Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 30

Verse 1

CHAPTER XXX

This chapter describes, with great force and elegance, the ruin

of Egypt and all her allies by the Chaldeans under

Nebuchadnezzar, 1-11;

with an amplification of the distress of the principal cities

of Egypt on that occasion, 12-19.

The remaining verses are a short prophecy relating to the same

event, and therefore annexed to the longer one preceding,

although this was predicted sooner, 20-26.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXX

Verse 2

Verse Ezekiel 30:2. Howl ye, Wo worth the day! — My Old MS. Bible, - Soule gee, woo woo to the day! הילילו הה ליום heylilu, hah laiyom! "Howl ye, Alas for the day!" The reading in our present text is taken from Coverdale's Bible, 1535. The expressions signify that a most dreadful calamity was about to fall on Egypt and the neighbouring countries, called here the "time of the heathen," or of the nations; the day of calamity to them. They are afterwards specified, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, and Chub, and the mingled people, probably persons from different nations, who had followed the ill fortune of Pharaoh-hophra or Pharaoh-apries, when he fled from Amasis, and settled in Upper Egypt.

Verse 5

Verse Ezekiel 30:5. Lydia — This place is not well known. The Ludim were contiguous to Egypt, Genesis 10:13.

Chub — The Cubians, placed by Ptolemy in the Mareotis. But probably instead of וכוב vechub, "and Chub," we should read וכל vechol, "and ALL the men of the land," &c. The Septuagint adds "the Persians and the Cretans."

Verse 7

Verse Ezekiel 30:7. Shall be desolate — All these countries shall be desolated, and the places named shall be chief in these desolations.

Verse 9

Verse Ezekiel 30:9. Messengers go forth from me in ships — Ships can ascend the Nile up to Syene or Essuan, by the cataracts; and when Nebuchadnezzar's vessels went up, they struck terror into the Ethiopians. They are represented here as the "messengers of God."

Verse 12

Verse Ezekiel 30:12. I will make the rivers dry — As the overflowing of the Nile was the grand cause of fertility to Egypt, the drying it up, or preventing that annual inundation, must be the cause of dearth, famine, &c. By rivers, we may understand the various canals cut from the Nile to carry water into the different parts of the land. When the Nile did not rise to its usual height these canals were quite dry.

Verse 13

Verse Ezekiel 30:13. Their images to cease out of Noph — Afterwards Memphis, and now Cairo or Kahira. This was the seat of Egyptian idolatry; the place where Apis was particularly worshipped.

No more a prince of the land of Egypt — Not one, from that time to the present day. Ezekiel 29:14.

Verse 14

Verse Ezekiel 30:14. I will make Pathros desolate — See the preceding chapter, Ezekiel 29:14.

Zoan — Tanis, the ancient capital of Egypt.

No. — Diospolis, or Thebes, the city of Jupiter.

Verse 15

Verse Ezekiel 30:15. My fury upon Sin — Pelusium, a strong city of Egypt, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Verse 16

Verse Ezekiel 30:16. Noph — Cairo or Kahira; see Ezekiel 30:13.

Verse 17

Verse Ezekiel 30:17. Aven — Or On, the famous Heliopolis, or city of the sun.

Pibeseth — Bubastum or Bubaste, by a slight alteration of the letters. It is situated on the eastern branch of the Nile, towards Arabia.

Verse 18

Verse Ezekiel 30:18. Tehaphnehes — Called also Tahapanes, Jeremiah 2:16. This is the Pelusian Daphne.

Break there the yokes — The sceptres. Nebuchadnezzar broke the sceptre of Egypt when he confirmed the kingdom to Amasis, who had rebelled against Apries.

Verse 20

Verse Ezekiel 30:20. In the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day — This was the eleventh year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and the date here answers to April 26, A.M. 3416; a prophecy anterior by several years to that already delivered. In collecting the writings of Ezekiel, more care was taken to put all that related to one subject together, than to attend to chronological arrangement.

Verse 21

Verse Ezekiel 30:21. I have broken the arm of Pharaoh — Perhaps this may refer to his defeat by Nebuchadnezzar, when he was coming with the Egyptian army to succour Jerusalem.

Verse 22

Verse Ezekiel 30:22. I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. — When the arm is broken, the sword will naturally fall. But these expressions show that the Egyptians would be rendered wholly useless to Zedekiah, and should never more recover their political strength. This was the case from the time of the rebellion of Amasis.

Verse 26

Verse Ezekiel 30:26. I will scatter the Egyptians — Several fled with Apries to Upper Egypt; and when Nebuchadnezzar wasted the country, he carried many of them to Babylon. See on Ezekiel 29:12.