Verse 2
Ezekiel was to utter a lamentation over Pharaoh. In the other oracles of judgment against foreign nations recorded in this book, lament typically follows announcement (cf. ch. 19; Ezekiel 26:17-18; Ezekiel 27; Ezekiel 28:12-19). The same is true with the oracles against Egypt. The writer’s desire to preserve this pattern is probably another reason he recorded the oracles of judgment in Ezekiel 29:17-21 and Ezekiel 30:1-19 out of chronological order.
Hophra had compared himself to a young lion, but he was more like the mythical sea-monster. The Egyptian sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a Pharaoh. Again, the monster in view seems to be a crocodile (cf. Ezekiel 29:3). He had burst forth from the Nile and its estuaries muddying and fouling their waters. This symbolizes Pharaoh’s disturbing influence on the international scene as he complicated God’s dealings with other nations, especially Judah and Babylon.
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