Ezekiel 32:1-16

Lament over the King of Egypt

v. 1. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, after the carrying away of Jelioiachin, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

v. 2. Son of man, a weak human being, and yet the messenger of the almighty God, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, very likely Pharaoh-hophra, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, in his behavior over against them, in the terror which he inspired, and thou art as a whale in the seas, rather, a dragon or crocodile, an object of fear wherever he was known; and thou camest forth with thy rivers, as a mighty stream from its underground bed, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, deliberately dirtying it, and fouledst their rivers. Egypt had gone forth to vanquish and subdue other nations, taking away their independence and troubling them in various other ways.

v. 3. Thus saith the Lord God, I will therefore spread out My net over thee, the invading armies being his instruments, with a company of many people, all associated in the work of carrying out the Lord's vengeance upon Pharaoh; and they shall bring thee up in My net, the picture being that of the capture of a crocodile.

v. 4. Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, Cf.Ezekiel 29:5, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven, scavengers and birds of prey, to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee, the thought thus being the same as in chapter 31:13.

v. 5. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, like a huge corpse in the process of decay, and fill the valleys with thy height, with great heaps of his followers, or in utter humiliation of his boundless pride.

v. 6. I will also water with thy blood, in great streams of blood shed in the great slaughter, the land wherein thou swimmest, in which he had till now disported himself as he chose, even to the mountains, the entire lowland thus being filled with the outflowing of Pharaoh's strength; and the rivers shall be full of thee. Thus the destruction of Pharaoh was to bring death and destruction upon the entire land of Egypt, while other nations would derive benefit there from.

v. 7. And when I shall put thee out, as when one extinguishes the light of a candle, I will cover the heaven and make the stars thereof dark, to express mourning and condolence; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light, the underlying thought being that of the great Day of Judgment, for every judgment upon the nations of the world is a type and precursor of the Last Judgment.

v. 8. All the bright lights of heaven, otherwise given as lights for men, and for the delight of their eves, will I make dark over thee, on account of the judgment upon godless Egypt, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.

v. 9. I will also vex the hearts of many people, filling them with extreme fear and terror, their sympathy with fallen Egypt taking this form, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, when the information concerning the manner and extent of its destruction would be spread, into the countries which thou hast not known, as the tidings were carried by captive and dispersed Egyptians.

v. 10. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, in horrified astonishment over the fall of Egypt, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, literally, "shudder over thee shudderings," strong enough to make their hair stand on end, when I shall brandish My sword before them, swinging it back and forth before their faces in a menacing attitude; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, fearing that the fate of Egypt would strike them next, in the day of thy fall. All this is now more specifically set forth.

v. 11. For thus saith the Lord God, The sword of the king of Babylon, in this case in the service of the one almighty God, shall come upon thee.

v. 12. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude, the inhabitants of Egypt with all their wealth and pomp, to fall, the terrible of the nations, the fierce and violent Chaldean soldiers, all of them; and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, that of which Egypt boasted in her pride, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed, all that had caused them to boast of their numbers and of their wealth.

v. 13. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof, one of the chief sources of Egypt's wealth being the immense herds of cattle in the delta of the Nile, from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, the depopulation being so great that it would happen but seldom that a man would touch the waters of any canal of the Nile, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. "Foreign dominion inflicting mischief, causing man and beast to disappear, should bring to a stand the native pernicious rule of Pharaoh. "

v. 14. Then will I make their waters deep, causing the muddiness to sink to the bottom and the water to be clarified, and cause their rivers to run like oil, or "with oil," a strong figure to express the blessing of the Lord upon a nation, saith the Lord God. While Pharaoh had muddied and spoiled the waters of Egypt, the Lord, after the overthrow of the king, intended to clarify its waters once more and to impart to the land the riches of His blessings. The reference is undoubtedly to the living power of God's Word and Spirit, which could be given to Egypt only after its natural power was destroyed, after its boastful pride had been taken away.

v. 15. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, by the destruction now threatened upon it, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, literally, "is wasted away from its fullness," when I s hall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the Lord, thus gaining the knowledge which may be the beginning of a new life.

v. 16. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her, the daughters of the nations, who were usually the professional or principal mourners, shall lament her; they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord God. The punishments of the Lord, also in our days, have one chief purpose, namely, that of bringing men to the realization of His holiness and righteousness and of their own sin, for with this much done by way of preparing the heart in true repentance, the path is opened for the understanding of the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus, the Savior.