Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 29:14

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ezekiel 29:14. Into the land of Pathros — Supposed to mean the Delta, a country included between the branches of the Nile, called Δ delta, from its being in the form of the Greek letter of that name. It may mean the Pathrusim, in Upper Egypt, near to the Thebaid. This is most likely.

Shall be there a base kingdom. — That is, it shall continue to be tributary. It is upwards of two thousand years since this prophecy was delivered, and it has been uninterruptedly fulfilling to the present hour.

1. Egypt became tributary to the Babylonians, under Amasis.

2. After the ruin of the Babyionish empire, it became subject to the Persians.

3. After the Persians, it came into the hands of the Macedonians.

4. After the Macedonians it fell into the hands of the Romans.

5. After the division of the Roman empire it was subdued by the Saracens.

6. About A.D. 1250, it came into the hands of the Mameluke slaves.

7. Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, conquered the Mamelukes, A.D. 1517, and annexed Egypt to the Ottoman empire, of which it still continues to be a province, governed by a pacha and twenty-four beys, who are always advanced from servitude to the administration of public affairs. So true is it that Egypt, once so glorious, is the basest of kingdoms. See Newton on the prophecies.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Judgment on Egypt (29:1-16)

At the time Ezekiel delivered this prophecy against Egypt, Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonian armies (29:1; see 2 Kings 25:1-2). The Judean king Zedekiah depended upon Egyptian aid in rebelling against Babylon, but Ezekiel knows that to depend on Egypt is to invite defeat. By his condemnation of Egypt in this message, he shows how unacceptable any Judean-Egyptian alliance is in God’s sight (2; cf. 17:15-18; Jeremiah 37:6-10).

In this very pictorial prophecy, Egypt is likened to the mythical monster who thought he owned the Nile. God says he will catch this monster, drag it out of the river and leave it to lie in the fields, where it will become food for foul birds and animals. Egypt will fall to foreign powers (3-5).

Ezekiel then gives another illustration. Judah at times had depended on Egypt for help, as a cripple depends on a walking stick. Egypt, however, proved to be not a walking stick but a reed, which broke and brought injury to the person who depended on it. For its treachery to Judah, Egypt will be punished (6-9a; cf. Isaiah 36:6). For its pride also it will be punished, and its land will be left desolate (9b-12). Although God will later restore Egypt, it will never regain its former power (13-16).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: at the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered; and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and I will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah."

RESTORATION OF EGYPT AFTER FORTY YEARS

There is not a more remarkable prophecy in all the Word of God than this one.

"It (Egypt) shall be the basest of the kingdoms" Egypt throughout all subsequent history has continued to remain a nation of secondary strength and importance. Babylon dominated her; then Persia dominated her; then the Greeks under Alexander the Great were her masters; after them came the Seleucids, and still later the Romans! What a remarkable fulfillment of the words of this prophecy. Even modern times have revealed no change whatever in the continued secondary status of Egypt, that once-great nation which preceded Assyria, Babylon, and other great world powers as the monolithic terror of the whole world, and for a long period rivaled her successors as a world power.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Pathros - The Thebaid or Upper Egypt, the original seat of the kingdom.

The land of their habitation - Rather, as margin, i. e., the home of the restored exiles.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 29

Now as we get into chapter 29:

In the tenth year ( Ezekiel 29:1 ),

That would be the year 587 B.C.

And in the tenth month, the twelfth day of the month ( Ezekiel 29:1 ),

This prophecy came to Ezekiel concerning the Pharaoh who was the king of Egypt, who was Pharaoh Haaibre.

And it came against him, and against all of Egypt: [And He said,] Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself ( Ezekiel 29:2-3 ).

Glorying in the great Nile and its tributaries.

But I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of the rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel ( Ezekiel 29:4-6 ).

Now, Israel leaned upon Egypt for help. It wasn't right that they do so; God wanted them to lean upon Him. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah said, "If you lean upon Egypt, it'll be like a broken reed and it'll pierce your hand." Now a reed is not a strong staff at all. A reed may look strong, but it's very fibrous and it has no strength at all. Though it looks like you could really lean upon it, you go to lean upon a reed and the thing will just bend and you can just pierce through your hand with the thing if you really are leaning hard upon a reed, you're trusting in something that just can't hold you up. It'll bend; it'll break and you'll fall.

Now, Egypt was likened unto a reed upon the people of God leaned. And Pharaoh Haaibre did come up with the Egyptian forces. And he caused Nebuchadnezzar to pull back from his sieging of Jerusalem for a while. But then the Pharaoh Haaibre returned to Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar continued his siege and destroyed Jerusalem. So because Pharaoh Haaibre was not really a help to Judah, God speaks against him. "You have been like a staff of reed to the house of Israel."

When they took hold of thee by thy hand, you did break, and you tore all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, you broke, and you made their loins to be at a stand. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee. And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it ( Ezekiel 29:7-9 ).

Again, as Nebuchadnezzar said, "This great Babylon is mine, I have made it." And the watchers in heaven said, "Oh, we'll put you down for that one." And he went insane for a period of time. We'll get that in a few weeks when we get to Daniel. Fascinating story.

Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast for a period of forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will gather the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered: And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which brings their iniquity to remembrance. And it came to pass in the seventh and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me saying, Son of man ( Ezekiel 29:10-18 ),

Now, there are those Bible critics who say, "Well, this did not happen during the time of Pharaoh Haaibre, that Nebuchadnezzar did not conquer Egypt during the time of his reign." It is interesting that they have skipped this particular reference in verse Ezekiel 29:17 . He doesn't say that Nebuchadnezzar conquered the Pharaoh Haaibre and conquered Egypt during the time of his reign. But this came in the twenty-seventh year; the previous prophecy came in the tenth year. So the latter part of this chapter came seventeen years later, after the death of Pharaoh Haaibre.

Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it ( Ezekiel 29:18 ):

Now God is saying, "Look, Nebuchadnezzar was My servant. He destroyed Tyrus but he didn't get paid." By the time he conquered the city, there was no spoil. So neither he nor his army got their pay for the job that they did for Me in the destruction of Tyrus. Therefore they will go down and they will conquer Egypt and there they will get their wages as they take the great wealth of Egypt unto themselves. And so the spoil of Egypt was to be the pay that God gave to Nebuchadnezzar and his troops for the lack of pay in the destruction of Tyrus. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. An introductory prophecy of judgment on Egypt 29:1-16

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

At the end of 40 years, the Lord promised to gather the Egyptians back to their original land, the land of Pathros, Upper (southern) Egypt, from the countries where they had fled (cf. Isaiah 11:11). There the Egyptians would become a lowly kingdom in contrast to the great kingdom that they had been in former centuries (cf. Daniel 11:36-45). Forty years after Egypt fell to the Babylonians, the Persians, who had by that time defeated the Babylonians, allowed the Egyptians to return to their homeland. This was the foreign policy of the Persians under which the Israelites were also able to return to their land. No extrabiblical evidence has yet come to light to substantiate this forty-year captivity of Egypt, but that is not unusual since it was rare for ancient Near Eastern rulers to admit defeats much less document them for future generations. Chisholm suggested that the prophecy may not have been fulfilled as prophesied here because the Egyptians repented. [Note: Chisholm, Handbook on . . ., pp. 272-73.] We have no evidence of such repentance, but it could have happened.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt,.... For what is done by men, under the direction and influence of divine Providence, is said to be done by the Lord, as this was, though by the means of Cyrus:

and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros; which was a part of the land of Egypt; perhaps so called from Pathrusim, the son of Mizraim, from whom Egypt had its name, Genesis 10:14. Bochart takes it to be Thebais, a principal country in Egypt:

into the land of their habitation; or nativity, where they were born, and where they before dwelt:

and they shall be there a base kingdom; as it is at this day more especially, to which it has been gradually reduced, having passed into various hands, and come under the power and dominion of different states: whatever might be the case and circumstances of it under Cyrus, Cambyses his son entered into it, made sad devastation in it, and an entire conquest of it; and though it revolted under Darius Hystaspes, it was subdued again, and brought into a worse state than before by Xerxes: it revolted again in the reign of Darius Nothus, and was at last by Ochus totally subdued; and from that time the Egyptians never had a king of their own nation to reign over them. Along with the Persian empire it came into the hands of Alexander without any opposition; and, after his death, fell to the share of Ptolemy, one of his captains; and, though some of the first kings of that name were of considerable note and power, yet Egypt made a poor figure under the reigns of several of them. When the Roman empire obtained, it became a province of that, and continued so for six or seven hundred years; and then it fell into the hands of the Saracens, when it sunk into ignorance and superstition, the Mahometan religion being established in it, with whom it continued until about the year of Christ 1250; when the Mamalucks, or Turkish and Carcassian slaves, rose up against their sovereigns, the sultans of Egypt, and usurped the government, in whose hands it was until the year 1517; when Selim the ninth, emperor of the Turks, conquered the Mamalucks, and put an end to their government, and annexed it to the Ottoman empire; of which it is a province to this day x, being governed by a Turkish basha, with twenty four begs or princes under him, who are raised, from being servants, to the administration of public affairs; and so it is become a base kingdom indeed, if to be called one y.

x Written about 1730. Editor. y See all this at large, with the proofs of it, in Dr. Newton's Dissertations on Prophecies, from p. 382. to 394.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.   9 And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.   10 Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.   11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.   12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.   13 Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered:   14 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.   15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.   16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

      This explains the foregoing prediction, which was figurative, and looks something further. Here is a prophecy,

      I. Of the ruin of Egypt. The threatening of this is very full and particular; and the sin for which this ruin shall be brought upon them is their pride, Ezekiel 29:9; Ezekiel 29:9. They said, The river is mine and I have made it; therefore their land shall spue them out. 1. God is against them, both against the king and against the people, against thee and against thy rivers. Waters signify people and multitudes,Revelation 17:15. 2. Multitudes of them shall be cut off by the sword of war, a sword which God will bring upon them to destroy both man and beast, the sword of civil war. 3. The country shall be depopulated. The land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste (Ezekiel 29:9; Ezekiel 29:9), the country not cultivated, the cities not inhabited. The wealth of both was their pride, and that God will take away. It shall be utterly waste (wastes of waste, so the margin reads it), and desolate (Ezekiel 29:10; Ezekiel 29:10); neither men nor beasts shall pass through it, nor shall it be inhabited (Ezekiel 29:11; Ezekiel 29:11); it shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are so,Ezekiel 29:12; Ezekiel 29:12. This was the effect not so much of those wars spoken of before, which were made by them, but of the war which the king of Babylon made upon them. It shall be desolate from one end of the land to the other, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. The sin of pride is enough to ruin a whole nation. 4. The people shall be dispersed and scattered among the nations (Ezekiel 29:12; Ezekiel 29:12), so that those who thought the balance of power was in their hand should now become a contemptible people. Such a fall does a haughty spirit go before.

      II. Of the restoration of Egypt after awhile, Ezekiel 29:13; Ezekiel 29:13. Egypt shall lie desolate forty years (Ezekiel 29:12; Ezekiel 29:12) and then I will bring again the captivity of Egypt,Ezekiel 29:14; 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. That God will gather the Egyptians out of all the countries into which they were dispersed, and make them to return to the land of their habitation, and give them a settlement there again, Ezekiel 29:14; Ezekiel 29:14. Note, Though God will find out a way to humble the proud, yet he will not contend for ever, no, not with them in this world. 2. That yet they shall not make a figure again as they have done. Egypt shall be a kingdom again, but it shall be the basest of the kingdoms (Ezekiel 29:15; Ezekiel 29:15); it shall have but little wealth and power, and shall not extend its conquests as formerly; it shall be the tail of the nations, and not the head. It is a mercy that it shall become a kingdom again, but, to humble it, it shall be a despicable kingdom; it shall be a long time before it recover any thing like its ancient lustre. For two reasons it shall be thus mortified:-- (1.) That it may not domineer over its neighbours, that it may not exalt itself above the nations, nor rule over the nations, as it has done, but that it may know what it is to be low and despised. Note, Those who abuse their power will justly be stripped of it; and God, as King of nations, will find out a way to maintain the injured rights and liberties, not only of his own, but of other nations. (2.) That it may not deceive the people of God (Ezekiel 29:16; Ezekiel 29:16): It shall no more be the confidence of the house of Israel; they shall no more be in temptation to trust in it as they have done, which is a sin that brings their iniquity to remembrance, that is, provokes God to punish them not for that only, but for all their other sins. Or it puts them in mind of their idolatries to return to them, when they look to the idolaters, to repose a confidence in them. Note, The creatures we confide in are often therefore ruined, because there is no other way effectually to cure us of our confidence in them. Rather than Israel shall be ensnared again, the whole land of Egypt shall be laid waste. He that once gave Egypt for their ransom (Isaiah 43:3) will now give Egypt for their cure; and it shall be destroyed rather than Israel shall not in this particular be reformed. God, not only in justice, but in wisdom and goodness to us, breaks those creature-stays which we lean too much upon, and makes them to be no more, that they may be no more our confidence.