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Ezekiel 32:14

in Ezekiel 32

Then I will let her waters settle and will make her rivers flow like oil,’ declares the Lord GOD.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah.

KJV

Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord God.

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This verse in Ezekiel 32

Commentary

8 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Cause their rivers to run like oil - Bring the whole state into quietness, there being no longer a political hippopotamus to foul the waters - to disturb the peace of the country.

This site's exposition

The sword of the king of Babylon

on 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.

This site's exposition

make her rivers flow like oil

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).

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Chapter XXXII, verse 1 and following) And it was in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month (or tenth), on one day (the Vulgate is silent on the day) of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: You are like a lion among the nations, and like a dragon in the sea; you stirred up your horns in your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and trampled their (or your) rivers.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), a figurative expression signifying that there should be such universal sadness and heaviness upon the whole nation that even the rivers should go softly and silently like mourners, and quite forget their rapid motion. Fifthly, The whole country of Egypt shall be stripped of its wealth; it shall be destitute of what whereof it was full (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

Then will l make their waters deep,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

make their waters deep--rather, "make . . . to subside"; literally, "sink" [FAIRBAIRN]. like oil--emblem of quietness. No longer shall they descend violently on other countries as the overflowing Nile, but shall be still and sluggish in political action.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A promise of a return of God’s favor. This concerns not the restoration of Egypt’s original power, but the establishment of the Divine Ruler in the place of a pagan God-opposing power.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

I shall sink their waters The foot of cattle will not make it murky, and the mud will sink, so that the water will be clear and clean like refined oil.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezekiel 32:14:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
from beside..waters of other countries that you used to sully.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezekiel 32:13:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

9 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אָ֚זthen

    ʾazH227 →

  • אַשְׁקִ֣יעַI will make settle

    ʾashkia'H8257 →

  • מֵֽימֵיהֶ֔םwaters their

    meimeihemH4325 →581 times

  • וְנַהֲרוֹתָ֖םand rivers their

    venaharotamH5104 →119 times

  • כַּשֶּׁ֣מֶןlike <the> oil

    kashemenH8081 →193 times

  • אוֹלִ֑יךְI will make go

    ʾolikhH1980 →1546 times

  • נְאֻ֖ם[the] utterance of

    neumH5002 →376 times

  • אֲדֹנָ֥י[the] Lord

    ʾadonaiH136 →440 times

  • יְהוִֽה׃Yahweh

    yahwehH3069 →306 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel: the study guide →Read Ezekiel 32 →
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel and Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ezekiel 32 →