of
the day! the terrible day! Woe and alas! For the day is near;
the day we have so long dreaded, so long deserved. It is the day of the
Lord, the day in which he will manifest himself as a God of vengeance. You
have your day now, when you carry all before you, and trample on all about
you, but God will have his day shortly, the day of the revelation of his
righteous judgment," Ps. xxxvii. 13. It will be a cloudy day, that
is, dark and dismal, without the shining forth of any comfort; and it shall
threaten a storm--fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. It shall be
the time of the heathen, of reckoning with the heathen for all their
heathenish practices, that time which David spoke of when God would pour
out his fury upon the heathen (Ps. lxxix. 6), when they should sink,
Ps. ix. 15.
II. It shall be the destruction of Egypt, and of all the states and countries
in confederacy with her and in her neighbourhood. 1. Egypt herself shall fall
(v. 4): The sword shall come upon Egypt, the sword of the
Chaldeans, and it shall be a victorious sword, for the slain shall fall in
Egypt, fall by it, fall before it. Is the country populous? They shall take
away her multitude. Is it strong, and well-fixed? Her foundations shall
be broken down, and then the fabric, though built ever so fine, ever so
high, will fall of course. 2. Her neighbours and inmates shall fall with her.
When the slain fall so thickly in Egypt great pain shall be in Ethiopia,
both that in Africa, which is in the neighbourhood of Egypt on one side, and
that in Asia, which is near to it on the other side. When their neighbour's
house was on fire they could not but apprehend their own in danger; nor were
their fears groundless, for they shall all fall with them by the sword,
v. 5. Ethiopia and Libya (Cush and Phut, so the Hebrew names
are, two of the sons of Ham who are mentioned, and Mizraim, that is, Egypt,
between them, Gen. x. 6), and the Lydians (who were famous archers, and
are spoken of as confederates with Egypt, Jer. xlvi. 9), these shall fall with
Egypt and Chub (the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of the inner Libya);
these and others were the mingled people; there were those of all these
and other countries who upon some account or other resided in Egypt, as did
also the men of the land that is in league, some of the remains of the
people of Israel and Judah, the children of the covenant, or league, as
they are called (Acts iii. 25), the children of the promise, Gal. iv.
28. These sojourned in Egypt contrary to God's command, and these shall fall
with them. Note, Those that will take their lot with God's enemies shall
have their lot with them, yea, though they be in profession the men of the
land that is in league with God.
III. All that pretend to support the sinking interests of Egypt shall come
down under her, shall come down with her (v. 6): Those that uphold
Egypt shall fall, and then Egypt must fall of course. See the justice of
God; Egypt pretended to uphold Jerusalem when that was tottering, but proved a
deceitful reed; and now those that pretended to uphold Egypt shall prove no
better. Those that deceive others are commonly paid in their own coin; they
are themselves deceived. 1. Does Egypt think herself upheld by the absolute
authority and dominion of her king? The pride of her power shall come
down, v. 6. The power of the king of Egypt was his pride; but that
shall be broken, and humbled. 2. Is the multitude of her people her support?
These shall fall by the sword, even from the tower of Syene,
which is in the utmost corner of the land, from that side of it by which the
enemy shall enter. Both the countries and the cities, the
husbandmen and the merchants, shall be desolate, v. 7, as before, ch.
xxix. 12. Even the multitude of Egypt shall be made to cease, v.
10. That populous country shall be depopulated. The land shall be even filled
with the slain, v. 11. 3. Is the river Nile her support, and are
the several channels of it a defence to her? "I will make the rivers
dry (v. 12), so that those natural fortifications which were
thought impregnable, because impassable, shall stand them in no stead."
4. Are her idols a support to her? They shall be destroyed; those imaginary
upholders shall appear more than ever to be imaginary, for so images are when
they pretend to be deliverers and strongholds (v. 13): I will cause
their images to cease out of Noph. 5. Is her royal family her support? There
shall be no more a prince in the land of Egypt; the royal family shall be
extirpated and extinguished, which had continued so long. 6. Is her courage
her support, and does she think to uphold herself by the bravery of her men of
war, who have now of late been inured to service? That shall fail: I will
put a fear in the land of Egypt. 7. Is the rising generation her support?
is she upheld by her children, and does she think herself happy because she
has her quiver full of them? Alas! the young men shall fall by the sword
(v. 17) and the daughters shall go into captivity (v.
18), and so she shall be robbed of all her hopes.
IV. God shall inflict these desolating judgments on Egypt (v. 8): They
shall know that I am the Lord, and greater than all gods, than all their
gods, when I have set a fire in Egypt. The fire that consumes nations
is of God's kindling; and, when he sets fire to a people, all their helpers
shall be destroyed. Those that go about to quench the fire shall
themselves be devoured by it; for who can stand before him when he is angry?
When he pours out his fury upon a place, when he sets fire to it (v.
15, 16), neither its strength nor its multitude can stand it in any stead.
V. The king of Babylon and his army shall be employed as instruments of this
destruction: The multitude of Egypt shall be made to cease and be quite
cut off by the hand of the king of Babylon, v. 10. Those that
undertook to protect Israel from the king of Babylon shall not be able to
protect themselves. It is said of the Chaldeans, who should destroy Egypt, 1.
That they are strangers (v. 12), who therefore shall show no
compassion for old acquaintance-sake, but shall behave strangely towards them.
2. That they are the terrible of the nations (v. 11), both in
respect of force and in respect of fierceness; and, being terrible, they shall
make terrible work. (3.) That they are the wicked, who will not be
restrained by reason and conscience, the laws of nature or the laws of
nations, for they are without law: I will sell the land into the hand of
the wicked. They do violence unjustly, as they are wicked; yet, so
far as they are instruments in God's hand of executing his judgments, it is on
his part justly done. Note, God often makes one wicked man a scourge to
another; and even wicked men acquire a title to prey, jure belli--by the
laws of war, for God sells it into their hands.
VI. No place in the land of Egypt shall be exempted from the fury of the
Chaldean army, not the strongest, not the remotest: The sword shall go
through the land. Various places are here named: Pathros, Zoan, and No
(v. 14), Sin and Noph (v. 15, 16), Aven and Pi-beseth
(v. 17), and Tehaphnehes, v. 18. These shall be made
desolate, shall be fired, and God's judgments shall be executed upon them, and
his fury poured out upon them. Their strength and multitude shall be cut
off; they shall have great pain, shall be rent asunder with
fear, and shall have distresses daily. Their day shall be darkened;
their honours, comforts, and hopes, shall be extinguished. Their yokes
shall be broken, so that they shall no more oppress and tyrannize as
they have done. The pomp of their strength shall cease, and a cloud
shall cover them, a cloud so thick that through it they shall not see any
hopes, nor shall their glory be seen, or shine further. And, lastly,
the Ethiopians, who are at a distance from them, as well as those who are
mingled with them, shall share in their pain and terror. God will by his
providence spread the rumour, and the careless Ethiopians shall be made
afraid, v. 9. Note, God can strike a terror upon those that are
most secure; fearfulness shall, when he pleases, surprise the most
presumptuous hypocrites.
The close of this prediction leaves, 1. The land of Egypt mortified: Thus
will I execute judgments on Egypt, v. 19. The destruction of Egypt
is the executing of judgments, which intimates not only that it is done
justly, for its sins, but that it is done regularly and legally, by a judicial
sentence. All the executions God does are according to his judgments. 2. The
God of Israel herein glorified: They shall know that I am the Lord. The
Egyptians shall be made to know it and the people of God shall be made to know
it better. The Lord is known by the judgments which he executes.
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Destruction
of Egypt Foretold.
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B.
C. 572.
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20 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in
the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that
the word of the LORD
came unto me, saying, 21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of
Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put
a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. 22
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms,
the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out
of his hand. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the
nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24 And I
will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand:
but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the
groanings of a deadly wounded man. 25 But I will strengthen
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 the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. 26 And I will scatter the
Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they
shall know that I am the LORD.
This short prophecy of the weakening of the power of Egypt was delivered about
the time that the army of the Egyptians, which attempted to raise the siege of
Jerusalem, was frustrated in its enterprises, and returned re infectâ--without
accomplishing their purpose; whereupon the king of Babylon renewed the
siege and carried his point. The kingdom of Egypt was very ancient, and had
been for many ages considerable. That of Babylon had but lately arrived at its
great pomp and power, being built upon the ruins of the kingdom of Assyria.
Now it is with them as it is with families and states, some are growing up,
others are declining and going back; one must increase and the others must of
course decrease.
I. It is here foretold that the king of
Egypt
shall grow weaker and weaker. The extent of his territories shall be abridged,
his wealth and power shall be diminished, and he shall become less able than
ever to help either himself or his friend. 1. This was in part done already (v.
21): I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, some time ago. One arm of that
kingdom might well be reckoned broken when the king of
Babylon
routed the forces of Pharaoh-Necho at
Carchemish
(Jer. xlvi. 2), and made himself master of all that pertained to
Egypt
from the
river
of
Egypt
to
Euphrates
, 2 Kings xxiv. 7. Egypt had been long in gathering strength and
extending its dominions, and therefore, that there may be a proportion
observed in providence, it loses its strength slowly and by degrees. It was
soon after the king of Egypt slew good king Josiah, and in the same reign,
that its arm was thus broken, and it received that fatal blow which it never
recovered. Before Egypt's heart and neck were broken its arm was. God's
judgments come upon a people by steps, that they may meet him repenting. When
the arm of Egypt is broken it shall not be bound up to be healed, for
none can heal the wounds that God gives but he himself. Those whom he disarms,
whom he disables, cannot again hold the sword. 2. This was to be done again.
One arm was broken before, and something was done towards the setting of it,
towards the healing of the deadly wound that was given to the beast. But now (v.
22), I am against Pharaoh, and will break both his arms, both the
strong and that which was broken and set again. Note, If less
judgments do not prevail to humble and reform sinners, God will send greater.
Now God will cause the sword to fall out of his hand, which he caught
hold of as thinking himself strong enough to hold it. It is repeated (v.
24), I will break Pharaoh's arms. He had been a cruel oppressor to the
people of God formerly, and of late the staff of a broken rod to them;
and now God by breaking his arms reckons with him for both. God justly breaks
that power which is abused either to put wrongs upon people or to put cheats
upon them. But this is not all; (1.) The king of Egypt shall be dispirited
when he finds himself in danger of the king of Babylon's forces: he shall
groan before him with the groaning of a deadly wounded man. Note, It is
common for those that are most elated in their prosperity to be most dejected
and disheartened in their adversity. Pharaoh, even before the sword touches
him, shall groan as if he had received his death's wound. (2.) The people of
Egypt shall be dispersed (v. 23 and again v. 26): I will
scatter them among the nations. Other nations had mingled with them (v.
5); now they shall be mingled with other nations, and seek shelter in them,
and so be made to know that the Lord is righteous.
II. It is here foretold that the king of Babylon shall grow stronger and
stronger, v. 24, 25. Put strength into the king of Babylon's
arms, that he may be able to go through the service he is designed for. 2.
That he will put a sword, his sword, into the king of Babylon's hand,
which signified his giving him a commission and furnishing him with arms for
carrying on a war, particularly against Egypt. Note, As judges on the bench,
like Pilate (John xix. 11), so generals in the field, like Nebuchadnezzar,
have no power but what is given them from above.
Contents
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Section
