Ezekiel32chapter 32

Ezekiel 32:11-14

The instrument is finally named without figure, the sword of the king of Babylon. Verse 14 closes the thought with rivers running like oil, a stillness Keil reads as the peace of an emptied land. Fairbairn notes that Egypt did in fact suffer a real, datable Babylonian campaign under Nebuchadnezzar.

the most ruthless of all nations: The same title marks Babylon's army at 30:11 and the foreigners who felled Assyria's cedar at 31:12. The pride of Egypt is the sin charged against that cedar at 31:10. Egypt receives Assyria's sentence for Assyria's fault.

slaughter all her cattle beside the: Egypt's cattle grazed on the meadows beside the abundant waters of the Nile, and Genesis 47:6 records Pharaoh's own livestock kept in Goshen. The slaughter strikes food and wealth together. The rivers muddied by feet in verse 2 lie still.

Oil moves slowly and without a ripple. The river runs smooth with nothing alive to stir it. Chapter 29 set the measure of Egypt's ruin, a kingdom restored after forty years as the lowliest of kingdoms, never again ruling the nations (29:13-15).

Ezekiel 32:15-16

the land of Egypt a desolation: The recognition formula closes the first oracle, then shall they know that I am the Lord. Verse 16 hands the lament to the daughters of the nations, which Henry reads as the earth called to witness a fall. The second half takes up the same king from inside the grave.

the daughters of the nations will: Israel and its neighbors hired women skilled in keening to lead a funeral lament, as Jeremiah 9:17 calls for the wailing women. Here the daughters of the nations chant the lament. They mourn over Egypt and her multitudes while they still live.

Ezekiel 32:17-18

the fifteenth day: A second oracle opens two weeks after the first, and moves the whole scene underground. The chapter becomes a roll call of fallen empires already resident in Sheol. Keil reads the device as a second funeral for the same king, spoken from inside the place he is being sent to.

consign her and the daughters of: The prophet's own word sends Egypt down, the same authority Jeremiah received at Jeremiah 1:10 to uproot kingdoms. The daughters of the mighty nations are the other powers named in the verses that follow. Egypt goes down in company.

Ezekiel 32:19-21

The question, whom dost thou pass in beauty, echoes chapter 31's whom art thou like. Verse 21 has the strong speak to him, a scene JFB compares to Isaiah 14's taunt. Gill notes uncircumcised is used as a term of shame, since Egypt is recorded elsewhere as a circumcising people.

Mighty chiefs will speak from the midst: The mighty chiefs are the fallen warriors of the nations listed next, awake enough in the prophet's picture of Sheol to speak. Their words describe Egypt's arrival as a finished fact. Her allies, the helpers of 30:5-8, come down with her.

Ezekiel 32:22-23

Assyria is there: Asshur, Assyria, is the first nation named in the grave, the very power chapter 31 had sent down. Henry reads the placement as deliberate, since Assyria caused terror in the land of the living and now bears the same fate. The pattern set here repeats through every name that follows.

Her graves are set in the depths: The depths of the Pit are its farthest recesses, the lowest and most shameful place. Assyrian royal inscriptions boasted of flaying captives and piling up heads, which is the terror this verse remembers. The terror has ended in the lowest grave.

Ezekiel 32:24-25

Elam is there: Elam follows Assyria into the same grave, a power east of Babylon whose terror in life is answered by shame in death. Keil reads the repetition itself as part of the oracle's force, each nation given the identical sentence so no power reads itself as an exception.

they prepare a resting place for Elam: Elam lay east of Babylon, with Susa as its capital. Assyria under Ashurbanipal sacked Susa around 647 BC, and Jeremiah 49:34-39 announced Elam's judgment early in Zedekiah's reign. Elam now lies beside the empire that crushed it.

Meshech and Tubal are there: Meshech and Tubal, the same pairing that returns as Gog's allies in chapters 38 and 39, take their place in the grave. Verse 27 draws one distinction, buried instead with their weapons under their heads. Fairbairn reads the separate note as marking these as ancient warriors given a warrior's burial.

Ezekiel 32:28-30

will be shattered: Egypt is addressed directly here, thou shalt be broken. Edom follows at verse 29, and verse 30 adds the princes of the north and all the Zidonians. Wesley reads the list as building deliberately toward its climax, the final verses seat Pharaoh among the very nations he is watching fall.

Edom is there, and all her: Edom, Judah's neighbour to the south, had kings before Israel had any, as Genesis 36:31 records. Ezekiel judged Edom at 25:12-14 and gives it a whole oracle in chapter 35. Its royal line ends in the same pit.

All the leaders of the north: The leaders of the north are commonly read as the rulers of Syria and the Phoenician cities beside Sidon. Sidon received its own oracle at 28:20-23. The roll call of the slain in the Pit ends with Israel's nearest neighbors, Edom to the south and the Sidonians to the north.

Ezekiel 32:31-32

be comforted: Pharaoh finally sees the grave he has been shown throughout the chapter. The comfort offered him is the grimmest kind, comforted over all his multitude. Clarke reads the whole two-chapter oracle as ending exactly where it must, Egypt's pride answered by a shared grave with every other empire.

For I will spread My terror: Each nation in the roll call spread its own terror in the land of the living. The LORD now claims terror as His, the Judge of the living who also governs the grave. The oracles against the nations end here.