Bible Commentaries

In the twelfth month - About one year and seven months after the destruction of Jerusalem. In the meantime had occurred the murder of Gedaliah and the flight into Egypt of the Jews left behind by the Chaldaeans Ezekiel 44:2-16.

Thou art like … - Rather, Thou wouldest be like to (others, “wast likened unto”) a young lion.

And thou art - In contrast to what thou wouldest be.

A whale - Rather, crocodile (marginal reference note). Pharaoh should have been like the king of beasts, but he is a mere sea-monster. There is strong irony here, because the Egyptian king was proud of the comparison between himself and the mighty crocodile.

Seas - The word is often used of the waters of a great river, like the Nile.

Thou camest forth with thy rivers - Rather, thou didst burst forth in “thy rivers” as the crocodile does from the water into which he has plunged.

The prophet passes from the image of the crocodile to that of dead bodies of the slain heaped up on the land. Some render “height,” “foulness.”

When I shall bring thy destruction - i. e., the news of thy destruction. The phenomena here mentioned are the accompaniments of “the day of the Lord” Joel 2:10; Luke 21:25 or the day of judgment. The fall of Pharaoh represents the fall of the world-power before the sovereignty of God.

A promise of a return of God‘s favor. This concerns not the restoration of Egypt‘s original power, but the establishment of the Divine Ruler in the place of a pagan God-opposing power.

Daughters of the nations - Pagan kingdoms.

The seventh prophecy against Egypt Ezekiel 31:18. The figure is the same as in Ezekiel 32:1).

whom dost thou pass in beauty? - Thou art not more beautiful than other nations: thou shalt not escape their fate.

She is delivered to the sword - Rather, the sword is put forth. Draw her down as one dragged to execution.

The uncircumcised - throughout this dirge is equivalent to pagan viewed as impure (Ezekiel 31:18 note).

In Jeremiah 25 there is an enumeration of nations destined to be subject to the fury of the Chaldaeans. Here we find those of them who had already fallen not named by Jeremiah. Asshur is the king of Assyria, representing as usual the whole nation. The king is surrounded by the graves of his people.

See the marginal referenc. Elam answers to the country known to the Greeks and Romans as Elymais, near Persia and Media. The Elamites were a fierce and warlike people. In the records of Assurbanipal his final triumph over Elam seems to have been one of his proudest boasts. Elam no doubt in the decline of Assyrian power again asserted its independence and was again crushed by the Chaldaean conqueror.

And they shall not lie - Better, “Shall they not lie?” or, “Are they not laid?” The custom of burying warriors with their swords, shields, or helmets, raider their heads is well known, and common to most warlike nations.

But their iniquities … - They, rested in all the glories of a warrior‘s sepulture, but their sins followed them to the grave.

The princes of the north - i. e., north of Palestine - The Tyrians and the Syrians.

With their terror they are ashamed of their might - i. e., “When their might and power were terrible to all, they were shorn of their power and delivered over to shame and confusion.” There are here six nations, Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, Zidon, which added to Egypt make up seven (see the Ezekiel 25:1 note). The section which contains the prophecies against the pagan, closing with this description of the kings who had gone down to the grave, accords with the general purport of the whole section, namely,: the declaration that all the powers of the world shall be annihilated to make way for the kingdom of God.

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Comforted - By the knowledge that his ruin is no more than that of every world-power.

My terror - Better “his terror,” the terror caused by him.

The land of the living - The land of God‘s people. It was Yahweh who caused Pharaoh to be terrible to His people, and now, when the time is come, Pharaoh is fallen, and he is laid etc.