Ezekiel 30:20 Komentář

In this chapter we have, I. A continuation of the prophecy against Egypt, which we had in the latter part of the foregoing chapter, just before the desolation of that once flourishing kingdom was completed by Nebuchadnezzar, in which is foretold the destruction of all her allies and confederates, all her interests and concerns, and the several steps which the king of Babylon should take in pushing on this destruction (v. 1-19). II. A repetition of a former prophecy against Egypt, just before the desolation of it begun by their own bad conduct, which gradually weakened them and prepared the way for the king of Babylon (Eze 30:20-26). It is all much to the same purport with what we had before.

This short prophecy of the weakening of the power of Egypt was delivered about the time that the army of the Egyptians, which attempted to raise the siege of Jerusalem, was frustrated in its enterprises, and returned re infect - without accomplishing their purpose; whereupon the king of Babylon renewed the siege and carried his point. The kingdom of Egypt was very ancient, and had been for many ages considerable. That of Babylon had but lately arrived at its great pomp and power, being built upon the ruins of the kingdom of Assyria. Now it is with them as it is with families and states, some are growing up, others are declining and going back; one must increase and the others must of course decrease. I. It is here foretold that the king of Egypt shall grow weaker and weaker. The extent of his territories shall be abridged, his wealth and power shall be diminished, and he shall become less able than ever to help either himself or his friend. 1. This was in part done already (Eze 30:21): I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, some time ago. One arm of that kingdom might well be reckoned broken when the king of Babylon routed the forces of Pharaoh-Necho at Carchemish (Jer 46:2), and made himself master of all that pertained to Egypt from the river of Egypt to Euphrates, Kg2 24:7. Egypt had been long in gathering strength and extending its dominions, and therefore, that there may be a proportion observed in providence, it loses its strength slowly and by degrees. It was soon after the king of Egypt slew good king Josiah, and in the same reign, that its arm was thus broken, and it received that fatal blow which it never recovered. Before Egypt's heart and neck were broken its arm was. God's judgments come upon a people by steps, that they may meet him repenting. When the arm of Egypt is broken it shall not be bound up to be healed, for none can heal the wounds that God gives but he himself. Those whom he disarms, whom he disables, cannot again hold the sword. 2. This was to be done again. One arm was broken before, and something was done towards the setting of it, towards the healing of the deadly wound that was given to the beast. But now (Eze 30:22), I am against Pharaoh, and will break both his arms, both the strong and that which was broken and set again. Note, If less judgments do not prevail to humble and reform sinners, God will send greater. Now God will cause the sword to fall out of his hand, which he caught hold of as thinking himself strong enough to hold it. It is repeated (Eze 30:24), I will break Pharaoh's arms. He had been a cruel oppressor to the people of God formerly, and of late the staff of a broken rod to them; and now God by breaking his arms reckons with him for both. God justly breaks that power which is abused either to put wrongs upon people or to put cheats upon them. But this is not all; (1.) The king of Egypt shall be dispirited when he finds himself in danger of the king of Babylon's forces: he shall groan before him with the groaning of a deadly wounded man. Note, It is common for those that are most elated in their prosperity to be most dejected and disheartened in their adversity. Pharaoh, even before the sword touches him, shall groan as if he had received his death's wound. (2.) The people of Egypt shall be dispersed (Eze 30:23 and again Eze 30:26): I will scatter them among the nations. Other nations had mingled with them (Eze 30:5); now they shall be mingled with other nations, and seek shelter in them, and so be made to know that the Lord is righteous. II. It is here foretold that the king of Babylon shall grow stronger and stronger, Eze 30:24, Eze 30:25. Put strength into the king of Babylon's arms, that he may be able to go through the service he is designed for. 2. That he will put a sword, his sword, into the king of Babylon's hand, which signified his giving him a commission and furnishing him with arms for carrying on a war, particularly against Egypt. Note, As judges on the bench, like Pilate (Joh 19:11), so generals in the field, like Nebuchadnezzar, have no power but what is given them from above.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 30 This chapter is a continuation of the prophecy against Egypt, both against the country and the king of it. It is introduced with expressions of lamentation, because of the destruction coming on, Eze 30:1, and not only Egypt, and the cities thereof, should be destroyed, but all her friends, associates, and allies; the Ethiopians, Lydians, Lybians, and others, Eze 30:4. Nebuchadnezzar and his army were to be the instruments of her ruin, Eze 30:10, particular cities are mentioned by name, which should suffer much, and become desolate, Eze 30:13 and then Pharaoh king of Egypt himself is threatened with broken arms, and his people to be scattered among the nations, Eze 30:20, and the king of Babylon is again mentioned, whose arms should be strengthened to do all this, Eze 30:24.

And it came to pass in the eleventh year,.... Of Zedekiah's reign, and Jehoiachin's captivity; some little time after the prophecy in Eze 19:1, here the prophecies come into their order again, being interrupted by those of a much later date, at the end of the preceding chapter, and the former part of this: in the first month, in the seventh day of the month; the month Nisan, which answers to part of March, and part of April; the seventh day must be about the twenty ninth of March; but, according to Bishop Usher (m), it was on the twenty sixth of April, on the third day of the week (Tuesday), in 3416 A.M. or before Christ 588: this was given out three months and two days before Jerusalem was taken: that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; as follows: (m) Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3416.

(Verse 20 and following) And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month (Vulgate adds 'of the month'), in the seventh month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold it is not bound up, to be healed, that it may be tied with bandages, and clothed with strips (or to receive a healing plaster): and having taken hold of strength, he might hold the sword. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and I will break his strong arm, and shall cause the sword to fall out of his hand, and I will scatter (or scatter abroad) Egypt among the nations, and disperse them (or winnow them) into the lands (Vulgate: 'countries'). And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and I will place my sword in his hand, and he will break the arms of Pharaoh, and they will groan with the groans of the slain before him. (or as it is in the Septuagint: And he will bring a sword over Egypt, and he will plunder its spoils, and take its plunder. It follows:) And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall, and they will know that I am the Lord, when I give my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he extends it over the land of Egypt, and I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and disperse them into the lands, and they will know that I am the Lord. He returns to the order of prophecy; for after the twenty-seventh year he now places the eleventh. This question is also addressed in the previous passages. For when the word of the Lord was spoken against Tyre in the eleventh year, which was mentioned earlier, in the subsequent passages He speaks to Pharaoh in the tenth year. And again, He places the twenty-seventh year, as we have said, and now the eleventh. Leaving aside the other things that are contained in the order of the Psalms: the question is, how is the third Psalm placed before these Psalms in which David changed his appearance before Abimelech, and about Doeg the Edomite, and when he was found in the cave, and the fiftieth of penitence, in whose title it is shown that he came to Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, although these previous Psalms come before the third, in which it is noted that he fled from the face of his son Absalom. But in the Psalms the response is simple, for it is a lyric poem, and in such a work the order of history is not sought; rather, it is the songs of individual events. But in history, it must be said that those things which have been said about one thing at different times should not be divided by speech, but concluded by the narrative of one place. For example, so that those things which have been said about Egypt at different times may be known in one order of reading. When we have said these things, nevertheless the question remains: Why in this same place was the word of the Lord to Pharaoh first spoken in the eleventh year, and later in the twenty-seventh, and then in the tenth year, when certainly according to the order, the eleventh year should have been first, the twenty-seventh second, and the tenth year third, and each prophecy should have been designated by year? To which we can respond: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable are his ways! (Romans 11:33). And in another place: Who can search out the depths of knowledge? (Sirach 1:2-3). However, we can say this, that the order of history is not observed in the prophets, at least not in all cases, for they do not narrate the past, but they foretell the future, according to the will of the Holy Spirit. But in history, the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Esther, Samuel, Malachi, Chronicles, and Ezra, together with Nehemiah, do not contain a chronological account. Let it suffice to say this about the order of years. Now let us examine the prophecies against Pharaoh or concerning Pharaoh. It is said that God broke his arm and it was not bound up or healed, nor did he receive any ointment, according to what is written: 'There is no ointment to be applied, nor oil, nor bandages' (Isaiah 1, sec. 70). But if it had happened that, with courage regained, he could hold the sword and proceed to war. Therefore, God, who is merciful and compassionate, once again shattered his arm or arms, so that the sword may completely fall from his hand, and be scattered among the people of Egypt, and be dispersed among the nations. But in your arm, receive strength and courage, as the Scripture says: 'Break the arm of the sinner and the evildoer' (Psalm 9:15). This arm is broken in our adversaries, when they pursue us, but cannot overcome us. And for the salvation of the servants of God against Pharaoh, the king of Babylon often rises up to oppress the powerful oppressor, and the wicked are handed over to the more wicked, with God strengthening the arms of the worst, so that the one who is set free may know that He is the Lord. Indeed, it is an achievement of virtue to know that He is the Lord. On the contrary, we can say: The sons of Eli, the sons of pestilence, not knowing God (1 Samuel 2:22). And concerning the good kings who did what was right in the sight of God, it is written that they may know the Lord. But that which is said in the Septuagint: 'I will break his strong and appointed arms', which in Greek is said 'τεταγμένα', has been corrupted by the fault of copyists. For they interpreted it not as 'τεταγμένα', but as 'τεταμένα', which means not appointed, but stretched out. For this reason, according to their custom, other interpreters have put 'exalted' instead.

This chapter describes, with great force and elegance, the ruin of Egypt and all her allies by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, Eze 30:1-11; with an amplification of the distress of the principal cities of Egypt on that occasion, Eze 30:12-19. The remaining verses are a short prophecy relating to the same event, and therefore annexed to the longer one preceding, although this was predicted sooner, Eze 30:20-26.

In the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day - This was the eleventh year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and the date here answers to April 26, A.M. 3416; a prophecy anterior by several years to that already delivered. In collecting the writings of Ezekiel, more care was taken to put all that related to one subject together, than to attend to chronological arrangement.

CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECIES AGAINST EGYPT. (Eze. 30:1-26) Woe worth the day!--that is, Alas for the day!

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.

Destruction of the Might of Pharaoh by Nebuchadnezzar According to the heading in Eze 30:20, "In the eleventh year, in the first (month), on the seventh of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying," this short word of threatening against Egypt falls in the second year of the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and, as Eze 30:21 clearly shows, after the army of Pharaoh Hophra, which marched to the relief of Jerusalem, had been defeated by the Chaldeans who turned to meet it (Jer 37:5, Jer 37:7). If we compare with this the date of the first prophecy against Egypt in Eze 29:1, the prophecy before us was separated from the former by an interval of three months. But as there is no allusion whatever in Ezekiel 29 to Pharaoh's attempt to come to the relief of the besieged city of Jerusalem, or to his repulse, the arrival of the Egyptian army in Palestine, its defeat, and its repulse by the Chaldeans, seems to have occurred in the interval between these two prophecies, towards the close of the tenth year. Eze 30:21-26 Eze 30:21. son of man, the arm of Pharaoh the king of Egypt have I broken; and, behold, it will no more be bound up, to apply remedies, to put on a bandage to bind it up, that it may grow strong to grasp the sword. Eze 30:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deal with Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and will break both his arms, the strong one and the broken one, and will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. Eze 30:23. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them in the lands, Eze 30:24. And will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and give my sword into his hand, and will break the arms of Pharaoh, so that he shall groan the groanings of a pierced one before him. Eze 30:25. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I give my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may stretch it against the land of Egypt. Eze 30:26. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them in the lands; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. - The perfect שׁברתּי in Eze 30:21 is not a prophetic utterance of the certainty of the future, but a pure preterite. This may be seen "both from the allusion in Eze 30:21 to the condition resulting from the shbr שׁבר, and also to the obviously antithetical relation of Eze 30:22, in which future events are predicted" (Hitzig). The arm is a figurative expression for power, here for military power, as it wields the sword. God broke the arm of Pharaoh by the defeat which the Chaldeans inflicted upon Pharaoh Hophra, when he was marching to the relief of besieged Jerusalem. חבּשׁה is a present, as is apparent from the infinitive clauses ('לתת וגו) which follow, altogether apart from הנּה; and חבשׁ signifies to bind up, for the purpose of healing a broken limb, that remedies may be applied and a bandage put on. לחזקהּ, that it may become strong or sound, is subordinate to the preceding clause, and governs the infinitive which follows. The fact that the further judgment which is to fall upon Pharaoh is introduced with לכן (therefore) here (Eze 30:22), notwithstanding the fact that it has not been preceded by any enumeration of the guilt which occasioned it, may be accounted for on the ground that the causal לכן forms a link with the concluding clause of Eze 30:21 : the arm shall not be healed, so as to be able to grasp or hold the sword. Because Pharaoh is not to attain any more to victorious power, therefore God will shatter both of his arms, the strong, i.e., the sound one and the broken one, that is to say, will smite it so completely, that the sword will fall from his hand. The Egyptians are to be scattered among the nations, as is repeated in Eze 30:23 verbatim from Eze 29:12. God will give the sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and equip and strengthen him to destroy the might of Pharaoh, that the latter may groan before him like one who is pierced with the sword. This thought is repeated in Eze 30:25 and Eze 30:26 with an intimation of the purpose of this divine procedure. That purpose it: that men may come to recognise Jehovah as God the Lord. The subject to וידעוּ is indefinite; and the rendering of the lxx is a very good one, καὶ γνώσονται πάντες.