Bible Commentaries

Ezekiel 32:1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ver. 1. In the twelfth month.] About a year and a half after the city was taken.

Ezekiel 32:2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou [art] as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

Ver. 2. Take up a lamentation,] i.e., A lamentable prophecy, destructive to the Egyptians; and it is very likely that they heard of it but heeded it not; tanquam monstra marina Dei verba praetereuntes.

Thou art like a young lion.] For pride, fierceness, and cruelty.

And thou art as a whale.] Or, Crocodile; thou domineerest over sea and land, far and wide; thou playest rex.

Thou camest forth with thy rivers.] With the arms of thy Nile into the midland sea, insanis bellis inquietans omnia, breeding a great bustle in the countries near adjoining.

Ezekiel 32:3 Thus saith the Lord GOD I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.

Ver. 3. I will therefore spread out my net.] Thou shalt be taken in an evil net, when thou little thinkest of it: "Evil shall hunt the violent man, to overthrow him." [Psalms 140:11] Look how Leo cassibus irretitus ait, Si praescivissem; and as the whale, enclosed by fishers, is lugged to land, done to death, cleft in pieces with axes, his flesh being made a prey for birds and beasts, his blood far and near drenching the earth, so shall it fare with Pharaoh and his forces.

Ezekiel 32:4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.

Ver. 4. Then will I leave thee upon the land.] As whales are sometimes left by an ebb, while they pursue lesser fishes. There was one so taken near Greenwich lately, ^(a) a piece of whose flesh was showed unto me.

Ezekiel 32:5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height.

Ver. 5. With thy height.] Celsitudine tua; { a} with thy glory, which thou holdest dearer than thy flesh or life.

Ezekiel 32:6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, [even] to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.

Ver. 6. I will also water with thy blood.] Instead of thy river Nile.

The land wherein thou swimmest.] Egypt, where thou sportest, as the whale doth in the mighty waters.

Even to the mountains.] ^(a) A most elegant hyperbole, the like whereto see 2 Kings 21:16.

Ezekiel 32:7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

Ver. 7. And when I shall put thee out.] Or, Extinguish thee, who art for thy power and glory as one of the world’s great luminaries.

I will cover the heaven, ^(a) &c.] So great a fume, or rather so vile a snuff, shall exhale, that the heavens shall seem to be muffled, &c. It shall be once again deep darkness over all the land of Egypt; another hyperbole.

Ezekiel 32:8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 8. All the bright lights of heaven.] See Ezekiel 32:7. All this shall befall the world really and without a hyperbole at the last day [Matthew 24:29]

“ Impiaque aeternam patientur saecula noctem. ”

Ezekiel 32:9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.

Ver. 9. I will also vex.] Or, Grieve. See Ecclesiastes 7:3, where the same word signifieth anger and sorrow. Nebuchadnezzar’s growing greatness shall be a cut and a corrosive to them.

Ezekiel 32:10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, 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 thy fall.

Ver. 10. When I shall brandish my sword.] As fetching my blow at them too, and aiming where to hit them.

Every man for his own life.] Which he knows he hath forfeited, and hath now great cause to fear, since his neighbour’s house is on fire. ^(a)

Ezekiel 32:11 For thus saith the Lord GOD The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.

Ver. 11. The sword of the King of Babylon.] Here is that delivered plainly which was before parabolically.

Ezekiel 32:12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.

Ver. 12. By the swords of the mighty.] Or, Of the heroes, or giants.

The terrible of the nations.] Grassatores, as Munster hath it; inexpugnabiles, as the Vulgate; such as with whom there is no dealing.

Ezekiel 32:13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.

Ver. 13. All the beasts thereof.] Egypt, a most moist and fat country, was full of cattle.

Ezekiel 32:14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 14. Then will I make their waters deep.] There shall not be men left to drive them by ditches and channels into their grounds and pastures, for the making of them fruitful.

And cause their rivers to run like oil,] i.e., Smoothly and silently.

“ Lene fluit Nilus, sed cunctis amnibus extat

Utilior, nullas confessus murmure vires. ”

- Claudian.

Ezekiel 32:15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 15. When I shall make the land … desolate.] See here the sad effects of sin, and beware.

Then shall they know that I am the Lord.] Pleraque supra habuimus: ideo sum brevior, saith Lavater on Ezekiel 32:12.

Ezekiel 32:16 This [is] the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, [even] for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 16. This is the lamentation.] And this is the epilogue of this former prophecy; the latter followeth, being of the self-same argument - viz., a funeral dirge and exequies over Egypt.

Ezekiel 32:17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ver. 17. In the fifteenth day of the month,] i.e., Of the twelfth month, [Ezekiel 32:1] and about a fortnight after the former prophecy. God loves to foretell, and to do it often.

Ezekiel 32:18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, [even] her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

Ver. 18. Wail for the multitude.] Prophesy their destruction, but do it not without grief and regret.

Cast them down.] Do thou foretell it, and I will not fail to fulfil it. [Jeremiah 1:10] {See Trapp on "Jeremiah 1:10"} Let them know that hell gapeth for them; and here I give thee the keys thereof. So God doth to every faithful minister; [Matthew 16:19] not to Peter only, nor to his pretended successor, the Pope, whom therefore Luther bravely slighted in these words of his, Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor, - I care neither for the Pope’s favour nor frowns.

Ezekiel 32:19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

Ver. 19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?] What art thou better than other thy compeers and complices in sin? Thou must also dance down to hell down to hell, with the rest.

Be thou laid with the uncircumcised.] Strangers to the covenant, whereof circumcision was a seal Sinners the Chaldee here calleth them, such as the devil sweeps. They are his birds, saith Mr Bradford, martyr, ^(a) whom, when he hath well fed, he will broach them and eat them, chew them and champ them, world without end, in eternal woe and misery.

Ezekiel 32:20 They shall fall in the midst of [them that are] slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.

Ver. 20. They shall fall.] Carcases have their names both in Greek and Latin from falling. ^(a)

“ Fit subito funus, qui modo virus erat. ”

We wonder now and then at the sudden death of a man. In war many thousands exhale their breath without so much as, Lord have mercy on us! Death heweth its way through a wood of men in a minute of time, &c.

Ezekiel 32:21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

Ver. 21. The strong among the mighty.] Who might have seen many fair summers, had they not been cut off by Pharaoh’s sword.

Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell.] What they say to him, see Isaiah 14:10, where we have the like personification in poetry.

Ezekiel 32:22 Asshur [is] there and all her company: his graves [are] about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:

Ver. 22. Ashur is there.] To wit, in the belly of hell, among the uncircumcised, as Lazarus and other saints are in the bosom of Abraham, the place of bliss. Slain they were with the sword; but that was but a beginning of their sorrows, a trap door to eternal torment. Virgil, by a like figure, brings in Aeneas going down to hell, and there seeing Agamemnon, Dido, the Titans, Cyclopes, and other tyrants.

Ezekiel 32:23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.

Ver. 23. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit.] In the bottom of the burning lake, which from the high top of a kingdom is a foul fall. Their being there buried may import that they shall never come out.

Which caused terror.] As breathing nothing but blood and slaughter, raising a tempest wherever they came, so that they became terrores terrae, terrors of the earth, as dreadful as devils.

Ezekiel 32:24 There [is] Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

Ver. 24. There is Elam.] The Persians, who in the reign of Cyaxares had been subdued by the Scythians, and slain in great number. {Jeremiah 49:34, &c.}

Into the nether parts of the earth.] Into hell, as that rich glutton in Luke 16:23, where our Saviour seemeth to allude to this place, ^(a)

Yet have they borne their shame.] Carried the matter of it to hell with them, where is perpetual shame and confusion, beside the vexing snuff they have left behind them upon earth.

Ezekiel 32:25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves [are] round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of [them that be] slain.

Ver. 25. They have set her a bed,] i.e., The devils have set the Persian multitude a bed, but an uneasy one, such as they set for that rich wretch, [Luke 12:19-20] who thought to take his ease, but was not suffered.

With all her multitude.] The grave is the "congregation house of all living." [Job 30:23] Hell is of many dead, that die in their sins.

He is put in the midst.] In the hottest fire of hell.

Ezekiel 32:26 There [is] Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves [are] round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

Ver. 26. There is Meshech and Tubal,] i.e., Say some, the Cappadocians and Spaniards; others, the Scythians and Sarmatians.

And all her multitude.] See Ezekiel 32:25.

Ezekiel 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty [that are] fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Ver. 27. Which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war.] They died not gloriously as conquerors, nor were buried triumphantly with their arms under their heads, as valiant warriors were wont to be; sed ingloria vita recessit, but they died like dogs and were basely buried, and yet that was not the worst of it either.

But their iniquities shall be upon their bones.] They shall rue for their cruelty and bloodshed. These shall be as a murdering weapon in their bones [Psalms 42:10] throughout all eternity.

Ezekiel 32:28 Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with [them that are] slain with the sword.

Ver. 28. Yea, thou shalt be broken.] Thou, O Pharaoh, shalt have a deeper degree of torment in hell. Potentes potenter torquebuntur.

Ezekiel 32:29 There [is] Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by [them that were] slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.

Ver. 29. They shall lie with the uncircumcised.] Though they were circumcised, as now the Turks are, yet that shall not profit them. Faciunt et vespae favos, et

“ Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis! ”

Ezekiel 32:30 There [be] the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with [them that be] slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.

Ver. 30. There be the princes of the north,] i.e., Saith Junius, The Syrians, Tyrians, and others.

And all the Zidonians.] All the hunters, saith the Vulgate, taking the word appellatively.

Which are gone down.] The same again, ad maius pathos.

Ezekiel 32:31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, [even] Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 31. Pharaoh shall see them.] This is the epilogue or preclose of this doleful ditty.

And shall be comforted.] This was a miserable comfort, the Like whereto is that of some profane persons among us, who, when threatened for their foul practices, use to reply, If we do go to hell, yet we shall have company.

Ezekiel 32:32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with [them that are] slain with the sword, [even] Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 32. For I have caused my terror.] By Pharaoh’s exemplary punishment. This will make good men tremble at my judgments, and bad men beware how they come under my wrath.