United Commentaries

Ezek.25.1-32.32

This section contains a series of oracles against surrounding nations. There are six shorter oracles against Judah’s immediate neighbors, in clockwise geographical order, followed by a climactic seventh oracle against Egypt (chs 30–32). Through their experience of God’s judgment, the nations would recognize God’s sovereignty over all things. The nations might be used to bring about God’s judgment of his people, but that would not exempt them from judgment.

One of the key purposes of these oracles against the nations was to affirm that the negative side of God’s covenant with Abraham (“I will . . . curse those who treat you with contempt,” Gen 12:3) was in force. No one can assault God’s people and escape unscathed, even when God’s people are themselves under his judgment.

Ezek.29.1-32.32

The climactic seventh oracle against the nations is against Egypt, Israel’s old enemy and ally. This is the longest of the oracles, and like the oracle against Tyre it addresses both the land of Egypt and its ruler.

Egypt played a central role through the centuries in tempting Israel and Judah away from their allegiance to the Lord. Israel had no sooner departed from Egypt than Egypt’s idolatry became a snare for them. Egypt caused Judah to trust in chariots and horses instead of in the Lord, but Egypt proved unreliable when the moment of truth arrived. The Lord judged Egypt for tempting his people (cp. Luke 17:1-2).

Ezek.32.1

On March 3: This event occurred two months after the exiles in Babylon received word of Jerusalem’s fall (see 33:21).

Ezek.32.2-3

Ezekiel returns to the image of Pharaoh as a mighty beast (29:3).

Egypt’s pharaohs used the lion and the sea monster (or crocodile) as images of strength, yet both creatures could be hunted and killed, and that is what would happen to Pharaoh. God, through his agents (32:11-12), would hunt Pharaoh, catch him, and haul him in.

Ezek.32.4-6

hills . . . valleys . . . mountains . . . ravines: In Hebrew, this literary device (merism) indicates both the boundaries and everything within them; here, it portrays the totality of God’s judgment. The carnage is described using hyperbole to communicate the complete destruction of Egypt.

Ezek.32.7-8

As in the previous chapter, Pharaoh’s downfall would be accompanied by global darkness and widespread mourning. These images were commonly associated with the day of the Lord (cp. Joel 2:30). In this case, the darkness would also remind the Egyptians of the plague on Egypt at the time of the Exodus (Exod 10:21-22).

Ezek.32.9-10

The surrounding nations and their kings would all be terrified at Egypt’s downfall, fearing for their own future.

Ezek.32.11-12

The human agent of God’s wrath, the sword of the king of Babylon, was coming to shatter the power of Egypt once and for all. This would be an even greater destruction than at the time of the first Passover, when only the firstborn male humans and animals of Egypt died (Exod 12:29).

Ezek.32.14

The great sea monster (32:2) would no longer thrash around in the stream, stirring up mud like an irate crocodile. After Pharaoh’s demise, the waters of Egypt would flow again as smoothly as olive oil, with the untroubled serenity of death.

Ezek.32.15-16

This total and final devastation of Egypt would result in their recognizing the power of the Lord, just as they did at the time of the Exodus.

Ezek.32.17-32

This last, climactic message against Egypt sums up the whole series of messages against all of the nations.

Ezek.32.18-20

In an earlier message (31:17-18), God had declared that Egypt would go down to join the other nations in the underworld. Here that idea is expanded. Egypt’s destination was with the outcasts, along with those who fell by the sword. This place of horror, the pit, was already populated by many nations that once wielded power but had now gone down to destruction (cp. Isa 14:9-11).

Ezek.32.21-30

Assyria . . . Elam . . . Meshech and Tubal . . . Edom . . . the princes of the north and the Sidonians: These nations that once struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere were now shadowy figures, spent forces in a world without meaning or joy. Assyria had been conquered by the Babylonians and Medes between 627 and 609 BC and had been removed from its previous status as a superpower.

Ezek.32.31-32

Pharaoh and all the power of Egypt will share a similar fate. For the time appointed by God, Pharaoh caused his terror to fall upon all the living, yet when God decided to act, Egypt’s power would be broken once and for all.