Ezekielchapter 29
21 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
This is the first of seven oracles against Egypt, spoken while Jerusalem was under siege and her people still hoped for an Egyptian army to rescue them. Ezekiel wrote from exile to a nation that trusted the Nile and the power of Pharaoh. The chapter pictures that power as a great creature of the river. Listen for the boast Pharaoh makes about the Nile and for the plain picture of Egypt as a reed that breaks in the hand. Then listen for the short word added sixteen years later, the latest dated oracle in the book, about the wages of Babylon's army.
Context
- Who
- Exiles whose relatives in Jerusalem were staking their lives on an Egyptian rescue
- What
- An oracle against Pharaoh and Egypt for pride and false support to Israel, with a later word giving Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as his army's wages.
- Where
- Spoken at Tel Abib in Babylonia against Pharaoh Hophra and the land of Egypt along the Nile.
- When
- The tenth year, tenth month, twelfth day, about 7 January 587 BC, with the added word dated to the twenty-seventh year, about 26 April 571 BC.
- Why
- To show the exiles that Egypt, on whom Judah had leaned, was a broken reed and that God would bring Pharaoh's pride low.
Historical context
Egypt was the Nile and nothing else. Rain was negligible; the annual flood laid down silt and filled the irrigation basins, and the height of the rise was measured on stone gauges because it determined whether the country ate. So when Ezekiel has Pharaoh say my Nile is my own, I made it, he is quoting the exact form of Egyptian royal pride, the king as the guarantor of the flood.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The creature Pharaoh is called is the great monster of the river branches, the Nile crocodile. Egyptian religion honoured a crocodile god, and the animal was the river's own emblem of untouchable power. God says He will put hooks in its jaws and drag it up onto dry land with the fish of its river stuck to its scales, a crocodile hauled out of water is simply a large animal dying in the sun.
The political charge is a walking-stick made of reed. Nile reed looks like a staff and shatters when weight is put on it, and the splinters go into your hand and armpit. Egypt had promised Zedekiah help; an Egyptian army under Hophra did march out in 588 BC and the Babylonians briefly broke off the siege, and then the Egyptians withdrew and the siege closed again. That is the reed splintering, and Jeremiah describes the same episode from inside the city.
The forty-year desolation and scattering that follows was fulfilled in the long humiliation of Egypt rather than in an empty land. Hophra was overthrown by Amasis around 570 BC, a fragmentary Babylonian tablet records Nebuchadnezzar campaigning against Egypt around 568 BC, and after that Egypt was never again a first-rank power, ruled in turn by Persians, Greeks and Romans, a lowly kingdom as the text says.
The appendix at the end is dated sixteen years later and is remarkably honest. Nebuchadnezzar's army worked hard against Tyre, every head rubbed bare and every shoulder worn raw by carrying siege materials, and got no wages from it. So God gives him Egypt instead, as pay for the service his army rendered.
Significance
The exiles were praying for Egypt to win. This oracle, delivered while the siege was still running, tells them the rescuer is a reed.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The appendix does something else for them. It shows a prophet still speaking sixteen years on, willing to record that the great siege of Tyre had not produced what people expected, and still confident about what God would do next. That kind of candour is what made the rest of the book credible.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, gives this chapter a public reading. Ezekiel 28:25 to 29:21 is the Haftarah read with the weekly portion Va'era, which is Exodus 6:2 to 9:35, and the table marks it as the same in the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi rites. The table carries no festival reading from the book.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the third verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 14 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 30. Under the ninth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 16:4. Under the sixteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 11:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
Rashi reads the oracle against Pharaoh through the Nile. All the plenty of Egypt comes by the river, so "the prophet compares its king to a crocodile and its people to the fish of the river" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:3:1). The boast about the river is a claim to need nothing from above: "I do not need the heavenly powers, for my river provides all my necessities" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:3:2). The judgment keeps the figure. Fish spread out on dry land die, and "This is the perishing of fish" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:5:1).
The staff of reed is read as Israel's history with Egypt. "Many times they relied on them: in the days of Sennacherib and in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, but it did not avail them" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:6:1). Egypt will no longer be Israel's confidence, and Rashi ties that to the promise at the sea in Exodus 14:13 (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:16:1).
The forty years of Egypt's desolation he reads against Pharaoh's dream in Genesis. Forty-two years of famine were decreed there, "But they had only two" before Jacob came down, "and the forty years were paid to them now" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:11:1). At the seventeenth verse he notes the date from Seder Olam. He then says of the whole book, "In this book, there are many prophecies written in a non chronological order" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:17:1). Egypt is given to Nebuchadnezzar as "reward for the labor that he undertook against Tyre by My command" (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:20:1).
The last verse he meets with a plain admission. "I have neither heard nor found the explanation of this verse." He then works it out by counting. He reads the words about that day back to the end of the forty years, which falls when Belshazzar took the throne. That was the year Persia began to rise, and he reads Cyrus as the blossoming of Israel's horn, using the years of Megillah 11b (Rashi on Ezekiel 29:21:1).
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each of them marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Ezekiel 29:1:1 and 29:12:1, at Radak on Ezekiel 29:1:1, 29:2:1, 29:8:1, 29:9:1, 29:10:1, 29:13:1 and 29:19:1 and at Malbim on Ezekiel 29:2:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Seder Olam Rabbah 26:1. On the third verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 100:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 14 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 30. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:11, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:10 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 3:40 there. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 8:7, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 7:7:3 and Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 5:1:2 there. It also holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 6:2:3, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 7:15:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 7:9:2 there. On the fourth verse it holds Vayikra Rabbah 19:6. On the ninth verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 15:21:28, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 16:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 250:3.
On the twelfth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 89:9, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 41:17:2 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 41:18:1. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of The 32 Midot of Aggadah 1:14 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 147:5 there. On the thirteenth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Yevamot 8:2:6. On the fourteenth verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 49:5:3. On the fifteenth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:7, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 6:15 and Seder Olam Rabbah 20:1. It also holds Shemot Rabbah 22:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 247:1 there.
On the sixteenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 11:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 11:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 8:1. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 13:6, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 9:3 and Vayikra Rabbah 27:3 there. On the twenty-first verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:47, Sanhedrin 98a:5 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 286:15. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 435:3 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 524:8 there. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 29:3:1 to 29:21:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 29:1:1 and 29:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 29:1:1, 29:2:1, 29:8:1, 29:9:1, 29:10:1, 29:13:1 and 29:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Ezekiel 29:2:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/29.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this chapter and printing the Haftarah Ezekiel 28:25 to 29:21 with the weekly portion Va'era.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Pharaoh, the great monster who claimed the river
Ezekiel 29:1-2
In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month: The date is exact, the tenth year, tenth month, twelfth day, which the commentators reckon to January of 587 BC, months before Jerusalem finally fell. Egypt draws the Lord's face against her because Zedekiah had leaned on Pharaoh's army for help against the Babylonian siege, the same alliance Jeremiah condemns.
Ezekiel 29:1
“In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month,.... In the tenth year Jeconiah's captivity, and Zedekiah's reign. The Septuagint version has it, the twelfth year; and the Arabic version, the twelfth month; and the Septuagint version again, the first day of the month; and the Vulgate Latin, the eleventh day of it. This month was the month Tebet, and answers to part of December, and part of January.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 29:1
“The tenth year - Jerusalem had been besieged, but not taken. Jeremiah delivered his prophecy against Egypt, about the time when the approach of Pharaoh Hophra’s army caused the Chaldaeans for the time to raise the siege Jer 37:5. This was the solitary instance of Egypt meddling with the affairs of Palestine or Syria after the battle of Carchemish (compare 2Ki 24:7); it met with speedy punishment.”
set your face against Pharaoh king: The Pharaoh king of Egypt at this date was Hophra, called Apries by Greek historians, who reigned from about 589 to 570 BC. Chapters 29 to 32 hold seven oracles against Egypt, six of them dated. Egypt receives the longest section of prophecy against the nations.
Ezekiel 29:2
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:2
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 29:3-5
O great monster who lies among his rivers: Pharaoh is named the great dragon, the same word Genesis uses of the sea creatures and Isaiah uses of the chaos monster. My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself states the sin as Pharaoh's words. The hooks in the jaws picture an Egyptian crocodile hunt.
Ezekiel 29:3
“The king is addressed as the embodiment of the state. Dragon - Here the crocodile, the great monster of the Nile, which was regarded very differently in different parts of Egypt. By some it was worshipped and embalmed after death, and cities were named after it (e. g., in the Arsinoite nome). Others viewed it with the utmost abhorrence.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:3
“That lieth - Not only at rest, but waiting for prey. My river - My kingdom, power, riches, and forces, all the strength and glory of Egypt. Put hooks - The Allegory is continued.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
I will put hooks in your jaws: Ezekiel uses the same picture for Gog in 38:4, and Isaiah 37:29 puts God's hook in the nose of Assyria's king. The fish clinging to the scales are Pharaoh's people, who share his fate. The river's lord is dragged out with his subjects.
Ezekiel 29:4
“I will put hooks in thy jaws - Amasis, one of this king’s generals, being proclaimed king by an insurrection of the people, dethroned Apries, and seized upon the kingdom; and Apries was obliged to flee to Upper Egypt for safety. I will cause the fish - to stick unto thy scales - Most fish are sorely troubled with a species of insect which bury their heads in their flesh, under their scales, and suck out the vital juices. The allusion seems to be to this.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:4
“He raised the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a time (compare Eze 29:6; Jer 37:5, 7-10); ruin overtook not only them, but himself. As the fish that clung to the horny scales of the crocodile, the lord of the Nile, when he was caught, shared his fate, so the adherents of Pharaoh, lord of Egypt, when he was overthrown by Amasis, should share his fate.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
gathered for burial: Egypt gave its dead embalming, sealed tombs and grave goods meant to secure the life beyond death. Pharaoh left in the desert for beasts and birds loses all of it. For an Egyptian king, this was the final shame.
Ezekiel 29:5
“And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee, and all the fish of thy rivers,.... Where fish in common cannot live, but die as soon almost as out of the water, and on dry land, excepting those that are of the amphibious kind. This wilderness designs the deserts of Lybia and Cyrene, where the battle was fought between Hophra and Amasis; and where the Egyptian army perished, only their king, before compared to a crocodile, which lives on land, as well as in water, escaped.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 29:5
“I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness - Referring to his being obliged to take refuge in Upper Egypt. But he was afterwards taken prisoner, and strangled by Amasis. Herod. lib. 2 s. 169.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 29:5
“Pharaoh led an army against Cyrene in Africa, in support of Aricranes, who had been stripped of his kingdom by the Cyrenians. The army perished and Egypt rebelled against him [JUNIUS]. But the reference is mainly to the defeat by Nebuchadnezzar. beasts . . . fowls--hostile and savage men.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 29:6-7
a staff of reeds to the house of Israel: The charge against Egypt is stated, they have been a staff of reed, a support that wounds the hand that leans on it. Verse 7 makes the wound literal. Henry reads the reed as a deliberate contrast with the rock Israel was meant to lean on instead.
Ezekiel 29:6
“And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord,.... Who could eject their king from his kingdom, and deliver him into the hands of his enemy; though he thought no God could, as he boastingly said, before observed: because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel; alluding to the country of Egypt, which abounded with reeds that grew upon the banks of the river Nile, and other rivers.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:6
“They have been a staff of reed - An inefficient and faithless ally. The Israelites expected assistance from them when Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem; and they made a feint to help them, but retired when Nebuchadnezzar went against them. Thus were the Jews deceived and ultimately ruined, see Eze 29:7.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
when they leaned on you, you broke: Hoshea, the last king of Israel, sent to So king of Egypt for help against Assyria in 2 Kings 17, and Samaria fell. Zedekiah trusted Egypt against Babylon, and Jerusalem was about to fall. Twice the reed gave way.
Ezekiel 29:7
So Egypt was continually proving to Israel, to Jehoiakim and to Zedekiah. The tenses are present not past. To be at a stand - Others, “to totter.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:7
“MAURER somewhat similarly (referring to a kindred Arabic form), "Thou hast stricken both their loins." FAIRBAIRN, not so well, "Thou lettest all their loins stand," that is, by themselves, bereft of the support which they looked for from thee.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Egypt made the lowliest of kingdoms for forty years
Ezekiel 29:8-9
I will bring a sword against you: The sentence turns from figure to plain statement, a sword upon thee, man and beast cut off. The recognition formula lands here, they shall know that I am the Lord. Judgment answers a claim to self-made sovereignty with a plain demonstration of who actually made the river.
Egypt will become a desolate wasteland: Egypt's fields drank from the Nile's yearly flood, and almost no rain falls there. Deuteronomy 11 sets that land beside Canaan, which drinks rain from heaven under the LORD's eye. Pharaoh credited himself with the water.
Ezekiel 29:9
“And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste,.... Men few or none being left in it, to till it, nor cattle found upon it: and they shall know that I am the Lord; by these judgments executed upon them, now foretold; and which when come to pass, they will be obliged to acknowledge the omniscience and omnipotence of Jehovah: because thou hast said, the river is mine, and I have made it; See Gill on Eze 29:3; this insolent expression was highly resented by the Lord, as appears by the repetition of it.”
Ezekiel 29:10-12
from Migdol to Syene, and as far as the border of Cush: The desolation is given a real geography, from the tower of Syene, at Egypt's southern frontier, to the border of Ethiopia. Forty years uninhabited by man or beast is a specific and bounded sentence. Barnes notes the forty years as deliberately recalling Israel's own forty years.
Ezekiel 29:10
“From the tower of Syene - ממגדל מונה mimmigdol seveneh, “from Migdol to Syene.” Syene, now called Essuan, was the last city in Egypt, going towards Ethiopia. It was famous for a well into which the rays of the sun fell perpendicularly at midday.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
uninhabited for forty years: The same number measured Judah's punishment in 4:6, where Ezekiel lay forty days, a day for each year. Gill counts Egypt's forty years from Nebuchadnezzar's invasion to the rise of Cyrus; Keil reads the number as a set term of judgment. Either way the desolate land has a limit.
disperse the Egyptians among the nations: Ezekiel spoke these words of scattering over Judah in 12:15 and 22:15. Egypt now receives the sentence of the people it failed to save, dispersed among the nations and scattered through the countries. The ally shares the exile.
Ezekiel 29:12
“Shall be desolate forty years - The country from Migdol or Magdolan, which was on the isthmus between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, was so completely ruined, that it might well be called desert; and it is probable that this desolation continued during the whole of the reign of Amasis, which was just forty years. See Herod. lib. 3 c. 10; and see Calmet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:12
“As Israel passed through a term of wilderness discipline (compare Eze 20:35, &c.), which was in its essential features to be repeated again, so it was to be with Egypt [FAIRBAIRN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 29:13-16
At the end of forty years: The oracle turns to restoration, at the end of forty years, gathered to Pathros, upper Egypt where the nation had begun. The return is modest, the basest of the kingdoms. The purpose is stated for Israel's benefit, so that Judah is cured of the temptation to lean on this reed.
Ezekiel 29:13
“Will I gather the Egyptians - It is probable that Cyrus gave permission to the Egyptians brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, to return to their own country. And if we reckon from the commencement of the war against Pharaoh-hophra by Nebuchadnezzar, to the third or fourth year of Cyrus, the term will be about forty years.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
back to the land of Pathros: The phrase restore from captivity is the one Ezekiel uses for Israel's return in 39:25. Jeremiah gives the same promise to Moab, Ammon and Elam. Pathros comes from the Egyptian for the southern land, and mercy reaches Egypt too.
Ezekiel 29:14
“The Thebaid was anciently called "Egypt" [ARISTOTLE]. Therefore it is called the "land of the Egyptians' birth" (Margin, for "habitation"). base kingdom--Under Amasis it was made dependent on Babylon; humbled still more under Cambyses; and though somewhat raised under the Ptolemies, never has it regained its ancient pre-eminence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:14
“Some date the forty years from Nebuchadnezzar's destroying Egypt, others from the desolation of Egypt some time before; however, they end about the first year of Cyrus, when the seventy years' captivity of Judah ended, or soon after. Then this prediction was accomplished, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the lowliest of kingdoms: Under Thutmose III Egypt had ruled Canaan and reached the Euphrates. After the Persian conquest in 525 BC it passed to Persians, Greeks and Romans in turn. Egypt, once a ruler over nations, became the lowliest of kingdoms.
an object of trust for the house: Isaiah 31 pronounced woe on those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses. Deuteronomy 17:16 forbade Israel's king to send the people back to Egypt for horses. The alliance broke a command as old as Moses.
Ezekiel 29:16
“The false confidence of the Israelites “brought to remembrance,” i. e., discovered in the sight of God and man their “iniquity,” i. e., their treachery and perjury to the Chaldaeans; their falsehood being made evident when they “look after” (turn to) the Egyptians and seek their aid in rebellion. The ruin of Egypt shall put an end to all this.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:16
“The prophecy which begins here, it should seem, is continued to the twentieth verse of the next chapter. And Dr. Lightfoot observes that it is the last prophecy we have of this prophet, and should have been last in the book, but is laid here, that all the prophecies against Egypt might come together.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Egypt handed to Babylon as wages for the siege of Tyre
Ezekiel 29:17-20
In the twenty-seventh year: The date jumps forward, the latest date in the book. Nebuchadnezzar's long siege of Tyre had yielded no wages, since the island city held out. Egypt is given to Babylon as the wages Tyre never paid, and Keil and Barnes read this as Scripture's honest accounting of a prophecy's outcome.
Ezekiel 29:17
“And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year,.... Of Jeconiah's captivity; or of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abendana, from Seder Olam Rabba (z), observe; though it was in the thirty fifth year of his reign that Tyre was taken by him; and after that Egypt was given him: in the first month, in the first day of the month: the month Nisan, which answers to part of March, and part of April.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 29:17
“The prophet places this prediction out of chronological order, that he may point out what had not been stated in the foregoing prophecy, namely, that the agent who should strike the first blow on Egypt should be the Chaldaean king, Nebuchadnezzar.”
Ezekiel 29:18
every shoulder made raw: Josephus, citing Phoenician records, gives the siege thirteen years. Bald heads and raw shoulders come from helmets and from carrying earth and timber for the siege works. Jerome says the Tyrians shipped their wealth away by sea, leaving the besiegers little to take.
Ezekiel 29:18
“In prosecuting this siege every head was made bald, and every shoulder peeled, with carrying burdens and labouring in the water when they had a strong tide and a strong town to contend with. Egypt, a large kingdom, being divided within itself, is easily conquered; Tyre, a single city, being unanimous, is with difficulty subdued.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 29:18
“Caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus - He was thirteen years employed in the siege. See Joseph. Antiq. lib. 10 c. 11. In this siege his soldiers endured great hardships.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 29:18
“Made bald - Through age, or sicknesses, or continued wearing of helmets. Peeled - Galled with carrying burdens. No wages - For though Tyre was very rich, when first besieged, much wealth was carried away during the siege, much spent and wasted in the siege, and what was left, preserved by articles of surrender.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 29:19
“The success of Nebuchadnezzar is implied in Tyre's receiving a king from Babylon, probably one of her captives there, Merbal. take her spoil . . . prey--literally, "spoil her spoil, prey her prey," that is, as she spoiled other nations, so shall she herself be a spoil to Babylon.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
because it was done for Me: Jeremiah 25:9 and 27:6 call Nebuchadnezzar the LORD's servant. The king fought for his own empire, and God counted the labor as work done for Him. Henry draws the lesson that God pays every workman.
Ezekiel 29:20
“Verily they have their reward. The conquest of Egypt is spoken of as Nebuchadnezzar's full reward, for that completed his dominion over the then known world in a manner; that was the last of the kingdoms he subdued; when he was master of that he became the head of gold. The mercy God had in store for the house of Israel soon after.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel: The last verse turns from Egypt to Israel. I will give thee the opening of the mouth picks up the sign, silence until news arrived that the city had fallen. Fairbairn reads the verse's position as the book's habit of never leaving judgment on the nations as the last word.
Ezekiel 29:21
“Will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud - This may refer generally to the restoration; but particularly to Zerubbabel, who became one of the leaders of the people from Babylon. Or it may respect Daniel, or Mordecai, or Jeconiah, who, about this time, was brought out of prison by Evil-merodach, and afterwards kindly treated.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 29:21
“The day of their deliverance shall begin to dawn, and they shall have some little reviving in their bondage, in the honour that shall be done, 1. To their princes; they are the horns of the house of Israel, the seat of their glory and power.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 29:21
“Israel to bud-- (Ps 132:17). I will cause its ancient glory to revive: an earnest of Israel's full glory under Messiah, the son of David (Lu 1:69). Even in Babylon an earnest was given of this in Daniel (Da 6:2) and Jeconiah (Jer 52:31).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Patrick Fairbairn and Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.