Ezekiel 30

Eze 30:1-26.

CONTINUATION OF THE

PROPHECIES AGAINST

EGYPT.

Two distinct messages: (1) At

Eze 30:1-19,

a repetition of

Eze 29:1-16,

with fuller details of lifelike distinctness. The date is probably not

long after that mentioned in

Eze 29:17,

on the eve of Nebuchadnezzar's march against Egypt after subjugating

Tyre. (2) A vision relating directly to Pharaoh and the overthrow of

his kingdom; communicated at an earlier date, the seventh of the first

month of the eleventh year. Not a year after the date in

Eze 29:1,

and three months before the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

2. Woe worth the day!--that is, Alas for the day!

3. the time of the heathen--namely, for taking vengeance on them. The

judgment on Egypt is the beginning of a world-wide judgment on all the

heathen enemies of God

(Joe 1:15; 2:1, 2; 3:1-21;

Ob 15).

4. pain--literally, "pangs with trembling as of a woman in childbirth."

5. the mingled people--the mercenary troops of Egypt from various

lands, mostly from the interior of Africa (compare

Eze 27:10;

Jer 25:20, 24; 46:9, 21).

Chub--the people named Kufa on the monuments

[HAVERNICK], a people

considerably north of Palestine

[WILKINSON]; Coba or Chobat, a

city of Mauritania [MAURER].

men of the land that is in league--too definite an expression to mean

merely, "men in league" with Egypt; rather, "sons of the land

of the covenant," that is, the Jews who migrated to Egypt and

carried Jeremiah with them

(Jer 42:1-44:30).

Even they shall not escape

(Jer 42:22; 44:14).

6. from the tower of

Syene--(see on

Eze 29:10).

7. in the midst of . . . countries . . .

desolate--Egypt shall fare no better than they

(Eze 29:10).

9. messengers . . . in ships to . . . Ethiopians--

(Isa 18:1, 2).

The cataracts interposing between them and Egypt should not save them.

Egyptians "fleeing from before Me" in My execution of judgment, as

"messengers" in "skiffs" ("vessels of bulrushes,"

Isa 18:2)

shall go up the Nile as far as navigable, to announce the advance of

the Chaldeans.

as in the day of Egypt--The day of Ethiopia's "pain" shall come

shortly, as Egypt's day came.

10. the multitude--the large population.

12. rivers--the artificial canals made from the Nile for irrigation.

The drying up of these would cause scarcity of grain, and so prepare the

way for the invaders

(Isa 19:5-10).

13. Noph--Memphis, the capital of Middle Egypt, and the stronghold of

"idols." Though no record exists of Nebuchadnezzar's "destroying" these,

we know from HERODOTUS and others, that Cambyses took Pelusium, the key

of Egypt, by placing before his army dogs, cats, &c., all held sacred

in Egypt, so that no Egyptian would use any weapon against them. He slew

Apis, the sacred ox, and burnt other idols of Egypt.

no more a prince--referring to the anarchy that prevailed in the civil

wars between Apries and Amasis at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion.

There shall no more be a prince of the land of Egypt, ruling the whole

country; or, no independent prince.

14. Pathros--Upper Egypt, with "No" or Thebes its capital (famed for

its stupendous buildings, of which grand ruins remain), in antithesis to

Zoan or Tanis, a chief city in Lower Egypt, within the Delta.

15. Sin--that is, Pelusium, the frontier fortress on the northeast,

therefore called "the strength (that is, the key) of Egypt." It stands

in antithesis to No or Thebes at the opposite end of Egypt; that is, I

will afflict Egypt from one end to the other.

16. distresses daily--MAURER translates, "enemies during the day,"

that is, open enemies who do not wait for the covert of night to make

their attacks (compare

Jer 6:4; 15:8).

However, the Hebrew, though rarely, is sometimes rendered (see

Ps 13:2)

as in English Version.

17. Aven--meaning "vanity" or "iniquity": applied, by a slight change

of the Hebrew name, to On or Heliopolis, in allusion to its idolatry.

Here stood the temple of the sun, whence it was called in Hebrew, Beth-shemesh

(Jer 43:13).

The Egyptian hieroglyphics call it, Re Athom, the sun, the

father of the gods, being impersonate in Athom or Adam,

the father of mankind.

Pi-beseth--that is, Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, near the Pelusiac branch

of the Nile: notorious for the worship of the goddess of the same name

(Coptic, Pasht), the granite stones of whose temple still attest its

former magnificence.

these cities--rather, as the Septuagint, "the women," namely,

of Aven and Pi-beseth, in antithesis to "the young men." So in

Eze 30:18,

"daughters shall go into captivity" [MAURER].

18. Tehaphnehes--called from the queen of Egypt mentioned in

1Ki 11:19.

The same as Daphne, near Pelusium, a royal residence of the Pharaohs

(Jer 43:7, 9).

Called Hanes

(Isa 30:4).

break . . . the yokes of Egypt--that is, the tyrannical supremacy

which she exercised over other nations. Compare "bands of their yoke"

(Eze 34:7).

a cloud--namely, of calamity.

20. Here begins the earlier vision, not long after that in the

twenty-ninth chapter, about three months before the taking of Jerusalem,

as to Pharaoh and his kingdom.

21. broken . . . arm of Pharaoh--

(Ps 37:17;

Jer 48:25).

Referring to the defeat which Pharaoh-hophra sustained from the

Chaldeans, when trying to raise the siege of Jerusalem

(Jer 37:5, 7);

and previous to the deprivation of Pharaoh-necho of all his conquests

from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates

(2Ki 24:7;

Jer 46:2);

also to the Egyptian disaster in Cyrene.

22. arms--Not only the "one arm" broken already

(Eze 30:21)

was not to be healed, but the other two should be broken. Not a

corporal wound, but a breaking of the power of Pharaoh is

intended.

cause . . . sword to fall out of . . . hand--deprive him of the

resources of making war.