Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 29

Verses 1-21

Ezekiel then uttered the doom of one. Egypt had been the principal foe of the people of God, and against her were uttered seven prophecies, which are placed here in an order of purpose rather than in the order of delivery. Again the prophet constantly insisted that the purpose of judgment was to make Jehovah known.

The first prophecy was against Pharaoh and all Egypt. The sin of Pharaoh was inclusively and poetically described pride, which claimed the river as his own creation. This description included the thought of Pharaoh as a great fish living in the river, and at once the folly of his claim is manifest. Ezekiel then foretold Pharaoh's doom. This monster would be taken from his river, and cast on the land, where his flesh would become meat for the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the heaven. In this day of humiliation Egypt would know the folly of Israel when leaning on her for strength. Ezekiel then proceeded to describe the judgment as the coming of a sword on the land of Egypt, and the scattering of its people among the nations. After forty days he declared that Jehovah would gather them again, and in their own land make them a degraded people, no more to rule over the nations.

The second prophecy was brief, foretelling that the instrument of judgment would be Nebuchadnezzar, and that the capture of Egypt would be his wage for the defeat of Tyre.