Dirge upon the King of Tyre. EZEKIEL, XXIX. pierced with many wounds die. 9. yet say-i.e., still say; referring to v. 2. but, &c.-but thy blasphemous boastings shall be falsified, and thou shalt be shown to be but man, and not God, in the hand (at the mercy) of Him, &c. 10. deaths of... uncircumcised-i.e., such a death as the uncircumcised or godless heathen deserve; and perhaps, also, such as the uncircumcised inflict, a great ignominy in the eyes of a Jew (1 Samuel, 31. 4); a fit retribution on him who had scoffed at the circumcised Jews. 12. sealest up the sam-lit., "Thou art the one sealing the sum of perfection." A thing is sealed when completed (Daniel, 9. 24.). "The sum " implies the full measure of beauty, from a Hebrew root, "to measure." The normal man-one formed after accurate rule. 13. in Eden-the king of Tyre is represented in his former high state (contrasted with his subsequent downfall), under images drawn from the primeval man in Eden, the type of humanity in its most God-like form. garden of God-the model of ideal loveliness (ch. 31. 8, 9; 36. 35.). In the person of the king of Tyre a new trial was made of humanity with the greatest earthly advantages. But as in the case of Adam the good gifts of God were only turned into ministers to pride and self. every precious stone-so in Eden (Genesis, 2. 12.)," gold, bdellium, and the onyx stone." So the king of Tyre was arrayed in jewel-bespangled robes after the fashion of Oriental monarchs. The nine precious stones here mentioned answer to nine of the twelve (representing the twelve tribes) in the high priest's breastplate (Exodus, 39. 10-13; Revelation, 21. 14, 19-21.). Of the four rows of three in each, the third is omitted in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the LXX. In this, too, there is an ulterior reference to antichrist, who is blasphemously to arrogate the office of our Divine High Priest (Zechariah, 6. 13.). tabrets-tambourines. pipes-lit., holes in musical pipes or flutes. created-i.e., in the day of thine accession to the throne. Tambourines and all the marks of joy were ready prepared for thee ("in thee," i.c., with and for thee). Thou hadst not, like others, to work thy way to the throne through arduous struggles. No sooner created than, like Adam, thou was surrounded with the gratifications of Eden. FAIRBAIRN, for "pipes." translates, "females" (having reference to Genesis, 1. 27.), i.e., musician-women. MAURER explains the Hebrew not as to music, but as to the setting and mounting of the gems previously mentioned. 14. anointed cherub-GESENIUS translates from an Aramaic root," extended cherub." English Version, from a He. brew root, is better. "The cherub consecrated to the Lord by the anointing oil." (FAIRBAIRN.] covereth -The imagery employed by Ezekiel as a priest is from the Jewish temple, wherein the cherubim overshadowed the mercy-seat, as the king of Tyre, a demi-god in his own esteem, extended his protection over the interests of Tyre. The cherub - an ideal compound of the highest kinds of animal existence, and the type of redeemed man in his ultimate state of perfection-is made the image of the king of Tyre, as if the beau ideal of humanity. The pretensions of antichrist are the ulterior reference, of whom the king of Tyre is a type. Cf. "As God... in the temple of God" (2 Thessalonians, 2. 4.). I have set thee-not thou set thyself (Proverbs, 8. 16; Romans, 13. 1.). upon the holy mountain of God-Zion: following up the image. in ... midst of... stones of fire-in ambitious imagination he stood in the place of God, "under whose feet was as it were a pavement of sapphire," whilst His glory was like "devouring fire" (Exodus, 24. 10, 17.). 15. perfectprosperous [GROTIUS], and having no defect. So Hiram was a sample of the Tyrian monarch in his early days of wisdom and prosperity (1 Kings, 6.7, &c.). till iniquity... in thee-like the primeval man thou hast fallen by abusing God's gifts, and so hast provoked God's wrath. 16. filled the midst of thee-... 626 Fall of Zidon the Mother-city. they have filled the midst of the city: he as the head of the state being involved in the guilt of the state, which he did not check, but fostered. cast thee as profane-no longer treated as sacred, but driven out of the place of sanctity (see v. 14) which thou hast occupied cf. Psalm 89. 39.). 17. brightness-thy splendour. lay thee before kings-as an example of God's wrath against presumptuous pride. 18. thy sanctuaries-i.e., the holy places, attributed to the king of Tyre in v. 14, as his ideal position. As he "profaned" it, so God will "profane" him (v. 16.). fire... devour-as he abused his supposed elevation amidst "the stones of fire" «. 16,), so God will make His "fire" to "devour" him, 21. Zidon-famous for its fishery (from a root, Zud, “to fish"): and afterwards for its wide-extended commerce, its artistic elegance was proverbial. Founded by Canaan's first-born (Genesis, 10. 15.). Tyre was an offshoot from it, so that it was involved in the same overthrow by the Chaldeans as Tyre. It is mentioned separately, because its idolatry (Ashtaroth, Tammur or Adonis) infected Israel more than that of Tyre did (ch. 8.; Judges, 10. 6; 1 Kings, 11. 33.). The notorious Jezebel was a daughter of the Zidonian king. shall be sanctified in her-when all nations shall see that I am the Holy Judge in the vengeance that I will inflict on her for sin. 24. no more.. brier...unto... Israd -as the idolatrous nations left in Canaan among which Zidon is expressly specified in the limits of Asher, Judges, 1. 31) had been (Numbers, 33, 55; Joshua, 23. 13.). "A brier," first ensnaring the Israelites in sin, and then being made the instrument of punishing them. pricking-lit., "causing bitterness." The same Hebrew is translated, "fretting" (Leviticus, 13, 51, 52. The wicked are often called "thorns" (2 Samuel, 23, 6 25, 26. Fulfilled in part at the restoration from Baby lon, when Judaism, so far from being merged in heathenism, made inroads by conversions on the idolatry of surrounding nations. The full accomplish ment is yet future, when Israel, under Christ, shall be the centre of Christendom: of which an earnest wu given in the woman from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon who sought the Saviour (Matthew, 15, 21, 24, 26-38, d. Isaiah, 11. 12.). dwell safely-(Jeremiah, 23, 6.). CHAPTER XXIX. Ver. 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, viz., the next four chapters. Though farther off than Tyre, it ex ercised a more powerful influence on Israel. 2. Phar a common name of all the kings of Egypt, meaning the sun; or, as others say, a crocodile, which w worshipped in parts of Egypt (cf. v. 3.). Hophra or Apries was on the throne at this time. His reign best prosperously. He took Gaza (Jeremiah, 47. 1) and Sidon, and made himself master of Phenicia and Palestine, recovering much that was lost to Egypt by the victory of Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish (2 Kings 24. 7; Jeremiah, 46. 2,), in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. [WILKINSON'S Ancient Egypt, 1. 168.] So proudly secure because of his successes for twenty-five years did he feel, that he said not even a god cond deprive him of his kingdom. [HERODOTUS, 2. 16 Hence the appropriateness of the description of him in v. 3. No mere human sagacity could have enabled Ezekiel to foresee Egypt's downfall in the height of it prosperity. There are four divisions of these pro phecies: the first in the tenth year of Ezekiel's c tivity; the last in the twelfth. Between the first and second comes one of much later date, not having ben given till the twenty-seventh year (ch. 29. 17; 30. 19. but placed there as appropriate to the subject-matter Pharaoh-hophra or Apries was dethroned and strangled, The Judgment on Egypt EZEKIEL, XXIX. by Nebuchadnezzar. and Amasis substituted as king, by Nebuchadnezzar | of Suez, extended their borders beyond the narrow (cf. Jeremiah, 44. 30.). The Egyptian priests, from province East of the Delta, to which they had been national vanity, made no mention to HERODOTUS of confined by the Pharaohs of Upper Egypt. The the Egyptian loss of territory in Syria through Nebu- defeated party, in derision, named the Sebennyte or chadnezzar, of which JOSEPHUS tells us, but attributed Lower Egyptians foreigners and shepherd kings (a shepthe change in the succession from Apries to Amasis herd being an abomination in Egypt, Genesis, 46. 34.). solely to the Egyptian soldiery. The civil war between They were really a native dynasty. Thus, in English the two rivals no doubt lasted several years, affording Version, "Ethiopia" in the extreme South is rightly an opportunity to Nebuchadnezzar of interfering and contrasted with Sebennytus or Syene in the North. of elevating the usurper Amasis, on condition of his 11. forty years-answering to the forty years in which becoming tributary to Babylon. [WILKINSON.] Cf. the Israelites, their former bondsmen, wandered in Jeremiah, 43. 10-12, and my note, v. 13, for another view "the wilderness" (cf. Note, v. 5.). JEROME remarks of the grounds of interference of Nebuchadnezzar. 3. the number forty is one often connected with affliction dragon-Hebrew, tanim, any large aquatic animal, here and judgment. The rains of the flood in forty days the crocodile, which on Roman coins is the emblem of brought destruction on the world. Moses, Elias, and Erypt. lieth-restest proudly secure. his rivers-the the Saviour fasted forty days. The interval between mouths, branches, and canals of the Nile, to which Egypt's overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar, and the deliverEgypt owed its fertility. 4. hooks in thy jaws-(Isaiah, ance by Cyrus, was about forty years. The ideal forty 37. 29; cf. Job, 41. 1, 2.). Amasis was the "hook." In years' wilderness-state of social and political degradathe Assyrian sculptures prisoners are represented with tion, rather than a literal non-passing of man or beast a hook in the under lip, and a cord from it held by the for that term, is mainly intended (so ch. 4. 6; Isaiah, king. cause... fish... stick unto... scales-Pharaoh, 19. 2, 11.). 12. As Israel passed through a term of wilpresuming on his power as if he were God (v. 3, "I have derness discipline (cf. ch. 20, 35, &c.), which was in its made it"), wished to stand in the stead of God as essential features to be repeated again, so it was to be defender of the covenant people, his motive being, not with Egypt. [FAIRBAIRN. Some Egyptians were to love to them, but rivalry with Babylon. He raised be carried to Babylon, also many "scattered" in the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a time (cf. Arabia and Ethiopia through fear; but mainly the v. 6; Jeremiah, 37. 5, 7-10;); ruin overtook not only "scattering" was to be the dissipation of their power. them, but himself. As the fish that clung to the horny even though the people still remained in their own scales of the crocodile, the lord of the Nile, when he land. 13. (Jeremiah, 46. 26.) 14. Pathros-the Thebaid, was caught, shared his fate: so the adherents of Pha- or Upper Egypt, which had been especially harassed raoh, lord of Egypt, when he was overthrown by by Nebuchadnezzar (Nahum, 3. 8, 10.). The oldest Amasis, should share his fate. 5. wilderness-captivity part of Egypt as to civilisation and art. The Thebaid beyond thy kingdom. The expression is used perhaps was anciently called "Egypt" (ARISTOTLE). Thereto imply retribution in kind. As Egypt pursued after fore it is called the "land of the Egyptians' birth" Israel saying, "The wilderness hath shut them in" (Margin, for "habitation)." base kingdom- under (Exodus, 14. 3,), so herself shall be brought into a wil- Amasis it was made dependent on Babylon: humbled derness-state. open fields-lit., "face of the field." not still more under Cambyses; and though somewhat be brought together-as the crocodile is not, when caught, raised under the Ptolemies, never has it regained its restored to the river, so no remnant of thy routed army ancient pre-eminence. 16. Egypt, when restored, shall shall be brought together, and rallied, after its defeat be so circumscribed in power that it shall be no longer in the wilderness. Pharaoh led an army against Cyrene an object of confidence to Israel, as formerly; e.g., as in Africa, in support of Aricranes, who had been when, relying on it, Israel broke faith with Nebuchadstripped of his kingdom by the Cyrenians. The army nezzar (ch. 17. 13, 15, 16.). which bringeth their iniquity perished and Egypt rebelled against him. [JUNIUS.] to remembrance, when they shall look after them-rather. But the reference is mainly to the defeat by Nebu- "while they (the Israelites) look to (or, turn after) chadnezzar. beasta... fowls-hostile and savage men. them." HENDERSON.] Israel's looking to Egypt, 6. staff of reed to... Israel-alluding to the reeds on the rather than to God, causeth their iniquity (unfaithfulbanks of the Nile, on which if one leaned they broke ness to the covenant) to be remembered by God. 17. (Note, v. 4; Isaiah, 36. 6.). All Israel's dependence on The departure from the chronological order occurs Egypt proved hurtful instead of beneficial (Isaiah, 30. here only, among the prophecies as to foreign nations, 1-5.). 7. hand-or handle of the reed. rend ... shoulder in order to secure greater unity of subject. 18. no wages -by the splinters on which the shoulder or arm would for the service-i.e., in proportion to it and the time fall, on the support failing the hand. madest... loins and labour which he expended on the siege of Tyre. at a standi.e., made them to be disabled. Not that he actually failed in the siege (JEROME exMAURER somewhat similarly (referring to a kindred pressly states, from Assyrian histories, that NebuchadArabic form), "Thou hast stricken both their loins." nezzar succeeded); but, so much of the Tyrian reFAIRBAIRN, not so well, "Thou lettest all their loins sources had been exhausted, or transported to her stand," i.e., by themselves, bereft of the support which colonies in ships, that little was left to compensate they looked for from thee. 8. a sword-Nebuchad- Nebuchadnezzar for his thirteen years' siege, every head nezzar's army (v. 19.). Also Amasis and the Egyptian bald... shoulder... peeled-with carrying baskets revolters who after Pharaoh-hophra's discomfiture in of earth and stones for the siege-works. 19. multitude Cyrene dethroned and strangled him, having defeated-not as FAIRBAIRN, "store" but, he shall take away him in a battle fought at Memphis. [JUNIUS.] 9. Ia multitude of captives out of Egypt. The success of am the Lord-in antithesis to the blasphemous boast repeated here from v. 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); i.e., from one end of Egypt to the other. So in ch. 30. 6, Margin. However, English Version rightly refers Syene to Seveneh, i.e., 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 Nebuchadnezzar is implied in Tyre's receiving a king from Babylon, probably one of her captives there. Merbal. take her spoil... prey-lit., "spoil her spoil prey her prey." i.e., 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 (cf. Jeremiah, 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-(Psalm The Judgment on Egypt EZEKIEL, XXX, XXXI. by Nebuchadnezar. 132. 17.). I will cause its ancient glory to revive: an | the day," ie., open enemies who do not wait for the earnest of Israel's full glory under Messiah, the son of David (Luke, 1. 69.). Even in Babylon an earnest was given of this in Daniel (Daniel, 6. 2) and Jechoniah (Jeremiah, 52. 31.). I will give thee... opening of... mouth-When thy predictions shall have come to pass, thy words henceforth shall be more heeded (cf. oh. 24. 27.). CHAPTER XXX. covert of night to make their attacks cf. Jeremiah, not long after that in ch. 29., about three months before the taking of Jerusalem, as to Pharaoh and his kingdom. 21. broken . . . arm of Pharaoh-Psalm 5. 17; Jeremiah, 48. 25.). Referring to the defeat which Pharaoh-hophra sustained from the Chaldeans, whe trying to raise the siege of Jerusalem (Jeremiah, *. 5, 73; and previously to the deprivation of Pharaoh necho of all his conquests from the river of Egypt u the Euphrates 2 Kings, 24. 7; Jeremiah, 46. 29; also t the Egyptian disaster in Cyrene. 22. arms - not j the "one arm broken already (v. 21) was not to le healed, but the other two should be broken. Nos & corporal wound, but a breaking of the power of Pin raoh is intended. cause... sword to fall out of... hand-deprive him of the resources of making war. CHAPTER XXXI. Ver. 1-26. CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECIES AGAINST EGYPT. Two distinct messages: (1.) From v. 1 to 19, a repetition of ch. 29. 1-16, with fuller details of lifelike distinctness. The date is probably not long after that mentioned in ch. 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, ch. 29, 1, and three months before the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. 2. Woe worth the day!-i.e, Alas for the day! 3. the time of the heathen-viz., for taking vengeance on them. The judgment on Egypt is the beginning of a world-wide judgment on all the heathen enemies of God (Joel, 1. 15; 2. 1, 2; 3.; Obadiah, 15.). 4. pain-lit., pangs with trembling as of a woman in-viz., of calamity. 20. Here begins the earlier vision, child-birth. 5. the mingled people. -the mercenary troops of Egypt from various lands, mostly from the interior of Africa (cf. ch. 27. 10; Jeremiah, 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 leagre-too definite an expression to mean merely, men in league with Egypt; rather, "sons of the land of the covenant," i.e., the Jews who migrated to Egypt and carried Jeremiah with them (Jeremiah, 42.-44.). Even they shall not escape (Jeremiah, 42, 22; 44. 14.) 6. from the tower of Syene-(see Note, ch. 29. 10.). 7. in the midst of... countries... desolate-Egypt shall fare no better than they (ch. 29. 10.). 9. messengers... in ships to... Ethiopians (Isaiah, 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," Isaiah, 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 multi--the answer is, Thou art like the haughty king o tude-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 (Isaiah, 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, &c., 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 rather (HENGSTENBERG), "among the clouds." B use any weapon against them. He slew Apis, the English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The sacred ox, and burnt other idols of Egypt. no more a top, or topmost shoot, represents the king; the prince-referring to the anarchy that prevailed in the boughs, the large resources of the empire. 4. Water civil wars between Apries and Amasis at the time of... little rivers the Tigris with its branches and Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. There shall no more be a rivulets, or conduits for irrigation, the source of prince of the land of Egypt, ruling the whole country; Assyria's fertility. "The deep" is the ever-flowing or, no independent prince. 14. Pathros-Upper Egypt, water, never dry. Metaphorically, for Assyria's re with "No" or Thebes its capital (famed for its stu- sources, as the "conduits" are her colonies. 5. wbt pendous buildings, of which grand ruins remain), in he shot forth-because of the abundant moisture wh antithesis to Zoan or Tanis, a chief city in Lower Egypt, nourished him in shooting forth. But see Marg within the Delta. 15. Sin-i.e., Pelusium, the frontier 6. fowis... made... nests in.. boughs-so ch. 17. fortress on the North East, therefore called "the Daniel, 4. 12. The gospel-kingdom shall gather all strength (ie., the key) of Egypt." It stands in anti- under its covert, for their good and for the glory d thesis to No or Thebes at the opposite end of Egypt; God, which the world-kingdoms did for evil and it i.e., 1 will afflict Egypt from one end to the other. 16. self aggrandisement (Matthew, 13. 32.). 8. cedars distresses datiy-MAURER translates, "enemies during I could not hide him-could not out-top him. No other 628 Ver. 1-18. THE OVERTHROW OF EGYPT IL TRATED BY THAT OF ASSYRIA. Not that Egypt was like Assyria, utterly to cease to be, but it was, ke Assyria, to lose its prominence in the empire of the world. 1. third month two months later than the prophecy delivered in ch. 30. 20. 2. Whom art 1838 3 Assyria: as he was overthrown by the Chaldeans, w shalt thou be by the same. 3. He illustrates the pris and the consequent overthrow of the Assyrian, that Egypt may the better know what she must exped cedar in Lebanon-often eighty feet high, and the in meter of the space covered by its boughs still grester. the symmetry perfect. Cf. the similar image chil 3; Daniel, 4. 20-22.) with a shadowing shrend—with a overshadowing thicket. top... amoig... thick bongs Two Elegies EZEKIEL, XXXII. over Pharaoh. king eclipsed him. garden of God as in the case of | TWELFTH OF THE TWELFTH YEAR. 1. The twelfth Tyre (ch. 28. 13,), the imagery, that is applied to the year from the carrying away of Jehoiachin; Jerusalem Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly appro-was by this time overthrown, and Amasis was beginpriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered Assyria (Genesis, 2. 10-14.). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there out-topped it. were not like-were not comparable to. 9. I made him-It was all due to my free grace. 10. thou he-the change of persons is because the language refers partly to the cedar, partly to the person signified by the cedar. 11. Here the literal supersedes the figurative. shall surely deal with him-according to his own pleasure, and according to the Assyrian's (Sardanapalus) desert. Nebuchadnezzar is called "The mighty one" (El, a name of God), because he was God's representative and instrument of judgment (Daniel, 2. 37, 38.). 12. from his shadow-under which they had formerly dwelt as their covert (v. 6.). 13. Birds and beasts shall insult over his fallen trunk. 14. trees by the waters-i.e., that are plentifully supplied by the waters: nations abounding in resources. stand up in their height-i.e., trust in their height: stand upon it as their ground of confidence. FAIRBAIRN points the Hebrew differently, so as for "their trees," to translate, "(And that none that drink water may stand) on themselves, because of their greatness." But the usual reading is better, as Assyria and the confederate states throughout are compared to strong trees. The clause, "All that drink water" marks the ground of the trees' confidence "in their height," viz., that they have ample sources of supply. MAURER, retaining the same Hebrew, translates, "that neither their terebinth trees may stand up in their height, nor all (the other trees) that drink water." to... nether... earth... pit-(ch. 32. 18; Psalm 82. 7.). 15. covered the deep-as mourners cover their heads in token of mourning, "I made the deep that watered the cedar," to wrap itself in mourning for him." The waters of " the deep" are the tribu-star, at the extinguishing of whose light in the political tary peoples of Assyria (Revelation, 17. 15.). faintedlit., were faintness (itself); more forcible than the verb. 16. hell-Sheol or Hades, the unseen world: equivalent to, "I cast him into oblivion" (cf. Isaiah, 14. 9-11.). shall be comforted-because so great a king as the Assyrian is brought down to a level with them. It is a kind of consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery. 17. his arm, that dwelt under his shadow-those who were the helpers or tool of his tyranny, and therefore enjoyed his protection (e.g., Syria and her neighbours). These were sure to share her fate. Cf. the same phrase as to the Jews living under the protection of their king (Lamentations, 4. 20;; both alike "making flesh their arm, and in heart departing from the Lord" (Jeremiah, 17. 5.). 18. Application of the parabolic description of Assyria to the parallel case of Egypt. "All that has been said of the Assyrian consider as said to thyself. To whom art thou so like, as thou art to the Assyrian? To none." The lesson on a gigantic scale of Eden-like privileges abused to pride and sin by the Assyrian, as in the case of the first man in Eden, ending in ruin, was to be repeated in Egypt's case. For the unchangeable God | governs the world on the same unchangeable principles. thou shalt lie in... uncircumcised-As circumcision was an object of mocking to thee, thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, slain by their sword. [GROTIUS.] Retribution in kind (ch. 28. 10.). This is Paaraoh-Pharaoh's end shall be the same humiliating one as I have depicted the Assyrian's to have been. This" is demonstrative, as if he were pointing with the finger to Pharaoh lying prostrate, a spectacle to all, as on the shore of the Red sea (Exodus, 14. 30, 31.). CHAPTER XXXII. Ver. 1-32. Two ELEGIES OVER PHARAOH, ONE DE LIVERED ON THE FIRST DAY (v. 1,), THE OTHER ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF THE SAME MONTH, THE ning his revolt against Pharaoh-hophra. 2. PharaohPhra in Burmah, signifies the king, high priest, and idol. whale-rather, any monster of the waters; here, the crocodile of the Nile. Pharaoh is as a lion on dry land, a crocodile in the waters; i.e., an object of terror everywhere. camest forth with thy rivers-"breakest forth." [FAIRBAIRN.] The antithesis of seas" and "rivers" favours GROTIUS' rendering, "Thou camest forth from the sea into the rivers," i.e., from thy own empire into other states. However, English Version is favoured by the "thy:" thou camest forth with thy rivers (i.e., with thy forces) and with thy feet didst fallen irrecoverably; so Israel, once desolate, trouble the waters (i.e., neighbouring states). 3. with a company of many people-viz., the Chaldeans (ch. 29. 3, 4; Hosea, 7. 12.). my net-for they are my instrument. 4. leave thee upon the land-as a fish drawn out of the water loses all its strength, so Pharaoh (in v. 2, compared to a water monster) shall be (ch. 29. 5.). 5. thy heightthy hugeness. [FAIRBAIRN.] The great heap of corpses of thy forces, on which thou pridest thyself. "Height" may refer to mental elevation, as well as bodily. [VATABLUS.] 6. land wherein thou swimmest-Egypt: the land watered by the Nile, the source of its fertility. wherein thou swimmest (carrying on the image of the crocodile, i.e., wherein thou dost exercise thy wanton power at will). Irony. The land shall still afford seas to swim in, but they shall be seas of blood. Alluding to the plague (Exodus, 7. 19; Revelation, 8. 8.). HAVERNICK translates, "I will water the land with what flows from thee, even thy blood, reaching to the mountains?" "with thy blood overflowing even to the mountains." Perhaps this is better. 7. put thee cut-extinguish thy light (Job, 18. 5.). Pharaoh is represented as a bright sky the whole heavenly host are shrouded in sympathetic darkness. Here, too, as in v. 6, there is an allusion to the supernatural darkness sent formerly (Exodus, 10, 21-23.). The heavenly bodies are often made images of earthly dynasties (Isaiah, 13. 10; Matthew, 24. 29.). 9. thy destruction-i.e., tidings of thy destruction (lit., thy breakage) carried by captive and dispersed Egyptians "among the nations" [GROTIUS]; or, thy broken people, resembling one great fracture, the ruins of what they had been. [FAIRBAIRN.] 10. brandish ... sword before them-lit., in their faces, or sight. 13. (See Note on ch. 29. 11.). The picture is ideally true, not to be interpreted by the letter. The political ascendancy of Egypt was to cease with the Chaldean conquest. [FAIRBAIRN.] Henceforth Pharaoh must figuratively no longer trouble the waters by man or beast, i.e., no longer was he to flood other peoples with his overwhelming forces. 14. make their waters deep-rather, "make... to subside" lit., sink. (FAIRBAIRN.] like oil-emblem of quietness. No longer shall they descend violently as the overflowing Nile on other countries, but shall be still and sluggish in political action. 16. As in ch. 19. 14. This is a prophetical lamentation; yet so it shall come to pass. [GROTIUS.] 17. The second lamentation for Pharaoh. This funeral dirge in imagination accompanies him to the unseen world. Egypt personified in its political head is ideally represented as undergoing the change by death to which man is liable. Expressing that Egypt's supremacy is no more, a thing of the past, never to be again. the month-the twelfth month (v. 1;); fourteen days after the former vision. 18. cast them down-i.e., predict that they shall be cast down (so Jeremiah, 1. 10.). The prophet's word was God's, and carried with it its own fulfilment. daughters of . . . nations-i.e., the nations with their peoples. Egypt is to share the fate of other ancient nations once famous, now consigned to oblivion: Elam A Lamentation for Pharaoh. 30.). "My terror" implies that God puts His terror on (v. 24,), Meshech, &c. (v. 26,), Edom (v. 29,), Zidon (v. | Chetib is "his terror," which gives good sense (r. 25, 30.). 19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty1-Beautiful as thou art, thou art not more so than other nations, which nevertheless have perished. go down, &c.-to the nether world, where all "beauty" is speedily marred. 20. she is delivered to the sword-viz., by God. draw her-as if addressing her executioners: drag her forth to death. 21. (Ch. 31. 16.). Ezekiel has before his eyes Isaiah, 14. 9, &c. shall speak to him with "him" join, " with them that help him;" shall speak to kim and his helpers with a taunting welcome, as now one of themselves. 22. her... his-the abrupt change of gender is, because Ezekiel has in view at one time Ver. 1-33. RENEWAL OF EZEKIEL'S COMMISSION, the kingdom (feminine), at another the monarch. Now THAT HE IS AGAIN TO ADDRESS HIS COUNTRY"Asshur," or Assyria, is placed first in punishment, as MEN, AND IN A NEW TONE. Heretofore his functions being first in guilt. 23. in the sides of the pit-Sepulchres had been chiefly threatening; from this point after the in the East were caves hollowed out of the rock, and evil had got to its worst in the overthrow of Jerusa the bodies were laid in niches formed at the sides. lem, the consolatory element preponderates. 2. to the MAURER needlessly departs from the ordinary mean- children of thy people-whom he had been forbidden to ing, and translates, "extremities" (cf. Isaiah, 14. 13, 15.). address from ch. 24. 26, 27, till Jerusalem was overwhich caused terror-they who alive were a terror to thrown, and the "escaped" came with tidings of the others, are now, in the nether world, themselves a judgment being completed. So now, in v. 21, the tiding terrible object to behold. 24. Elam-placed next, as of the fact having arrived, he opens his heretofore having been an auxiliary to Assyria. Its territory lay closed lips to the Jews. In the interval he had proin Persia. In Abraham's time an independent kingdom phesied as to foreign nations. The former part of the (Genesis, 14. 1.). Famous for its bowmen (Isaiah, 22. chapter, from v. 2 to 20, seems to have been imparted 6). borne their shame the just retribution of their to Ezekiel on the evening previous (v. 22.), being & lawless pride. Destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Jere- preparation for the latter part (v. 23-33) imparted after mniah, 49. 34-39.). 25. a bed-a sepulchral niche. all the tidings had come. This accounts for the first part slain by... sword, &c. — (v. 21, 23, 24.). The very standing without intimation of the date, which was monotony of the phraseology gives to the dirge an awe- properly reserved for the latter part, to which the inspiring effect. 26. Meshech, Tubal-northern nations: former was the anticipatory introduction. [FABthe Moschi and Tibareni, between the Black and BAIRN.] watchman-The first nine verses exhibit Caspian seas. HERODOTUS, 3. 94, mentions them as a Ezekiel's office as a spiritual watchman; so in ch. 3 subjugated people, tributaries to Darius Hystaspes 16-21; only here the duties of the earthly watchman (see ch. 27. 13). 27. they shall not lie with the mighty- (cf. 2 Samuel, 18, 24, 25; 2 Kings, 9. 17) are detailed first, i.e., they shall not have separate tombs such as mighty and then the application is made to the spiritual watchconquerors have: but shall all be heaped together in man's duty (cf. Isaiah, 21. 6-10; Hosea, 9. 8; Habakkuk, one pit, as is the case with the vanquished. [GROTIUS.] 2. 1.). "A man of their coasts" is a man specially chosen HAVERNICK reads it interrogatively, "Shall they not for the office out of their whole number. So Judges, lie with the mighty that are fallen?" But English 18. 2," five men from their coasts; " also the Hebrew of Version is supported by the parallel (Isaiah, 14. 18, 19,). Genesis, 47. 2; implying the care needed in the choice of to which Ezekiel refers, and which represents them the watchman, the spiritual as well as the temporal as not lying, as mighty kings lie in a grave, but cast out (Acts, 1. 21, 22, 24-26; 1 Timothy, 6. 22). 3. the sword of one, as a carcase trodden under foot, with -invaders. An appropriate illustration at the time of weapons of war-alluding to the custom of burying the invasion of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar. 4. blood warriors with their arms (1 Maccabees, 13. 29.). Though...upon his own head-metaphor from sacrificial victims, honoured by the laying of "their swords under their on the heads of which they used to lay their hands, heads," yet the punishment of "their iniquities shall praying that their guilt should be upon the victims. be upon their bones." Their swords shall thus attest 6. his iniquity-his negligence in not maintaining contheir shame, not their glory (Matthew, 26. 52.), being stant watchfulness, as they ought to do who are in the instruments of their violence, the penalty of which warfare. The thing signified here appears from under they are paying. 28. Yea, thou-Thou, too, Egypt, like the image. 7. I have set thee a watchman-application them, shalt lie as one vanquished. 29. princes-Edom of the image. Ezekiel's appointment to be a watchman was not only governed by kings, but by subordinate spiritually is far more solemn, as it is derived from "princes" or "dukes" (Genesis, 36, 40.). with their God, not from the people. 8. thou shalt surely die-by might notwithstanding their might, they shall be a violent death, the earnest of everlasting death; the brought down (Isaiah, 34. 5, 10-17 Jeremiah, 49. 7. qualification being supposed, "if thou dost not repent." 13-18.). lie with the uncircumcised-though Edom was 9. Blood had by this time been shed (v. 21,), but Ezekiel circumcised, being descended from Isaac, he shall lie was clear. 10. be upon us-i.e., their guilt remain on with the uncircumcised, much more shall Egypt who us. pine away in them if we suffer the pensity had no hereditary right to circumcision. 30. princes of threatened for them in ch. 24. 23, according to the law the north-Syria, which is still called by the Arabs the (Leviticus, 26, 39.). how should we... live-as thou north; or the Tyrians, North of Palestine, conquered dost promise in v. 5 (cf. ch. 37. 11; Isaiah, 49, 14.). 11. by Nebuchadnezzar (chs. 26., 27., 28.). [GROTIUS.] To meet the Jews' cry of despair in v. 10, Ezekiel here Zidonians who shared the fate of Tyre (ch. 28. 21.). cheers them by the assurance that God has no pleswith their terror they are ashamed of their might-i.e.. sure in their death, but that they should repent and notwithstanding the terror which they inspired in their live (2 Peter, 3. 9.). A yearning tenderness manifests contemporaries. "Might" is connected by MAURER itself here, notwithstanding all their past sins; yet with thus, "Notwithstanding the terror which resulted from it a holiness that abates nothing of its demands for the their might." 31. comforted-with the melancholy satis- honour of God's authority. God's righteousness is faction of not being alone, but of having other king- vindicated as in ch. 3. 18-21; and 18., by the statement doms companions in his downfall. This shall be his that each should be treated with the closest adaptsonly comfort-a very poor one! 32. my terror-the tion of God's justice to his particular case. 12.நt reading of the Margin or Keri. The Hebrew text or fall... in the day that he turneth-(2 Chronicles, 7. 14; |