Ezekiel 29

Eze 29:1-21.

THE

JUDGMENT ON

EGYPT BY

NEBUCHADNEZZAR; THOUGH ABOUT TO

BE

RESTORED AFTER

FORTY

YEARS,

IT

WAS

STILL TO

BE IN A

STATE OF

DEGRADATION.

This is the last of the world kingdoms against which Ezekiel's

prophecies are directed, and occupies the largest space in them, namely,

the next four chapters. Though farther off than Tyre, it exercised a

more powerful influence on Israel.

2. Pharaoh--a common name of all the kings of Egypt, meaning "the

sun"; or, as others say, a "crocodile," which was worshipped in parts of

Egypt (compare

Eze 29:3).

Hophra or Apries was on the throne at this time. His reign began

prosperously. He took Gaza

(Jer 47:1)

and Zidon and made himself master of Phœnicia and Palestine,

recovering much that was lost to Egypt by the victory of Nebuchadnezzar

at Carchemish

(2Ki 24:7;

Jer 46:2),

in the fourth year of Jehoiakim [WILKINSON,

Ancient Egypt, 1.169]. So proudly secure because of his

successes for twenty-five years did he feel, that he said not even a

god could deprive him of his kingdom [HERODOTUS,

2.169]. Hence the appropriateness of the description of him in

Eze 29:3.

No mere human sagacity could have enabled Ezekiel to foresee Egypt's

downfall in the height of its prosperity. There are four divisions of

these prophecies; the first in the tenth year of Ezekiel's captivity;

the last in the twelfth. Between the first and second comes one of much

later date, not having been given till the twenty-seventh year

(Eze 29:17; 30:19),

but placed there as appropriate to the subject matter. Pharaoh-hophra,

or Apries, was dethroned and strangled, and Amasis substituted as king,

Jer 44:30).

The Egyptian priests, from national vanity, made no mention to HERODOTUS of the Egyptian loss of territory in Syria

through Nebuchadnezzar, of which JOSEPHUS tells

us, but attributed the change in the succession from Apries to Amasis

solely to the Egyptian soldiery. The civil war between the two rivals

no doubt lasted several years, affording an opportunity to

Nebuchadnezzar of interfering and of elevating the usurper Amasis, on

condition of his becoming tributary to Babylon [WILKINSON]. Compare

Jer 43:10-12,

and see on

Jer 43:13,

for another view of the grounds of interference of Nebuchadnezzar.

3. dragon--Hebrew, tanim, any large aquatic animal, here the

crocodile, which on Roman coins is the emblem of Egypt.

lieth--restest proudly secure.

his rivers--the mouths, branches, and canals of the Nile, to which

Egypt owed its fertility.

4. hooks in thy jaws--

(Isa 37:29;

compare

Job 41:1, 2).

Amasis was the "hook." In the Assyrian sculptures prisoners are

represented with a hook in the underlip, and a cord from it held by the

king.

cause . . . fish . . . stick unto . . . scales--Pharaoh, presuming

on his power as if he were God

(Eze 29:3,

"I have made it"), wished to stand in the stead of God as defender of

the covenant-people, his motive being, not love to them, but rivalry

with Babylon. He raised the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a

time (compare

Eze 29:6;

Jer 37:5, 7-10);

ruin overtook not only them, but himself. As the fish that clung to

the horny scales of the crocodile, the lord of the Nile, when he was

caught, shared his fate, so the adherents of Pharaoh, lord of Egypt,

when he was overthrown by Amasis, should share his fate.

5. wilderness--captivity beyond thy kingdom. The expression is used

perhaps to imply retribution in kind. As Egypt pursued after Israel,

saying, "The wilderness hath shut them in"

(Ex 14:3),

so she herself shall be brought into a wilderness state.

open fields--literally, "face of the field."

not be brought together--As the crocodile is not, when caught,

restored to the river, so no remnant of thy routed army shall be

brought together, and rallied, after its defeat in the wilderness.

Pharaoh led an army against Cyrene in Africa, in support of Aricranes,

who had been stripped of his kingdom by the Cyrenians. The army

perished and Egypt rebelled against him

[JUNIUS]. But the reference is

mainly to the defeat by Nebuchadnezzar.

beasts . . . fowls--hostile and savage men.

6. staff of reed to . . . Israel--alluding to the reeds on the banks of

the Nile, which broke if one leaned upon them

(see on

Eze 29:4;

Isa 36:6).

All Israel's dependence on Egypt proved hurtful instead of beneficial

(Isa 30:1-5).

7. hand--or handle of the reed.

rend . . . shoulder--by the splinters on which the shoulder or arm

would fall, on the support failing the hand.

madest . . . loins . . . at a stand--that is, made them to be disabled.

MAURER somewhat similarly (referring to a kindred Arabic form),

"Thou hast stricken both their loins."

FAIRBAIRN, not so well, "Thou

lettest all their loins stand," that is, by themselves, bereft of the

support which they looked for from thee.

8. a sword--Nebuchadnezzar's army

(Eze 29:19).

Also Amasis and the Egyptian revolters who after Pharaoh-hophra's

discomfiture in Cyrene dethroned and strangled him, having defeated him

in a battle fought at Memphis [JUNIUS].

9. I am the Lord--in antithesis to the blasphemous boast repeated here

from

Eze 29:3,

"The river is mine, and I have made it."

10. from the tower of Syene--GROTIUS

translates, "from Migdol (a fortress near Pelusium on the north of

Suez) to Syene (in the farthest south)"; that is, from one end of Egypt

to the other. So "from Migdol to Syene,"

Eze 30:6,

Margin. However, English Version rightly refers Syene to

Seveneh, that is, Sebennytus, in the eastern delta of the Nile, the

capital of the Lower Egyptian kings. The Sebennyte Pharaohs, with the

help of the Canaanites, who, as shepherds or merchants, ranged the

desert of Suez, extended their borders beyond the narrow province east

of the delta, to which they had been confined by the Pharaohs of Upper

Egypt. The defeated party, in derision, named the Sebennyte or Lower

Egyptians foreigners and shepherd-kings (a shepherd being

an abomination in Egypt,

Ge 46:34).

They were really a native dynasty. Thus, in English

Version, "Ethiopia" in the extreme south is rightly contrasted with

Sebennytus or Syene in the north.

11. forty years--answering to the forty years in which the

Israelites, their former bondsmen, wandered in "the wilderness"

(compare Note, see on

Eze 29:5).

JEROME remarks the number forty is one

often connected with affliction and judgment. The rains of the flood in

forty days brought destruction on the world. Moses, Elias, and the

Saviour fasted forty days. The interval between Egypt's overthrow by

Nebuchadnezzar and the deliverance by Cyrus, was about forty years. The

ideal forty years' wilderness state of social and political

degradation, rather than a literal non-passing of man or beast

for that term, is mainly intended (so

Eze 4:6;

Isa 19:2, 11).

12. As Israel passed through a term of wilderness discipline (compare

Eze 20:35,

&c.), which was in its essential features to be repeated again, so it

was to be with Egypt [FAIRBAIRN]. Some Egyptians

were to be carried to Babylon, also many "scattered" in Arabia and

Ethiopia through fear; but mainly the "scattering" was to be the

dissipation of their power, even though the people still

remained in their own land.

13.

(Jer 46:26).

14. Pathros--the Thebaid, or Upper Egypt, which had been especially

harassed by Nebuchadnezzar

(Na 3:8, 10).

The oldest part of Egypt as to civilization and art. The Thebaid was

anciently called "Egypt" [ARISTOTLE]. Therefore it

is called the "land of the Egyptians' birth" (Margin, for

"habitation").

base kingdom--Under Amasis it was made dependent on Babylon; humbled

still more under Cambyses; and though somewhat raised under the

Ptolemies, never has it regained its ancient pre-eminence.

16. Egypt, when restored, shall be so circumscribed in power that it

shall be no longer an object of confidence to Israel, as formerly; for

example, as when, relying on it, Israel broke faith with Nebuchadnezzar

(Eze 17:13, 15, 16).

which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look

after them--rather, "while they (the Israelites) look to

(or, turn after) them"

[HENDERSON]. Israel's looking to Egypt, rather

than to God, causes their iniquity (unfaithfulness to the covenant) to

be remembered by God.

17. The departure from the chronological order occurs here only, among

the prophecies as to foreign nations, in order to secure greater unity

of subject.

18. every head . . . bald, . . . shoulder . . . peeled--with carrying

baskets of earth and stones for the siege works.

no wages . . . for the service--that is, in proportion to it and

the time and labor which he expended on the siege of Tyre. Not that he

actually failed in the siege

(JEROME expressly states, from Assyrian

histories, that Nebuchadnezzar succeeded); but, so much of the Tyrian

resources had been exhausted, or transported to her colonies in ships,

that little was left to compensate Nebuchadnezzar for his thirteen

year's siege.

19. multitude--not as

FAIRBAIRN, "store"; but, he shall take away a

multitude of captives out of Egypt. The success of Nebuchadnezzar is

implied in Tyre's receiving a king from Babylon, probably one of her

captives there, Merbal.

take her spoil . . . prey--literally, "spoil her spoil, prey her prey,"

that is, as she spoiled other nations, so shall she herself be a spoil

to Babylon.

20. because they wrought for me--the Chaldeans, fulfilling My will

as to Tyre (compare

Jer 25:9).

21. In the evil only, not in the good, was Egypt to be parallel to

Israel. The very downfall of Egypt will be the signal for the rise of

Israel, because of God's covenant with the latter.

I cause the horn of . . . Israel to bud--

(Ps 132:17).

I will cause its ancient glory to revive: an earnest of Israel's full

glory under Messiah, the son of David

(Lu 1:69).

Even in Babylon an earnest was given of this in Daniel

(Da 6:2)

and Jeconiah

(Jer 52:31).

I will give thee . . . opening of . . .

mouth--When thy predictions shall have come to pass, thy words

henceforth shall be more heeded (compare

Eze 24:27).