1 It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first (day) of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you did break forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers. 3 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net. 4 I will leave you on the land, I will cast you forth on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you, and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you. 5 I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. 6 I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you. 7 When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. 8 All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh. 9 I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. 10 Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall. 11 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you. 12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed. 13 I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of animals trouble them. 14 Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord Yahweh. 15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh. 16 This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the Lord Yahweh. 17 It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth (day) of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. 19 Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised. 20 They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes. 21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. 22 Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword; 23 whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living. 24 There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. 25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain. 26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are around them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. 27 They shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for (they were) the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. 28 But you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with those who are slain by the sword. 29 There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit. 30 There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh. 32 For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
The prophet goes on to predict the fall of the king of Egypt, under the figure of an animal of prey, such as a lion or crocodile, caught, slain, and his carcass left a prey to the fowls and wild beasts, Ezekiel 32:1-6. The figure is then changed; and the greatness of his fall (described by the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars) strikes terror into all the surrounding nations, Ezekiel 32:7-10. The prophet adds, that the overthrow of the then reigning Egyptian dynasty was to be effected by the instrumentality of the king of Babylon, who should leave Egypt so desolate, that its waters, (alluding to the metaphor used in the second verse), should run as pure and smooth as oil, without the foot of man or the hoof of a beast to disturb them, Ezekiel 32:11-16. A beautiful, nervous, and concise description of a land ruined and left utterly desolate. In the remaining part of the chapter the same event is pourtrayed by one of the boldest figures ever attempted in any composition, and which at the. same time is executed with astonishing perspicuity and force. God is introduced ordering a place in the lower regions for the king of Egypt and his host, Ezekiel 32:17, Ezekiel 32:18. The prophet delivers his message, pronounces their fate, and commands those who buried the slain to drag him and his multitudes to the subterraneous mansions, Ezekiel 32:19, Ezekiel 32:20. At the tumult and commotion which this mighty work occasions, the infernal shades are represented as roused from their couches to learn the cause. They see and congratulate the king of Egypt, on his arrival among them, Ezekiel 32:21. Pharaoh being now introduced into this immense subterraneous cavern, (see the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, where a similar imagery is employed), the prophet leads him all around the sides of the pit; shows him the gloomy mansions of former tyrants, tells their names as he goes along; beautifully contrasts their former pomp and destructive ambition, when they were a terror to the surrounding states, with their present most abject and helpless condition; declares that all these oppressors of mankind have not only been cut off out of the land of the living, but have gone down into the grave uncircumcised, that is, they have died in their sins, and therefore shall have no resurrection to eternal life; and concludes with showing Pharaoh the place destined for him in the midst of the uncircumcised, and of them that have been slain by the sword, Ezekiel 32:22-32. This prophetic ode may be considered as a finished model in that species of writing which is appropriated to the exciting of terror. The imagery throughout is sublime and terrible; and no reader of sensibility and taste can accompany the prophet in this funeral procession, and visit the mansions of Hades, without being impressed with a degree of awe nearly approaching to horror.
INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 32
This chapter contains two more prophecies concerning the destruction of Egypt. The date of the first is given, Ezekiel 22:1, in which the king of Egypt is compared to a large fish taken in a net, and brought to land, and left on it, to be the prey of the fowls of the air and beasts of the field, Ezekiel 32:2, and the ruin of that kingdom is further amplified by the casting of it on the mountains and valleys; by the land flowing with its blood; by the darkness of the heavens; by the vexation in the hearts of many people; and by the amazement of kings and nations, Ezekiel 32:5, the means and instruments of all which will be the king of Babylon and his army, Ezekiel 32:11, the devastation made by him, which would be such as would cause lamentation in other nations, is described, Ezekiel 32:13, then follows the other prophecy, whose date is given, Ezekiel 32:17, the prophet is bid to lament the fall of Egypt, which is represented under the funeral of a corpse, Ezekiel 32:18, saluted by those gone down to the grave before, or were become desolate; which are mentioned, to assure Egypt of its destruction, Ezekiel 32:21 as the Assyrian empire, and all its provinces, Ezekiel 32:22, the Persians and Medes, with all their dominions, Ezekiel 32:24, the posterity of Meshech and Tubal, or the Scythians, those warlike people, Ezekiel 32:26, the Edomites, the princes of the north, and all the Zidonians, Ezekiel 32:29 which would be a comfort, though a poor one to the king of Egypt and his subjects, to have such company with them, Ezekiel 32:31.
(v. 1-16) The fall of Egypt.
(v. 17-32) It is like that of other nations.
Lamentations over the Ruin of Pharaoh and His People
The chapter contains two lamentations composed at different times: the first, in vv. 1-16, relating to the fall of Pharaoh, which rests upon the prophecy contained in Ezekiel 29:1-16 and Ezekiel 30:20-26; the second, in vv. 17-32, in which the prophecy concerning the casting down of this imperial power into hell (Ezekiel 31:14-17) is worked out in elegiac form.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.