Ezechiele 29:2 Commento

Three chapters we had concerning Tyre and its king; next follow four chapters concerning Egypt and its king. This is the first of them. Egypt had formerly been a house of bondage to God's people; of late they had had but too friendly a correspondence with it, and had depended too much upon it; and therefore, whether the prediction reached Egypt or no, it would be of use to Israel, to take them off from their confidence in their alliance with it. The prophecies against Egypt, which are all laid together in these four chapters, were of five several dates; the first in the 10th year of the captivity (Eze 29:1), the second in the 27th (Eze 29:17), the third in the 11th year and the first month (Eze 30:20), the fourth in the 11th year and the third month (Eze 31:1), the fifth in the 12th year (Eze 32:1), and another in the same year (Eze 29:17). In this chapter we have, I. The destruction of Pharaoh foretold, for his dealing deceitfully with Israel (Eze 29:1-7). II. The desolation of the land of Egypt foretold (Eze 29:8-12). III. A promise of the restoration thereof, in part, after forty years (Eze 29:13-16). IV. The possession that should be given to Nebuchadnezzar of the land of Egypt (Eze 29:17-20). V. A promise of mercy to Israel (Eze 29:21).

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 29 This chapter contains a prophecy against Pharaoh king of Egypt; and of the destruction of the land of Egypt; and of the restoration of it after a certain time. The time of prophecy is noted, Eze 29:1, the order to prophesy against Pharaoh, who is described as a large fish, lying in his rivers, and boasting of them, Eze 29:2, his destruction and the manner of it, Eze 29:4, the reason of it, his treachery to the Jews, Eze 29:6, hence the whole land of Egypt is threatened with desolation, from one end to the other, so as to be uninhabited by man or beast for the space of forty years, Eze 29:8, but shall not arrive to their former glory as a kingdom, nor be any more the confidence of the house of Israel, Eze 29:15, then follows a prophecy seventeen years after this, showing the reason why Egypt was given to the king of Babylon, Eze 29:17, and the chapter is closed with a promise of happiness to Israel, Eze 29:21.

Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt,.... Pharaoh was a name common to all the kings of Egypt; the name of this king was Pharaohhophra, Jer 44:30, and who, by Herodotus (x), is called Apries: and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt; prophesy of his destruction, and of the destruction of the whole land that is under his dominion. (x) Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 161.

(Chap. XXIX.—Vers. 1, 2.) In the tenth year (or according to the LXX, the twelfth), in the tenth month (or, according to the Hebrew, the twelfth), on the first (or one) day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt, and say: Thus says the Lord God. After Sidon, which is also situated on the coast of Phoenicia, the word of the Lord came to the prophet in the tenth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, in the twelfth month, and on the first day of the month, that he should set his face and strengthen himself against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and speak concerning him, and concerning all Egypt, against all of Egypt province. And prophesy regarding what will happen to them. But if we must say something about the numbers, which place does one hold among ten days: hence, at the beginning of Genesis, it is not said: There was evening and morning, the first day, but one day (Gen.1), in order to teach that the same day is always repeated: the tenth number holds the same order among ten decades, which is a hundred, and this number is taken up by the sacrificial lamb, so that it is sacrificed on the fourteenth day, and in this way it continues through its decades, with the order of its numbers proceeding to a thousand and ten thousand, and one hundred thousand, and beyond. But after the tenth year, the twelfth month is placed, so that the perfect number of twelve apostles and prophets (who are contained in one volume) may be shown. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the tenth month, which is called Tebeth in Hebrew (), and in Egypt týbi, is called January by the Romans, because among them it is the door of the year: with all heat removed, it contains the beginning of winter cold. Let it suffice to have spoken about numbers. Moreover, that must be especially sought after, whether the Pharaoh referred to in Exodus, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and many other places, and in the Song of Songs is the same person or different individuals. And it seems to me that this word does not refer to a single person, but rather signifies the royal dignity among the Egyptians, like how the Romans called their emperors and kings from the first Caesar, Gaius Caesar, and the second, his adopted son Octavian, who was later named Augustus. And among the Syrians, there was Antiochus, among the Persians, there were the Arsacid kings, among the Philistines, Abimelech, and after Alexander, in Egypt, there were the Ptolemies until Cleopatra, who, when defeated at Actium, made Egypt a Roman province. Therefore, in the present time, the word of the Lord is directed against every king of Egypt, who is interpreted as the destroyer, the slayer and maimer, cutting and dividing all things with a sword. This is to be understood in a mystical sense referring to the power to which Egypt is subject. For no man would dare to say: 'The rivers are mine, and I have made them,' nor would the great dragon be called, sitting in the midst of its rivers; but Egypt is called Mizraim in Hebrew, and it is translated into our language as afflicting and troubling, narrowing down and oppressing those who are subject to it, and not lifting its eyes to heaven but, according to the Gospel and the example of that woman whom the devil had bent double for eighteen years, always sinking down to earthly things (Luke 13).' Let us therefore see what is the threat against Pharaoh and all of Egypt.

This and the three following chapters foretell the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, which he accomplished in the twenty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity. The same event is foretold by Jeremiah, Jer 46:13, etc. The prophecy opens with God's charging the king of Egypt (Pharaoh-hophra) with the same extravagant pride and profanity which were in the preceding chapter laid to the charge of the prince of Tyre. He appears, like him, to have affected Divine honors; and boasted so much of the strength of his kingdom, that, as an ancient historian (Herodotus) tells us, he impiously declared that God himself could not dispossess him. Wherefore the prophet, with great majesty, addresses him under the image of one of those crocodiles or monsters which inhabited that river, of whose riches and revenue he vaunted; and assures him that, with as much ease as a fisherman drags the fish he has hooked, God would drag him and his people into captivity, and that their carcasses should fall a prey to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of heaven, Eze 29:1-7. The figure is then dropped; and God is introduced denouncing, in plain terns, the most awful judgments against him and his nation, and declaring that the Egyptians should be subjected to the Babylonians till the fall of the Chaldean empire, Eze 29:8-12. The prophet then foretells that Egypt, which was about to be devastated by the Babylonians, and many of the people carried into captivity, should again become a kingdom; but that it should never regain its ancient political importance; for, in the lapse of time, it should be even the Basest of the kingdoms, a circumstance in the prophecy most literally fulfilled, especially under the Christian dispensation, in its government by the Mameluke slaves, Eze 29:13-16. The prophecy, beginning at the seventeenth verse, is connected with the foregoing, as it relates to the same subject, though delivered about seventeen years later. Nebuchadnezzar and his army, after the long siege of Tyre, which made every head bald by constantly wearing their helmets, and wore the skin of off every shoulder by carrying burdens to raise the fortifications, were disappointed of the spoil which they expected, by the retiring of the inhabitants to Carthage. God, therefore, promises him Egypt for his reward, Eze 29:17-20. The chapter concludes with a prediction of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, Eze 29:21.

Set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt - This was Pharaoh-hophra or Pharaoh-apries, whom we have so frequently met with in the prophecies of Jeremiah, and much of whose history has been given in the notes.

THE JUDGMENT ON EGYPT BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR; THOUGH ABOUT TO BE RESTORED AFTER FORTY YEARS, IT WAS STILL TO BE IN A STATE OF DEGRADATION. (Eze. 29:1-21) Pharaoh--a common name of all the kings of Egypt, meaning "the sun"; or, as others say, a "crocodile," which was worshipped in parts of Egypt (compare Eze 29:3). Hophra or Apries was on the throne at this time. His reign began prosperously. He took Gaza (Jer 47:1) and Zidon and made himself master of Phœnicia and Palestine, recovering much that was lost to Egypt by the victory of Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish (Kg2 24:7; Jer 46:2), in the fourth year of Jehoiakim [WILKINSON, Ancient Egypt, 1.169]. So proudly secure because of his successes for twenty-five years did he feel, that he said not even a god could deprive him of his kingdom [HERODOTUS, 2.169]. Hence the appropriateness of the description of him in Eze 29:3. No mere human sagacity could have enabled Ezekiel to foresee Egypt's downfall in the height of its prosperity. There are four divisions of these prophecies; the first in the tenth year of Ezekiel's captivity; the last in the twelfth. Between the first and second comes one of much later date, not having been given till the twenty-seventh year (Eze 29:17; Eze 30:19), but placed there as appropriate to the subject matter. Pharaoh-hophra, or Apries, was dethroned and strangled, and Amasis substituted as king, by Nebuchadnezzar (compare Jer 44:30). The Egyptian priests, from national vanity, made no mention to HERODOTUS of the Egyptian loss of territory in Syria through Nebuchadnezzar, of which JOSEPHUS tells us, but attributed the change in the succession from Apries to Amasis solely to the Egyptian soldiery. The civil war between the two rivals no doubt lasted several years, affording an opportunity to Nebuchadnezzar of interfering and of elevating the usurper Amasis, on condition of his becoming tributary to Babylon [WILKINSON]. Compare Jer 43:10-12, and see on Jer 43:13, for another view of the grounds of interference of Nebuchadnezzar.