1 The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day! 3 For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations. 4 A sword shall come on Egypt, and anguish 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 Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is allied with them, shall fall with them by the sword. 6 Thus says Yahweh: They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh. 7 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 They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed. 9 In that day shall messengers go forth from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes. 10 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it. 13 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 14 I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No. 15 I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. 16 I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up; and Memphis (shall have) adversaries in the daytime. 17 The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these (cities) shall go into captivity. 18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power 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 on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. 20 It happened in the eleventh year, in the first (month), in the seventh (day) of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to apply (healing) medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword. 22 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong (arm), and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man. 25 I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt. 26 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
This chapter describes, with great force and elegance, the ruin of Egypt and all her allies by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel 30:1-11; with an amplification of the distress of the principal cities of Egypt on that occasion, Ezekiel 30:12-19. The remaining verses are a short prophecy relating to the same event, and therefore annexed to the longer one preceding, although this was predicted sooner, Ezekiel 30:20-26.
INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 30
This chapter is a continuation of the prophecy against Egypt, both against the country and the king of it. It is introduced with expressions of lamentation, because of the destruction coming on, Ezekiel 30:1, and not only Egypt, and the cities thereof, should be destroyed, but all her friends, associates, and allies; the Ethiopians, Lydians, Lybians, and others, Ezekiel 30:4. Nebuchadnezzar and his army were to be the instruments of her ruin, Ezekiel 30:10, particular cities are mentioned by name, which should suffer much, and become desolate, Ezekiel 30:13 and then Pharaoh king of Egypt himself is threatened with broken arms, and his people to be scattered among the nations, Ezekiel 30:20, and the king of Babylon is again mentioned, whose arms should be strengthened to do all this, Ezekiel 30:24.
(v. 1-19) A prophecy against Egypt.
(Ezekiel 30:20-26) Another.
The Day of Judgment upon Egypt - Ezekiel 30:1-19
Commencing with a call to lamentation, the prophet announces that the Lord's day of judgment upon the nations is near at hand, and will burst upon Egypt, and the nations in alliance with it (Ezekiel 30:2-5). He then depicts in three strophes, with the introductory words 'כּה אמר , the execution for this judgment, namely: (a) the destruction of the might of Egypt and the devastation of the land (Ezekiel 30:6-9); (b) the enemy by whom the judgment will be accomplished (Ezekiel 30:10-12); and (c) the extermination of the idols of Egypt, the conquest and demolition of its fortresses, the slaughter of its male population, and the captivity of the daughters of the land (Ezekiel 30:13-19).
The heading does not contain any chronological information; and the contents furnish no definite criteria for determining with precision the date of the prophecy. Jerome assigns this oracle to the same period as the prophecy in Ezekiel 29:1-16, whilst others connect it more closely with Ezekiel 29:17-21, and regard it as the latest of all Ezekiel's prophecies. The latter is the conclusion adopted by Rosenmller, Hהvernick, Hitzig, Kliefoth, and some others. The principal argument adduced for linking it on to Ezekiel 29:17. is, that in Ezekiel 30:3 the day of judgment upon Egypt is threatened as near at hand, and this did not apply to the tenth year (Ezekiel 29:1), though it was perfectly applicable to the twenty-seventh (Ezekiel 29:17), when the siege of Tyre was ended, and Nebuchadnezzar was on the point of attacking Egypt. But the expression, "the day of the Lord is near at hand," is so relative a chronological phrase, that nothing definite can be gathered from it as to the date at which an oracle was composed. Nor does the fact that our prophecy stands after the prophecy in Ezekiel 29:17-21, which is furnished with a date, prove anything; for the other prophecies which follow, and are furnished with dates, all belong to a much earlier period. It is very evident from this that Ezekiel 29:17-21 is inserted without regard to chronological sequence, and consequently Ezekiel 30:1-19 may just as well belong to the period between the tenth month of the tenth year (Ezekiel 29:1) and the first month of the eleventh year (Ezekiel 30:20), as to the twenty-seventh year (Ezekiel 29:17), since all the reasons assigned for the closer connection of our prophecy with the one immediately preceding (Ezekiel 29:17-21), which is supposed to indicate similarity of date, are invalid; whilst, on the other hand, the resemblance of Ezekiel 30:6 and Ezekiel 30:17 to Ezekiel 29:10 and Ezekiel 29:12 is not sufficient to warrant the assumption of a contemporaneous origin.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.