Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

a new train of thought. But ver. 7 is clearly shown, both by the contents and the form, to be an explanatory intermediate clause inserted as a parenthesis. And inasmuch as the protasis is removed in consequence to some distance from its apodosis, Ezekiel has introduced the formula u thus saith the Lord Jehovah " at the commencement of the apodosis, for the purpose of giving additional emphasis to the announcement of the punishment. Ver. 7 cannot in any case be regarded as the protasis, the apodosis to which commences with the |2J in ver. 8, as Havernick maintains. The suffix attached to DH^n, to which Hitzig takes exception, because he has misunderstood the construction, and which he would conjecture away, refers to D]"]¥D as a land or kingdom. Because the kingdom of Egypt was a reed-staff to the house of Israel (a figure drawn from the physical character of the banks of the Nile, with its thick growth of tall, thick rushes, and recalling to mind Isa. xxxvi. 6), the Lord would bring the sword upon it and cut off from it both man and beast. But before this apodosis the figure of the reed-staff is more clearly defined: u when they (the Israelites) take thee by thy branches, thou breakest," etc. This explanation is not to be taken as referring to any particular facts either of the past or future, but indicates the deceptive nature of Egypt as the standing characteristic of that kingdom. At the same time, to give greater vivacity to the description, the words concerning Egypt are changed into a direct address to the Egyptians, i.e. not to Pharaoh, but to the Egyptian people regarded as a single individual. The expression "]Q33 causes some difficulty, since the ordinary meaning of *)3 (hand) is apparently unsuitable, inasmuch as the verb piri, from K¥"J, to break or crack (not to break in pieces, i.e. to break quite through), clearly shows that the figure of the reed is still continued. The Keri *133 is a bad emendation, based upon the rendering " to grasp with the hand," which is grammatically inadmissible. k'Bn with 3 does not mean to grasp with something, but to seize upon something, to take hold of a person

(Isa. iii. 6; Deut. ix. 17), so that 1DD3 can only be an explanatory apposition to ^3. The meaning grip, or grasp of the hand, is also unsuitable and cannot be sustained, as the plural niS3 alone is used in this sense in Song of Sol. v. 5. The only meaning appropriate to the figure is that of branches, which is sustained, so far as the language is concerned, by the use of the plural nis>3 for palm-branches in Lev. xxiii. 40, and of the singular HQ3 for the collection of branches in Job xv. 32, and Isa. ix. 13, xix. 15; and this is apparently in perfect harmony with natural facts, since the tali reed of the Nile, more especially the papyrus, is furnished with hollow, swordshaped leaves at the lower part of the stalk. When it cracks, the reed-staff pierces the shoulder of the man who has grasped it, and tears it; and if a man lean upon it, it breaks in pieces and causes all the loins to tremble. ^Wn cannot mean to cause to stand, or to set upright, still less to render stiff and rigid. The latter meaning cannot be established from the usage of the language, and would be unsuitable here. For if a stick on which a man leans should break and penetrate his loins, it would inflict such injury upon them as to cause him to fall, and not to remain stiff and rigid. ^Dyn cannot have any other meaning than that of ^V*?1?? to cause to tremble or relax, as in Ps. lxix. 24, to shake the firmness of the loins, so that the power to stand is impaired. — In the apodosis the thought of the land gives place to that of the people; hence the use of the feminine suffixes T.?V and:JtM? in the place of the masculine suffixes ^2 and T?y in ver. 7. Man and beast shall be cut off, and the land made into a desert waste by the sword, i.e. by war. This is carried out still further in vers. 96-12; and once again in the protasis 96 (cf. ver. 36) the inordinate pride of the king is placed -in the foreground as the reason for the devastation of his land and kingdom. The Lord will make of Egypt the most desolate wilderness. flta"in is intensified into a superlative by the double genitive n»oa* ^lfy desolation of the wilderness. Throughout its whole extent from Migdol, i.e.

Magdolo, according to the ltiner. Anton, p. 171 (ed. Wessel), twelve Roman miles from Pelusium; in the Coptic Meshtol, Egyptian Maktr (Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. I. pp. 261 seq.), the most northerly place in Egypt, nplp, to Syene (for the construction see ch. xxx. 6 and xxi. 3), Sur/vn, Sun in the inscriptions, according to Brugsch (Geogr. Inschr. I. p. 155), probably the profane designation of the place (Coptic Souan), the most southerly border town of Egypt in the direction of Cash, i.e. Ethiopia, on the eastern bank of the Nile, some ruins of which which is situated to the north-east of them (vid. Brugsch, Reiseber. aus Aegypten, p. 247, and Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia). The additional clause, u and to the border of Cush," does not give a fresh terminal point, still further advanced, but simply defines with still greater clearness the boundary toward the south, viz. to Syene, where Egypt terminates and Ethiopia begins. In ver. 11a the desolation is more fully depicted. 2K7) fc6, it will not dwell, poetical for "be inhabited," as in Joel iv. (in.) 20, Isa. xiii. 20, etc. This devastation shall last for forty years, and so long shall the people of Egypt be scattered among the nations. But after the expiration of that time they shall be gathered together again (ver. 13). The number forty is neither a round number (Hitzig) nor a very long time (Ewald), but is a symbolical term denoting a period appointed by God for punishment and penitence (see the comm. on ch. iv. 6), which is not to be understood in a chronological sense, or capable of being calculated.

Vers. 13-16. Restoration of Egypt. — Ver. 13. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians out of the nations, whither they were scattered. Ver. 14. And I luill turn the captivity of Egypt, and will bring them back into the land of Pathros, into the land of their origin, and they shall be a lowly kingdom there. Ver. 15. Lowlier than the kinadoms shall it be, and exalt itself no more over the nations; and I will make them small, so that they shall rule no more over the nations. Ver. 16. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance when they incline towards it; and they shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. — The turning of the period of Egypt's punishment is connected by *3, which refers to the time indicated, viz. " forty years." For forty years shall Egypt be utterly laid waste; for after the expiration of that period the Lord will gather the Egyptians again from their dispersion among the nations, turn their captivity, i.e. put an end to their suffering (see the comm. on ch. xvi. 53), and lead them back into the land of their birth, i.e. of their origin (for "TJOD, see ch. xvi. 3), namely, to Pathros. Diins^ the Egyptian Petores (Tladovprj^j LXX. Jer. xliv. 1), or south land, i.e. Upper Egypt, the Thebais of the Greeks and Romans* The designation of Upper Egypt as the mother country of the Egyptians, or the land of their nativity, is confirmed not only by the accounts given by Herodotus (ii. 4 and 15) and Diodorus Sic. (i. 50), but also by the Egyptian mythology, according to which the first king who reigned after the gods, viz. Menes or Mena, sprang from the city of Thinis (Thynis), Egypt. Tenj9 in the neighbourhood of Abydos in Upper Egypt, and founded the city of Memphis in Lower Egypt, which became so celebrated in later times (yid. Brugsch, Histoire d'Egypte, I. p. 16). But Egypt shall not attain to its former power any more. It will be and continue a lowly kingdom, that it may not again.become a ground of confidence to Israel, a power upon which Israel can rely, so as to fall into guilt and punishment. The subject to nVYj &oi is Egypt as a nation, notwithstanding the fact that it has previously been construed in the feminine as a land or kingdom, and in Bnnnx the Egyptians are spoken of in the plural number. For it is out of the question to take jty ">^TD as the subject to nJ'T **' in the sense of " no more shall one who calls guilt to remembrance inspire the house of Israel with confidence," as Kliefoth proposes, not only because of the arrangement of the words, but because the more precise definition of jty T3TD as 'nK Drtoll clearly shows that Egypt is the subject of the sentence; whereas, in order to connect this definition in any way, Kliefoth is compelled to resort to the interpolation of the words, " which it committed." ]ty ^38? is in apposition to ntpaip; making Egypt the ground of confidence, brings into remembrance before God the guilt of Israel, which consists in the fact that the Israelites turn to the Egyptians and seek salvation from them, so that He is obliged to punish them (yid, ch. xxi. 28, 29). — The truth of the prediction in vers. 13-16 has been confirmed by history, inasmuch as Egypt never recovered its former power after the Chaldean period. — Moreover, if we compare the Messianic promise for Egypt in Isa. xix. 18-25 with the prediction in vers. 13-15, we are struck at once with the peculiarity of Ezekiel, already referred to in the introductory remarks on ch. xxv.-xxxii., namely, that he leaves entirely out of sight the Messianic future of the heathen nations.

made his army perform hard work at Tyre: every head is bald, and every shoulder grazed, and no wages have been given to him and to his army from Tyre for the work which he performed against it. Ver. 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, of his army. Ver. 20, As the pay for which he worked, I give him the land of Egypt, because they did it for me, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ver. 21. In that day will I cause a horn to sprout to the house of Israel, and I will open the mouth for thee in the midst of tliem; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. —

This brief prophecy concerning Egypt was uttered about seventeen years after the preceding word of God, and was the latest of all the predictions of Ezekiel that are supplied with dates. But notwithstanding its brevity, it is not to be taken in connection with the utterance which follows in ch. xxx. 1-19 so as to form one prophecy, as Ilitzig supposes. This is at variance not only with the formula in ch. xxx. 1, which is the usual introduction to a new word of God, but also with ver. 21 of the present chapter, which is obviously intended to bring the previous word of God to a close. This termination, which is analogous to the closing words of the prophecies against Tyre and Sidon in ch. xxviii. 25, 20, also shows that the present word of God contains the last of Ezekiel's prophecies against the Egyptian world-power, and that the only reason why the prophet did not place it at the end when collecting his prophecies— that is to say, after ch. xxxii. — was, that the promise in ver. 30, that the Lord would cause a horn to bud to the house of Israel, contained the correlate to the declaration that Egypt was henceforth to be but a lowly kingdom. Moreover, this threat of judgment, which is as brief as it is definite, was well fitted to prepare the way and to serve as an introduction for the more elaborate threats which follow. The contents of the prophecy, namely, the assurance that God would give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as spoil in return for the hard labour which he and his army had performed at Tyre, point to the time immediately following the termination of the thirteen years' siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. If we compare with this the date given in ver. 17, the siege was brought to a close in the twenty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, Le, B.C. 572, and must therefore have commenced in the year B.C. 586, or about two years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and with this the extract given by Josephus (c. Ap. i. 21) from the Tyrian annals agrees.1 mhy T2.yn to cause a work to be

1 For the purpose of furnishing the proof that the temple at Jerusalem lay in ruins for fifty years, from the time of its destruction till the com- executed, or service to be rendered. This labour was so severe, that every head was bald and every shoulder grazed. These words have been correctly interpreted by the commentators, even by Ewald, as referring to the heavy burdens that had to be carried in order to fill up the strait which separated Insular Tyre from the mainland. They confirm what we have said above, in the remarks on ch. xxvi. 10 and elsewhere, concerning the capture of Tyre. But neither he nor his army had received any recompense for their severe toil. This does not imply that Nebuchadnezzar had been unable to accomplish the work which he had undertaken, i.e. to execute his design and conquer the city, but simply that he had not received the recompense which he expected after this severe labour; in other words, had not found the booty he hoped for when the city was taken (see the introductory remarks on ch. xxvi.-xxviii.). To compensate him for this, the Lord will give him the land of Egypt with its possessions as booty, njbn $&})> that he may carry off the abundance of its possessions, its wealth; not that he may lead away the multitude of its people (De Wette, Kliefoth, etc.), for " NKO is not the appropriate expression for this" (Hitzig). pon, abundance of possessions, as in Isa. lx. 5, Ps. xxxvii. 16, etc. n^^, the doing of a thing; then that which is gained by working, the recompense for labour, as in Lev. xix. 13 and other passages, y WV "1KW is taken by Hitzig as referring to the Egyptians, and rendered, " in consequence of that which they have done to me." But although "1BW may be taken in this sense (vid. Isa. lxv. 18), the arguments employed by Hitzig in mencement of its rebuilding, Josephus gives in the passage referred to above the years of the several reigns of the kings and judges of Tyre from Ithobal to Hirom, in whose reign Cyrus took the kingdom; from which it is apparent that fifty years elapsed from the commencement of the siege of Tyre to the fourteenth year of Hirom, in which Cyrus began to reign. At the same time, the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar is given by mistake instead of the seventeenth or nineteenth as the date of the beginning of the siege. (Compare on this point Movers, Phonizier, II. 1, pp. 437 sqq.; M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Assurs u. Bab. pp. 106 sqq.; and M. Duncker, Gesch. des Alter t. I. p. 811.)

opposition to the ordinary rendering — "for they (Nebuchadnezzar and his army) have done it for me," i.e. have performed their hard work at Tyre for me and by my commission — have no force whatever. This use of y i"CT is thoroughly established by Gen. xxx. 30; and the objection which he raises, namely, that "the assertion that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre in the service of Jehovah could only have been properly made by Ezekiel in the event of the city having been really conquered," is out of place, for this simple reason, that the assumption that the city was not taken is a mere conjecture; and even if the conjecture could be sustained, the siege itself might still be a work undertaken in the service of Jehovah. And the principal argument, namely, " that we should necessarily expect nb'y (instead of ^V), inasmuch as with WW every Hebrew reader would inevitably take "1P8 as referring to B^VP," is altogether wide of the mark; for ^")>7p does not signify the Egyptians in this passage, but the land of Egypt alone is spoken of both in the verse before us and throughout the oracle, and for this W is quite unsuitable, whereas the context suggests in the most natural way the allusion to Nebuchadnezzar and his army. But what is absolutely decisive is the circumstance that the thought itself, " in consequence of what the Egyptians have done to me," i.e. what evil they have done, is foreign to, if not at variance with, all the prophecies of Ezekiel concerning Egypt. For the guilt of Egypt and its Pharaoh mentioned by Ezekiel is not any crime against Jehovah, but simply Pharaoh's deification of himself, and the treacherous nature of the help which Egypt afforded to Israel. njrpp = v nb>y is not the appropriate expression for this, in support of which assertion we might point to v WV in ch. xxiii. 38. — Ver. 21. On that day, namely, when the judgment upon Egypt is executed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord will cause a horn to sprout or grow to the house (people) of Israel. The horn is a symbol of might and strength, by which the attacks of foreigners are warded off. By the overthrow of Judah the horn of Israel was cut off (Lam. ii. 3;

compare also Jer. xlviii. 25). In Hi?!ffl? the promise coincides, so far as the words are concerned, with Ps. cxxxii. 17; but it also points back to the prophetic words of the godly Hannah in 1 Sam. ii. 1, u My horn is exalted in Jehovah, my mouth hath opened itself wide over my enemies," and is Messianic in the broader sense of the word. The horn which the Lord will cause to sprout to the people of Israel is neither Zerubbabel nor the Messiah, but the Messianic salvation. The reason for connecting this promise of salvation for Israel with the overthrow of the power of Egypt, as Havernick has observed, is that u Egypt presented itself to the prophet as the power in which the idea of heathenism was embodied and circumscribed." In the might of Egypt the world-power is shattered, and the overthrow of the world-power is the dawn of the unfolding of the might of the kingdom of God. Then also will the Lord give to His prophet an opening of the mouth in the midst of Israel. These words are unquestionably connected with the promise of God in ch. xxiv. 26, 27, that after the fall of Jerusalem the mouth of Ezekiel should be opened, and also with the fulfilment of that promise in ch. xxxiii. 22; but they have a much more comprehensive meaning, namely, that with the dawn of salvation in Israel, i.e. in the church of the Lord, the word of prophecy would sound forth in the richest measure, inasmuch as, according to Joel (ch. ii.), a universal outpouring of the Spirit of God would then take place. In this light Theodoret is correct in his remark, that " through Ezekiel He signified the whole band of prophets." But Kliefoth has quite mistaken the meaning of the words when he discovers in them the thought that " God would then give the prophet a new word of God concerning both Egypt and Israel, and that this is contained in the oracle in ch. xxx. 1-19." Such a view as this is proved at once to be false, apart from other grounds, by the expression D3iro (in the midst of them), which cannot be taken as applying to Egypt and Israel, but can only refer to 1V3 7*ob\ the house of Israel.

Commencing with a call to lamentation, the prophet announces that the Lord's day of judgment upon the nations is near at hand, and will burst upon Egypt, and the nations in alliance with it (vers. 2-5). He then depicts in three strophes, with the introductory words s> 10K nb} the execution of this judgment, namely: (a) the destruction of the might of Egypt and the devastation of the land (vers. 6-9); (b) the enemy by whom the judgment will be accomplished (vers. 10-12); and (c) the extermination of the idols of Egypt, the conquest and demolition of its fortresses, the slaughter of its male population, and the captivity of the daughters of the land (vers. 13-19).

The heading does not contain any chronological information; and the contents furnish no definite criteria for determining with precision the date of the prophecy. Jerome assigns this oracle to the same period as the prophecy in ch. xxix. 1-16, whilst others connect it more closely with ch. xxix. 17-21, and regard it as the latest of all Ezekiel's prophecies. The latter is the conclusion adopted by Rosenmuller, Havernick, Hitzig, Kliefoth, and some others. The principal argument adduced for linking it on to ch. xxix. 1 7 sqq. is, that in ver. 3 the day of judgment upon Egypt is threatened as near at hand, and this did not apply to the tenth year (ch. xxix. 1), though it was perfectly applicable to the twenty-seventh (ch. xxix. 17), when the siege of Tyre was ended, and Nebuchadnezzar was on the point of attacking Egypt. But the expression, " the day of the Lord is near at hand," is so relative a chronological phrase, that nothing definite can be gathered from it as to the date at which an oracle was composed. Nor does the fact that our prophecy stands after the prophecy in ch. xxix. 17-21, which is furnished with a date, prove anything; for the other prophecies which follow, and are furnished with dates, all belong to a much earlier period. It is very evident from this that ch. xxix. 17-21 is inserted without regard to chronological sequence, and consequently ch. xxx. 1-19 may just as well belong to the period between the tenth month of the% tenth year (ch. xxix. 1) and the first month of the eleventh year (ch. xxx. 20), as to the twenty-seventh year (ch. xxix. 17), since all the reasons assigned for the closer connection of our prophecy with the one immediately preceding (ch. xxix. 17—21), which is supposed to indicate similarity of date, are invalid; whilst, on the other hand, the resemblance of vers. 6 and 17 to ch. xxix. 10 and 12 is not sufficient to warrant the assumption of a contemporaneous origin.

Vers. 1-5. Announcement of the judgment upon Egypt and its allies. — Ver. 1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ver. 2. Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Howl ye! Woe to the day! Ver. 3. For the day is near, the day of Jehovah near, a day of cloud, the time of the heathen will it be, Ver. 4. And the sword will come upon Egypt, and there will be pangs in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt, and they take her possessions, and her foundations are destroyed, Ver. 5. Ethiopians and Libyans and Lydians, and all the rabble, and Chub, and the sons of the covenant land, will fall by the sword with them, — In the announcement of the judgment in vers. 2b and 3, Ezekiel rests upon Joel i. 13, 15, and ii. 2, where the designation. already applied to the judgment upon the heathen world by Obadiah, viz. " the day of Jehovah " (Obad. ver. 15), is followed by such a picture of the nearness and terrible nature of that day, that even Isaiah (Isa. xiii. 6, 9) and Zephaniah (Zeph. i. 7, 14) appropriate the words of Joel. Ezekiel also does the same, with this exception, that he uses nn instead of nnK, and adds to the force of the expression by the repetition of DV 3Hj5. In ver. 2>b, the words from \VS DV to rViT are not to be taken together as forming one sentence, u a day of cloud will the time of* the nations be " (De Wette), because the idea of a u time of the nations" has not been mentioned before, so as to prepare the way for a description of its real nature here. Ijy Di1 and D*ia nj; contain two co-ordinate affirmations concerning the day of Jehovah. It will be a day of cloud, i.e. of great calamity (as in Joel ii. 2), and a time of the heathen, i.e* when heathen (D^2 without the article) are judged, when their might is to be shattered (cf. Isa. xiii. 22). This day is coming upon Egypt, which is to succumb to the sword. Ethiopia will be so terrified at this, that it will writhe convulsively with anguish (n?r6n, as m Nah. ii. 11 and Isa. xxi. 3). nfo?. ni?^ signifies the plundering and removal of the possessions of the land, like njbn kpj in ch. xxix. 19. The subject to *np? is indefinite, u they," i.e. the enemy. The foundations of Egypt, which are to be destroyed, are not the foundations of its buildings, but may be understood in a figurative sense as relating to persons, after the analogy of Isa. xix. 10; but the notion that Cush, Phut, etc. (ver. 9), i.e. the mercenary troops obtained from those places, which are called the props of Egypt in ver. 6, are intended, as Hitzig assumes, is not only extremely improbable, but decidedly erroneous. The announcement in ver. 6, that Cush, Phut, etc., are to fall by the sword along with the Egyptians (BAN), is sufficient of itself to show that these tribes, even if they were auxiliaries or mercenaries of Egypt, did not constitute the foundations of the Egyptian state and kingdom; but that, on the contrary, Egypt possessed a military force composed of native troops, which was simply strengthened by auxiliaries and allies. We there interpret WflW, after the analogy of Ps. xi. 3 and lxxxii. 5, as referring to the real foundations of the state, the regulations and institutions on which the stability and prosperity of the kingdom rest. The neighbouring, friendly, and allied peoples will also be smitten by the judgment together wTith the Egyptians. Cush, i.e. the Ethiopians, Phut and Lud, i.e. the Libyans and African Lydians (see the comm. on ch. xxvii. 10), are mentioned here primarily as auxiliaries of Egypt, because, according to Jer. xlvi. 9, they served in Necho's army. By SJgfrfcj, the whole of the mixed crowd (see the comm. on 1 Kings x. 15, — Travres ol iwifiLKTOi,

LXX.), we are then to understand the mercenary soldiers in the Egyptian army, which were obtained from different nations (chiefly Greeks, Ionians, and Carians, ol iwifcovpoL, as they are called by Herodotus, iii. 4, etc.). In addition to these, M {air. \ey.) is also mentioned. Hiivernick connects this name with the people of Kufa, so frequently met with on the Egyptian monuments. But, according to Wilkinson ( Manners, etc., I. 1, pp. 361 sqq.), they inhabited a portion of Asia farther north even than Palestine; and he ranks them (p. 379) among the enemies of Egypt. Hitzig therefore imagines that Kufa is probably to be found in Kohistan, a district of Media, from which, however, the Egyptians can hardly have obtained mercenary troops. And so long as nothing certain can be gathered from the advancing Egyptological researches with regard to the name Cub, the conjecture that M is a mis-spelling for yb is not to be absolutely set aside, the more especially as this conjecture is naturally suggested by the D*av of Nah. iii. 9 and 2 Chron. xvi. 8, and the form yb by the side of &yb is analogous to "n? by the side of wyb in Jer. xlvi. 9, whilst the Liby-Aegyptii of the ancients, who are to be understood by the term D*av (see the comm. on Gen. x. 13), would be quite in keeping here. On the other hand, the conjecture offered by Gesenius (Thes. p. 664), viz. aw, Nubia, has but a very weak support in the Arabic translator; and the supposition that yb may have been the earlier Hebrew form for Nubia (Hitzig), is destitute of any solid foundation. Maurer suggests Cob, a city (inunicipium) of Mauretania, in the Itiner. Anton, p. 17, ed. Wessel. — The following expression, "sons of the covenant land," is also obscure. Hitzig has correctly observed, that it cannot be synonymous with Dnna vJ3, their allies. But we certainly cannot admit that the covenant land (made definite by the article) is Canaan, the Holy Land (Hitzig and Kliefoth); although Jerome writes without reserve, de jiliis terrae foederis, i.e. de populo Judaeorum; and the LXX. in their translation, real Tcov viuiv t?}? hiaO^Krj^ fxov, undoubtedly thought of the

Jews, who fled to Egypt, according to Theodoret's exposition, alon^ with Jeremiah after the destruction of Jerusalem and the murder of the governor Gedaliah, for fear of the vengeance of the Chaldeans (Jer. xlii., xliii., and xliv.). For the application of the expression " land of the covenant" to the Holy Land is never met writh either in the Old or New Testament, and cannot be inferred, as Hitzig supposes, from Ps. lxxiv. 20 and Dan. xi. 28, or supported in any way from either the epithet "the land of promise" in Heb. xi. 9, or from Acts iii. 25, where Peter calls the Jews " the children of the prophets and of the covenant." We therefore agree with Schmieder in regarding JV"]3n pK as signifying a definite region, though one unknown to us, in the vicinity of Egypt, which was inhabited by a tribe that was independent of the Egyptians, yet bound to render help in time of war.

Vers. 6-9. All the supports and helpers of Egypt will fall, and the whole land with its cities wTill be laid waste. — Ver. 6. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Those who support Egypt will fall, and its proud might will sink; from Migdol to Syene will they fall by the sword therein, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ver. 7. And they will lie waste in the midst of waste lands, and its cities be in the midst of desolate cities. Ver. 8. They shall learn that I am Jehovah, when I bring fire into Egypt, and all its helpers are shattered. Ver. 9. In that day will messengers go forth from me in ships to terrify the confident Ethiopia, and there will be writhing among them as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it cometh. — " Those who support Egypt " are not the auxiliary tribes and allies, for they are included in the term H'HT'y in ver. 8, but the idols and princes (ver. 13), the fortified cities (ver. 15), and the warriors (ver. 17), who formed the foundation of the might of the kingdom. TO pN3, " the pride of its might," which is an expression applied in ch. xxiv. 21 to the temple at Jerusalem, is to be taken here in a general sense, and understood not merely of the temples and idols of Egypt, but as the sum total of all the things on which the Egyptians rested the might of their kingdom, and on the ground of which they regarded it as indestructible. For 'tJI?^3©D, see the comm. on ch. xxix. 10. The subject to PQ 6fm is the rTM3 *Xp. Yer. 7 is almost a literal repetition of ch. xxix. 12; and the subject to TOBO is DJilft? regarded as a country, though the number and gender of the verb have both been regulated by the form of the noun. The fire which God will bring into Egypt (ver. 8) is the fire of war. Ver. 9. The tidings of this judgment of God will be carried by messengers to Ethiopia, and there awaken the most terrible dread of a similar fate. In the first hemistich, the prophet has Isa. xviii. 2 floating before his mind. The messengers, who carry the tidings thither, are not the warlike forces of Chaldea, who are sent thither by God; for they would not be content with performing the service of messengers alone. We have rather to think of Egyptians, who flee by ship to Ethiopia. The messengers go, ^S?B, from before Jehovah, who is regarded as being present in Egypt, while executing judgment there (cf. Isa. xix. 1). D*V, as in Num. xxiv. 24=:E)^V (Dan. xi. 30), ships, trieres, according to the Rabbins, in Hieron. Symm. on Isa. xxxiii. 21, and the Targum on Num. (cf. Ges. Thes. p. 1156). riD2 is attached to B^3, Cush secure or confident, equivalent to the confident Cush (Ewald, § 287c). 'rbn mvm, repeated from ver. 4. DH3, among the Ethiopians. '">VD DV3, as in the day of Egypt, i.e. not the present day of Egypt's punishment, for the Ethiopians have only just heard of this from the messengers; but the ancient, well-known day of judgment upon Egypt (Ex. xv. 12 sqq.). Ewald and Hitzig follow the LXX. in taking Di*3 for DV3; but this is both incorrect and unsuitable, and reduces '"WD DV3 into a tame repetition of wnn Ei83. The subject to n«3 nan is to be taken from the context, viz. that which is predicted in the preceding verses (vers. 6-8).

Vers. 10-12. The executors of the judgment. — Ver. 10. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I will put an end to the tumult of Egypt through Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

Ver. 11. He and his people with him, violent of the nations, will be brought to destroy the land; they will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with slain, Ver. 12. And J will make the rivers dry, and sell the kind into the hand of wicked men, and lay waste the land and its fulness by the hand of foreigners; 1 Jehovah have spoken it. — pon cannot be understood as signifying either the multitude of people only, or the abundance of possessions alone; for IVM*n is not really applicable to either of these meanings. They are evidently both included in the Jton, which signifies the tumult of the people in the possession and enjoyment of their property (cf. ch. xxvi. 13). The expression is thus specifically explained in vers. 11 and 12. Nebuchadnezzar will destroy the land with his men of war, slaying the people with its possessions. D^J ^"W, as in ch. xxviii. 7. D'N^O, as in ch. xxiii. 42. 'Ul?*")?, cf. ch. xii. 14, xxviii. 7. ivn... 1N7D as in ch. xl. 6. Dnjo the arms and canals of the Nile, by which the land was watered, and on which the fertility and prosperity of Egypt depended. The drying up of the arms of the Nile must not be restricted, therefore, to the fact that God would clear away the hindrances to the entrance of the Chaldeans into the land, but embraces also the removal of the natural resources on which the country depended. "99> to sell a land or people into the hand of any one, i.e. to deliver it into his power (cf. Deut. xxxii. 30; Judg. ii. 14, etc.). For the fact itself, see Isa. xix. 4-6. For 'U1 Vfe^ see ch. xix. 7.

Vers. 13-19. Further description of the judgment. — Ver. 13. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, 1 will exterminate the idols and cut off the deities from Noph, and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt; and I put terror vpon the land of Egypt, Ver. 14. And I lay Pathros waste, and bring fire into Zoan, and execute judgments upon No; Ver. 15. And I pour out my fury upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of No; Ver. 16. And I put fire in Egypt; Sin will writhe in pain, and No will be broken open, and Noph — enemies by day. Ver. 17. The men of On and Babastus will fall by the sword, and they themselves will go into captivity. Ver. 18. At Tachpanches the day will be darkened when I shatter the yokes of Egypt there, and an end will be put to its proud haughtiness; cloud will cover it, and its daughters will go into captivity. Ver. 19. And thus I execute judgments upon Egypt, that they may know that I am Jehovah. — Egypt will lose its idols and its princes (cf. Jer. xlvi. 25). Dv^a and DyyK are synonymous, signifying not the images, but the deities; the former being the ordinary epithet applied to false deities by Ezekiel (see the comm. on ch. vi. 4). the latter traceable to the reading of Isa. xix. 1. pp, contracted from *pp, Manoph or Menoph =?)b in Hos. ix. 6, is Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, with the celebrated temple of Ptah, one of the principal seats of Egyptian idolatry (see the comm. on Hos. ix. 6 and Isa. xix. 13). In ver. 13& '"WD pxo belongs to N^J, there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt, i.e. a native prince. nN"V jrn? to put fear upon (cf. ch. xxvi. 17b). From Lower Egypt Ezekiel passes in ver. 14 to Upper Egypt (Paihros, see the comm. on ch. xxix.*14), which is also to be laid waste, and then names several more of the principal cities of Lower Egypt along with the chief city of Upper Egypt. $¥, Egypt. Zane, Copt. Jane, is the TavLs, Tanis, of the Greeks and Romans, on the Tanitic arm of the Nile, an ancient city of Lower Egypt; see the comm. on Num. xiii. 22 and Isa. xix. 11. fcO=pES & in Nah. iii. 8, probably " abode of Amon," Egypt. P-amen, i.e. house of Anion, the sacred name of Thebes, the celebrated royal city of Upper Egypt, the Aio<$ 7ro\t? rj fieydXrj of the Greeks (see the comm. on Nah. iii. 8). P? (literally, mire; compare the Aram. £p) is ttrfKovo-Lov, Pelusium, which derives its name from 7T7]\6<; (oovopaaTaL diro tou irrfkov irrfkos, Strab. xvii. p. 802), because there were swamps all round. It was situated on the eastern arm of the Nile, to which it gave its name, at a distance of twenty stadia from the sea. The Egyptian name Pheromi also signifies dirty, or muddy. From this the Arabs have made

Elfarama; and in the vicinity of the few ruins of the ancient Pelusium there is still a castle called <Uud?, Tineh (compare the Chaldee K^B, clay, in Dan. ii. 41). Ezekiel calls it the '' fortress or bulwark of Egypt," because, as Strabo (I.e.) observes, a Egypt is difficult of access here from places in the East;" for which reason Hirtius (de bell. Al. c. 27) calls it u the key of Egypt," and Suidas (s.v.) u the key both of the entrance and exit of Egypt." On the history of this city, see Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia. In fcto P^n many of the commentators find a play upon the name of the god jtox (Jer. xlvi. 25), the chief deity of Thebes, which is possible, but not very probable, as we should not expect to find a god mentioned again here after ver. 13; and WWI would be inappropriate. — In ver. 16 Sin (—Pelusium) is mentioned again as the border fortress, No (= Thebes) as the chief city of Upper Egypt, and Noph (= Memphis) as the capital of Upper Egypt, as all falling within the range of the judgment. The expression DDV HX *p has caused some difficulty and given occasion to various conjectures, none of which, however, commend themselves as either simple or natural explanations.1 As Hitzig has correctly observed, DBi1 lH¥ is the same as D'Hnaa Tlfe> in Jer.

xv. 8, and is the opposite of H7v V.1& in Obad. ver. 5. The enemy who comes by day, not in the night, is the enemy who does not shun open attack. The connection with pp is to be explained by the same rule as Jer. xxiv. 2, u the one basket — very good figs." Memphis will have enemies in broad daylight,

1 Ewald proposes to alter vyn into HV (after the Aramaean), " rust," and renders it: u Memphis will be eternal rust." But to this Hitzig has very properly objected thatiu ch. xxiv. 6, 11, rust is called ns^n; and that even in Ps. vi. 3 Dfti"» does not mean perpetual or eternal. Havernick proposes to explain D"nv, from the Aramaean j5», to rend or tear in pieces,

11 Memphis shall become perpetual rents." To this also it maybe objected, that D"H¥ in Hebrew has the standing meaning of oppressors; and that DD^j interdiu, is not equivalent to perpetual; and still further, that the preposition ^ could not be omitted before nv.

i.e. will be filled with them. 1JK = pK, |X, in Gen. xli. 45, 50 (Egyptian An, or ^4 am), is the popular name of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt (see the comm. on Gen. xli. 45); and the form ftij (a vain thing, or idol) is probably selected intentionally in the sense of an idol-city (see the comm. on Hos. iv. 15), because On-Heliopolis (tPDKTTPa in Jer. xliii. 13) was from time immemorial one of the principal seats of the Egyptian worship of the sun, and possessed a celebrated temple of the sun, with a numerous and learned priesthood (see the comm. on Gen. xli. 45, ed. 2). ^9?"^ *•*■ BovfiaaTos (LXX.) or BovftaaTis (Herod, ii. 59), Egyptian Pi-Pasld, i.e. the place of Pasht, so called from the cat-headed Bubastis or Pasht, the Egyptian Diana, which was worshipped there in a splendid temple. It was situated on the royal canal leading to Suez, which was begun by Necho and finished under Ptolemy n., not far from its junction with the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. It was the chief seat of the Nomos Bubastites, was destroyed by the Persians, who demolished its walls (Diod. Sic. xvi. 51), and has entirely disappeared, with the exception of some heaps of ruins which still bear the name of Tel Bastah, about seven hours' journey from the Nile (compare Ges. Thes. pp. 1101 sqq., and Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia, s.v.). The Nomos of Bubastis, according to Herod, ii. 166, was assigned to the warrior-caste of Calasirians. The D^na, the young military men, will fall by the sword; and nan, not at yvval/ces (LXX. and others), but the cities themselves, i.e. their civil population as distinguished from the military garrison, shall go into exile. This explanation of nan is commended by nTiiiii in ver. 18. Dnasnn or onpann (Jer. xliii. 7 sqq., xliv. 1, xlvi. 14), and Dpanri in Jer. ii. 16 (Chetib), is Tdtyvac, TdcpvTj (LXX.), or Adfyvai (Herod, ii. 30. 107), a frontier city of Egypt in the vicinity of Pelusium, after the time of Psammetichus a fortification with a strong garrison, where a palace of Pharaoh was also to be found, according to Jer. xliii. 9. After the destruction of Jerusalem, a portion of the Jews took refuge there, and to them Jeremiah predicted the punishment of God on the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xliii. 7 sqq., xliv. 1 sqq.). In the case of 1&TJ the reading varies; the printed Masora at Gen. xxxix. 3 giving W?} as the reading to be found in all the codices examined by the author of the Masora; whereas many of the codices and printed editions have ^wy, and this is adopted in all the ancient versions. This is evidently the correct reading, as TjfcTI does not furnish an appropriate meaning, and the parallel passages, ch. xxxii. 8, Isa. xiii. 10, Joel iii. 4, Amos viii. 9, all favour 7j£Ti. The darkening of the day is the phenomenal prognostic of the dawning of the great day of judgment upon the nations (cf. Joel ii. 10, iii. 4, iv. 15; Isa. xiii. 10, etc.). This day is to dawn upon Egypt at Tachpanches, the border fortress of the land towards Syria and Palestine, when the Lord will break the yokes of Egypt. These words point back to Lev. xxvi. 13, where the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt is called the breaking in pieces of its yokes (see also Ezek. xxxiv. 27). That which took place then is to be repeated here. The yokes which Egypt put upon the nations are to be broken; and all the proud might of that kingdom is to be brought to an end (W |iN3, as in ver. 6). In ver. 186, tffl, which stands at the head in an absolute form, points back to Druanna. The city (Daphne) will be covered with cloud, i.e. will be overthrown by the judgment; and her daughters, i.e. the smaller cities and hamlets dependent upon her (cf. ch. xvi. 46 and xxvi. 6), will go into captivity in the persons of their inhabitants. It follows from this that Daphne was the chief city of a Nomos in Lower Egypt; and this is confirmed by the circumstance that there was a royal palace there. If we compare the threat in this verse, that in Tachpanches an end is to be put to the proud might of Pharaoh, with the threatening words of Jer. xliii. 9 sqq., to the effect that Nebuchadnezzar would set up his throne at Tachpanches and smite Egypt, it is evident that the situation of Daphne must at that time have been such that the war between Egypt and Babylonia would necessarily be decided in or near this city. These prophetic utterances cannot be explained, as Kliefoth supposes, from the fact that many Jews had settled in Daphne; nor do the contents of this verse furnish any proof that Ezekiel did not utter this prophecy of his till after the Jews had settled there (Jer. xliii. and xliv.). Ver. 19 serves to round off the prophecy.

According to the heading in ver. 20, a In the eleventh year, in the first (month), on the seventh of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying" this short word of threatening against Egypt falls in the second year of the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and, as ver. 21 clearly shows, after the army of Pharaoh Hophra, which marched to the relief of Jerusalem, had been defeated by the Chaldeans who turned to meet it (Jer. xxxvii. 5, 7). If we compare with this the date of the first prophecy against Egypt in ch. xxix. 1, the prophecy before us was separated from the former by an interval of three months. But as there is no allusion whatever in ch. xxix. to Pharaoh's attempt to come to the relief of the besieged city of Jerusalem, or to his repulse, the arrival of the Egyptian army in Palestine, its defeat, and its repulse by the Chaldeans, seems to have occurred in the interval between these two prophecies, towards the close of the tenth year.

Ver. 21. Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh the king of Egypt have I broken; and, behold, it will no more be bound up, to apply remedies, to put on a bandage to bind it up, that it may grow strong to grasp the mvord. Ver. 22. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deal with Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and will break both his arms, the strong one and the broken one, and will cause the sivord to fall out of his hand. Ver. 23. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them in the lands, Ver. 24. And will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and give my sword into his hand, and ivill break the arms of Pharaoh, so that he shall groan the groanings of a pierced one before him. Ver. 25. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I give my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may stretch it against the land of Egypt, Ver. 2G. 1 will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them in the lands; and they shall knoiv that lam Jehovah. — The perfect W?^ in ver. 21 is not a prophetic utterance of the certainty of the future, but a pure preterite. This maybe seen " both from the allusion in ver. 2lb to the condition resulting from the "Q5?. and also to the obviously antithetical relation of ver. 22, in which future events arc predicted" (Hitzig). The arm is a figurative expression for power, here for military power, as it wields the sword. God broke the arm of Pharaoh by the defeat which the Chaldeans inflicted upon Pharaoh Hophra, when he was marching to the relief of besieged Jerusalem. ^'^ is a present, as is apparent from the infinitive clauses ('W J"in?) which follow, altogether apart from nsn; and Bbn signifies to bind up, for the purpose of healing a broken limb, that remedies may be applied and a bandage put on. ^.'J?, that it may become strong or sound, is subordinate to the preceding clause, and governs the infinitive which follows. The fact that the further judgment which is to fall upon Pharaoh is introduced with |?J (therefore) here (ver. 22), notwithstanding the fact that it has not been preceded by any enumeration of the guilt which occasioned it, may be accounted for on the ground that the causal \j? forms a link with the concluding clause of ver. 21: the arm shall not be healed, so as to be able to grasp or hold the sword. Because Pharaoh is not to attain any more to victorious power, therefore God will shatter both of his arms, the strong, i.e. the sound one and the broken one, that is to say, will smite it so completely, that the sword will fall from his hand. The

Egyptians are to be scattered among the nations, as is repeated in ver. 23 verbatim from ch. xxix. 12. God will give the sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and equip and strengthen him to destroy the might of Pharaoh, that the latter may groan before him like one who is pierced with the sword. This thought is repeated in vers. 25 and 26 with an intimation of the purpose of this divine procedure. That purpose is: that men may come to recognise Jehovah as God the Lord. The subject to *SJT) is indefinite; and the rendering of the LXX. is a very good one, teal yvcocrovTcu, iravre^.

In two months minus six days from the time when the preceding word of God was uttered, Ezekiel received another threatening word against the king and the people of Egypt, in which the former announcement of the destruction of the might of Egypt was confirmed by a comparison drawn between the power of Egypt and that of Asshur. Ezekiel having opened his prophecy with the question, whom does Pharaoh with his might resemble (ver. 2), proceeds to depict Asshur as a mighty towering cedar (vers. 3-9) which has been felled and cast down by the prince of the nations on account of its height and pride (vers. 10-14), so that everything mourned over its fall, because many nations went down with it to hell (vers. 15-17). The question, whom Pharaoh resembles, is then repeated in ver. 18; and from the preceding comparison the conclusion is drawn, that he will perish like that lofty cedar. — The reminiscence of the greatness of the Assyrian empire and of its destruction was well adapted to overthrow all reliance upon the might and greatness of Egypt. The fall of that great empire was still so fresh in the mind at the time, that the reminiscence could not fail to make a deep impression upon the prophet's hearers.

Vers. 1-9. The might of Pharaoh resembles the greatness and glory of Asshur. — Ver. 1. In the eleventh year, in the third (month), on the first of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ver. 2. Son of man, say to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to hit tumult, Whom art thou like in thy greatness? Ver. 3. Behold, Asshur was a cedar-tree vpon Lebanon, beautiful in branches, a shadowing thicket, and its top was high in growth, and among the clouds. Ver. 4. Water brought him up, the flood made him high, its streams went round about its plantation, and it sent its channels to all the trees of the field. Ver. 5. Therefore its growth became higher than all the trees of the field, and its branches became great, and its boughs long from many waters in its shooting out. Ver. 6. In its branches all the birds of the heaven made their nests, and under its boughs all the beasts of the field brought forth, and in its shadow sat great nations of all kinds. Ver. 7. And he was beautiful in his greatness, in the length of his shoots; for his root was by many waters. Ver. 8. Cedars did not obscure him in the garden of God, cypresses did not resemble his branches, and plane-trees were not like his boughs; no tree in the garden of God resembled him in his beauty. Ver. 9. / had made him beautiful in the multitude of his shoots, and all the trees of Eden which were in the garden of God envied him. — The word of God is addressed to King Pharaoh and to fato"!!, his tumult, i.e. whoever and whatever occasions noise and tumult in the land. We must not interpret this, however, as Hitzig has done, as signifying the ruling classes and estates in contrast with the quiet in the land, for no such use of fifty is anywhere to be found. Nor must we regard the word as applying to the multitude of people only, but to the people with their possessions, their riches, which gave rise to luxury and tumult, as in ch. xxx. 10. The inquiry, whom does Pharaoh with his tumult resemble in his greatness, is followed in the place of a reply by a description of Asshur as a glorious cedar (vers. 3-9). It is true that Ewald has followed the example of Meibom {yanarum in Cod. Hebr. interprets spec. III. p. 70) and J. D. Michaelis, arid endeavours to set aside the allusion to Asshur, by taking the word "flBW in an appellative sense, and understanding "RBW Ptf as signifying a particular kind of cedar, namely, the tallest species of all. But apart altogether from there being no foundation whatever for such an explanation in the usage of the language, there is nothing in the fact to justify it. For it is not anywhere affirmed that Pharaoh resembled this cedar; on the contrary, the question, whom does he resemble? is asked again in ver. 18 (Hitzig). Moreover, Michaelis is wrong in the supposition that " from ver. 10 onwards it becomes perfectly obvious that it is not Assyria but Egypt itself which is meant by the cedar-tree previously described." Under the figure of the felling of a cedar there is depicted the overthrow of a king or monarchy, which has already taken place. Compare vers. 12 and 16, where the past is indicated quite as certainly as the future in ver. 18. And as ver. 18 plainly designates the overthrow of Pharaoh and his power as still in the future, the cedar, whose destruction is not only threatened in vers. 10—17, but declared to have already taken place, can only be Asshur, and not Egypt at all.

The picture of the glory of this cedar recalls in several respects the similar figurative description in ch. xvii. Asshur is called a cedar upon Lebanon, because it was there that the most stately cedars grew.?y?? &~}p, a shade-giving thicket (?VP is a Iliphil participle of??¥), belongs to HJV n^. as a further expansion of ^JV, corresponding to the further expansion of r\Dp pna by u its top was among the clouds." If we bear this in mind, the reasons assigned by Hitzig for altering ^nn into an adjective Bhn, and taking?>'£> as a substantive formation after the analogy of 3DD, lose all their force. Analogy would only require an adjective in the construct state in the event of the three statements 'V HB*, 'n Vhpj and '? ^32 being co-ordinate with one another. But what is decisive against the proposed conjecture is the fact that neither the noun •¥*? nor the adjective v'^n js ever mot with, and that, in any case,?VB cannot signify foliage. The rendering of the Vulgate, ufrondibus nemorosus" is merely guessed at, whilst the Seventy have omitted the word as unintelligible to them. For D'flbg, thicket of clouds, see the comm. on ch. xix. 11; and for nitSV, that on ch, xvii.;>. The cedar grew to so large a size because it was richly watered (ver. 4). A flood poured its streams round about the place where the cedar was planted, and sent out brooks to all the trees of the field. The difficult words 'U1 nTnnrns are to be taken literally thus: as for its (the flood's) streams, it (the flood) was going round about its plantation, i.e. round about the plantation belonging to the flood or the place situated near it, where the cedar was planted. HX is not to bo taken as a preposition, but as a sign of the accusative, and ^"nr^"*"1** as an accusative used for the more precise definition of the manner in which the flood surrounded the plantation. It is true that there still remains something striking in the masculine!J?hj since Dinn, although of common gender, is construed throughout as a feminine, even in this very verse. But the difficulty remains even if we follow Ewald, and take ^#1 to be a defectively written or irregular form of the Tliphil S|wl; a conjecture which is precluded by the use of T^n> to cause to run = to cause to flow away, in ch. xxxii. 14. •"WEE, its (the flood's) plantation, i.e. the plantation for which the flood existed, Dinn is used here to signify the source or starting-point of a flood, as in Deut. viii. 7, where ntonn are co-ordinate with T\STV. —

While the place where the cedar was planted was surrounded by the streams of the flood, only the brooks and channels of this flood reached to the trees of the field. The cedar therefore surpassed all the trees of the field in height and luxuriance of growth (ver. 5). **rQ3, an Aramean mode of spelling for nrna; and flEinD7 air. Xey., an Aramean formation with 1 inserted, for ns?D, branches. For rhiiB, see the comm. on ch. xvii. 6. irwn cannot mean "since it (the stream) sent out the water" (Ewald); for although Dinn in ver. 4 is also construed as a masculine, the suffix cannot be taken as referring to USr,r\ for this is much too far off. And the explanation proposed by Rosenmiiller, Havernick, Kliefoth, and others, " as it (the tree) sent them (the branches) out," is open to this objection, that irfe'2. would then contain a spiritless tautology; since the stretching out of the branches is already contained in the fact of their becoming numerous and long. The tautology has no existence if the object is left indefinite, " in its spreading out," i.e. the spreading not only of the branches, but also of the roots, to which rw is sometimes applied (cf. Jer. xvii. 8). By the many waters which made the cedar great, we must not understand, either solely or especially, the numerous peoples which rendered Assyria great and mighty, as the Chaldee and many of the older commentators have done. It must rather be taken as embracing everything which contributed to the growth and greatness of Assyria. It is questionable whether the prophet, when describing the flood which watered the cedar plantation, had the description of the rivers of Paradise in Gen. ii. 10 sqq. floating before his mind. Ewald and Havernick think that he had; but Hitzicr and Kliefoth take a decidedlv opposite view. There is certainly no distinct indication of any such allusion. AVe meet with this for the first time from ver. 8 onwards. In vers. 6-9 the greatness and glory of Asshur are still further depicted. Upon and under the branches of the stately tree, all creatures, birds, beasts, and men, found shelter and protection for life and increase (ver. 6; cf. ch. xvii. 23 and Dan. iv. 9). In D>31 D'fe-fa, all kinds of great nations, the fact glimmers through the figure. The tree was so beautiful (*V3 from H3J) in its greatness, that of all the trees in the garden of God not one was to be compared with it, and all envied it on that account; that is to say, all the other nations and kingdoms in God's creation were far inferior to Asshur in greatness and glory. &rps fs is the garden of Paradise; and consequently fty in vers. 9, 16, and 18 is also Paradise, as in ch. xxviii. 13. There is no ground for Kliefoth's objection, that it P> be taken in this sense, the words " which are in the garden of God" will contain a superfluous pleonasm, a mere tautology. In Gen. ii. 8 a distinction is also made between pV and the garden in Eden, It was not all Eden, but the garden planted by Jehovah in Eden, which formed the real paradisaical creation; so that the words " which are in the garden of God" give intensity to the idea of the " trees of Eden." Moreover, as Haver nick has correctly pointed out, there is a peculiar emphasis in the separation of 2,nL,N* [33 from E'nx in ver. 8: '• cedars... even such as were found in the garden of God." Not one even of the other and most glorious trees, viz. cypresses and planes, resembled the cedar Asshur, planted by God by many waters, in its boughs and branches. It is not stated in so many words in vers. 8 and 9 that the cedar Asshur stood in the garden of God; but it by no means follows from this, that by the garden of God we are to understand simply the world and the earth as the creation of God, as Kliefoth imagines, and in support of which he argues that '• as all the nations and kingdoms of the world are regarded as trees planted by God, the world itself is quite consistently called a garden or plantation of God." The very fact that a distinction is made between trees of the field (vers. 4 and 5) and trees of Eden in the garden of God (vers. 8 and 9), shows that the trees are not all regarded here as bein^ in the same sense planted bv God. If the garden of God stood for the world, where should we then have to look for the field (•"H??)? The thought of vers. 8 and 9 is not that " not a single tree in all God's broad earth was to be compared to the cedar Asshur," but that even of the trees of Paradise, the garden in Eden, there was not one so beautiful and glorious as the cedar Asshur, planted by God by many waters.

Vers. 10-14. The felling of this cedar, or the overthrow of Asshur on account of its pride. — Ver. 10. Therefore thus said the Lord Jehovah, Because thou didst exalt thyself in height, and he stretched his top to the midst of the clouds, and his heart exalted itself in its height, Ver. 11. / will give him into the hand of the prince of the nations; he shall deal with him: for his wickedness I rejected him. Ver. 12. And strangers cut him down, violent ones of the nations, and cast him away: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his shoots fell, and his boughs were broken in pieces into all the deep places of the earth; and all the nations of the earth withdrew from his shadow, and let him lie, Ver. 13. Upon his fallen trunk all the birds of the heaven settle, and all the beasts of the field are over his branches: Ver. 14. That no trees by the water may exalt themselves on account of their height, or stretch their top to the midst of the clouds, and no water-drinkers stand upon themselves in their exaltation: for they are all given up to death into hell, in the midst of the children of men, to those that go into the grave. — In the description of the cause of the overthrow of Asshur which commences with 1BW \V\} the figurative language changes in the third clause into the literal fact, the towering of the cedar being interpreted as signifying the lifting up of the heart in his height, — that is to say, in his pride. In the first clause the tree itself is addressed; but in the clauses which follow, it is spoken of in the third person. The direct address in the first clause is to be explained from the vivid manner in which the fact presented itself. The divine sentence in vers. 10 and 11 is not directed against Pharaoh, but against the Assyrian, who is depicted as a stately cedar; whilst the address in ver. 10a, and the imperfect (future) in ver. 11a, are both to be accounted for from the fact that the fall of Asshur is related in the form in which it was denounced on the part of Jehovah upon that imperial kingdom. The perfect IBS is therefore a preterite here: the Lord said... for His part: because Asshur has exalted itself in the pride of its greatness, I give it up. The form tfttrM is not to be changed into tfunw, but is defended against critical caprice by the imperfect HW which follows. That the penal sentence of God is not to be regarded as being first uttered in the time then present, but belongs to the past, — and therefore the words merely communicate what God had

F. its height. And in tin.* same w affirmed of the heart, in the lenae;ultation from pi sar. w^ is a simple appellative from hit, the itrong one; and ii neither i name of Q< I nor a d •:"< cti m for -'k.

construct Btal *. i ram. For thia live form is only where we have the plural By*, and nowher; whereas, in the i I /it, DyK, in the sense of I strong one, the seriptio

. frequently alternates with t! C for example, Job xlii. 8, where both readings occur just as in this instance, where many iiss. have "N> le R >ssi, va\ relative clause, " who should treat him ill,*1 nor is the 1 n omitted on account of the preceding "-V. as Hitzig imagines; but it is an independent sentence, and "-T is a forcible expression for the imperative: he will deal with him, equivalent to, *Met him deal with him."? »Wy, to do anything to a person, used here as it frequently is in an evil sense; compare Ps. lvi. 5. tof^a — or tot^S, which Norzi and Abarbanel (in de Rossi, variae lectt. ad h, I.) uphold as the reading of many of the more exact manuscripts and editions — belongs to VWjIBna: for, or according to, his wickedness, I rejected him. In ver. 12 the figure of the tree is resumed; and the extinction of the Assyrian empire is described as the cutting down of the proud cedar. D^l T^J) D^J as in ch. xxviii. 7 and xxx. 11, 12. VTP&3: they cast him away and let him lie, as in ch. xxix. o, xxxii. 4; so that in the first sentence the idea of casting away predominates, and in the second that of letting lie. By the casting away, the tree became so shattered to atoms that its boughs and branches fell upon the mountains and on the low ground and valleys of the earth, and the nations which had sat under its shadow withdrew. ITTJJ (they descended) is to be explained from the idea that the tree had grown upon a high mountain (namely Lebanon); and Hitzig is mistaken in his conjecture that VTW was the original reading, as T13, to fly, is not an appropriate expression for Q^y. On the falling of the tree, the birds which had made their nests in its branches naturally flew away. If, then, in ver. 13, birds and beasts are said to settle upon the fallen trunk, as several of the commentators have correctly observed, the description is based upon the idea of a corpse, a ri7QO (Judg. xiv. 8), around which both birds and beasts of prey gather together to tear it in pieces (cf. ch. xxxii. 4 and Isa. xviii. 6).?£ njn, to come towards or over any one, to be above it. The thought expressed is, that many nations took advantage of the fall of Asshur and rose into new life upon its ruins. — Ver. 14. This fate was prepared for Asshur in order that henceforth no tree should grow up to the sky any more, i.e. that no powerful one of this earth (no king or prince) should strive after superhuman greatness and might. IIWjj jyD7 is dependent upon VTWT.1 in ver. 11; for vers. 12 and 13 are simply a further expansion of the thought expressed in that word. CTD ^V are trees growing near the water, and therefore nourished by water. For rtJI V12U| N?, see ver. 10. The words "Ul Dn"i>« flOR *6l are difficult. As DJT^S, with Tzere under X, to which the Masora calls attention, cannot be the preposition?N with the suffix, many have taken DHvK to be a noun, in the sense of fortes, principes, or terebinthi (vid. Isa. Ixi. 3), and have rendered the clause either at non per stent terebinthi eorum in altitudine sun, omnes (ceterae arbores) bibentes aquam (Vatabl., Starck, Maurer, and Kliefoth), or, that their princes may not lift themselves up in their pride, all the drinkers of water (Havernick). But botli renderings founder on the simple fact that they leave the suffix Dn in Drv^K either unnoticed or unexplained. As only the trees of the water have been spoken of previously, the suffix must be taken as referring to them. But the water-trees have neither terebinths nor princes; on the contrary, these are what they must either be, or signify. Terebinths, or princes of the water-trees, would be senseless ideas. Ewald has therefore taken Bnv8 as the object, and rendered it thus: " and (that) no water-drinkers may contend with their gods in their pride." He has not proved, however, but has simply asserted, that TpV is to endure = to contend (!). The only remaining course is to follow the LXX., Targum, and many commentators, and to take DiT?s as a pronoun, and point it E^vK. '$ ^*?V • to station oneself against, or upon = sV ^V (ch. xxxiii. 26), in the sense of resting, or relying upon anything. The suffix is to be taken in a reflective sense, as in ch. xxxiv. 2, etc. (yid. Ewald, § 314c), and precedes the noun to which it refers, as in Prov. xiv. 20 for example. BHMj as in ver. 10, referring to pride. D*o "TibOD, the subject of the sentence, is really synonymous with D^B ^Vy^, except that the figure of the tree falls into the background behind the fact portrayed. The rendering of the Berleburg Bible is very good: " and no trees abounding in water stand upon themselves (rely upon themselves) on account of their height." The water-drinkers are princes of this earth who have attained to great power through rich resources. " As a tree grows through the moisture of water, so men are accustomed to become proud through their abundance, not reflecting that these waters have been supplied to them by God" (Starck). The reason for this warning against proud self-exaltation is given in ver. 146 in the general statement, that all the proud great ones of this earth are delivered up to death. D?3, all of them, the water-drinkers or water-trees already named, by whom kings, earthly potentates, are intended, rvrinn ptK = ni»nnn pa (ch. xxvi. 20). Dnx »aa 5|fna: in the midst of the children of men, i.e. like all other men. " Thus the prophet teaches that princes must die as well as the people, that death and decomposition are common to both. Hence he takes all ground of proud boasting away" (Starck).

Vers. 15-18. Impression made upon the nations by the fall of Asshur; and its application to Pharaoh. — Ver. 15. Thus sailh the Lord Jehovah, In the day that he went down to hell I caused a mourning: covered the flood for his sake, and stopped its streams, and the great waters were held back: I caused Lebanon to blacken itself for him, and all the trees of the field pined for him. Ver. 16. I made the nations tremble at the noise of his fall, when I cast him down to hell to those who go into the grave: and they comforted themselves in the nether world, even all the trees of Eden, the choice and most beautiful of Ijebanon, all the water-drinkers. Ver. 17. They also ivent with him into hell, to those pierced with the sword, who sat as his helpers in his shade among the nations. Ver. 18. Whom dost thou thus resemble in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? So shalt thou be thrust down to the trees of Eden into the nether world, and lie among uncircumcised ones with those pierced with the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his tumult, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. — In order that the overthrow of the Assyrian, i.e. the destruction of the Assyrian empire, may be placed in the clearest light, a picture is drawn of the impression which it made upon the whole creation. There is no necessity to understand "tt?K nb in a past sense, as in ver. 10. What God did on the overthrow of Asshur He may even now, for the first time, make known through the prophet, for a warning to Pharaoh and the people of Israel. That this is the way in which the words are to be interpreted, is evident from the use of the perfect W3SH, followed by the historical imperfects, which cannot be taken in a prophetical sense, as Kliefoth supposes, or turned into futures. It is contrary to Hebrew usage to connect ^V^xn and '•ris? together as asyndeton, so as to form one idea, viz. " to veil in mourning," as Ewald and Hiivernick propose. The circumstances under which two verbs in joined together to a one idea ire of i totally different kind. In this instai wstcn is placed fii an abeolate; and in the lenten objects which were turned into mourniog. Diwriw rjj nD3 canr in here, l( to cover the flood npon | him" (after

. wiv. 7 and xxvi, 19); for this is altogether unsuitable either the more remote or the more immediate context. The Ajshur wai not d I by a flood, but cot down by

The following clan- is, u I stopped its streams," y plainly that tl anection b (Dfrvi) and the tree which I n felled is to be nnd< in accordance with wr. 4, A flood, which poured its r:.": round about its plantation, made the cedar-tre I; and now that the tree has been fell- I, < i \ covers the ilood on its • unt. HM is to be explained from Pfe ~—. to r< il or wrap in mourning, as Raschi, Kimchi, Vatablns, and many oti, have shown. The word pfe> is omitted, because it appeared inappropriate to DiiVl, The mourning of the flood is to be taken as equivalent to drying up, so that the streams which issued from it were deprived of their water. Lebanon, i.e. the cedar-forest (Isa. x. 34), and all the other trees, mourned over the fall of the cedar Asshur. "^i??, to clothe in black, i.e. to turn into mourning. o2?> is regarded by Ewald as a Pual formed after the Aramean mode, that is to say, by attaching the syllable ae instead of doubling the middle radical; whilst Hitzig proposes to change the form into n7?V. In any case the word must be a perfect Pual, as a nomen verbale appears unsuitable; and it must also be a third person feminine, the termination n— being softened into n—, as in nPft? (Isa. lix. 5), and the doubling of the? being dropped on account of the Sheva; so that the plural is construed with the singular feminine (Ewald, § 317a). ^y, to faint with grief (cf. Isa. Ii. 20). The thought is the following: all nature was so painfully affected by the fall of Asshur, that the whole of the resources from which its prosperity and might had been derived were dried up. To interpret the different figures as specially relating to princes and nations appears a doubtful procedure, for the simple reason that in ver. 16 the trembling of the nations is expressly named. — Whilst all the nations on the surface of the earth tremble at the fall of Assyria, because they are thereby warned of the perishable nature of all earthly greatness and of their own destruction, the inhabitants of the nether world console themselves with the thought that the Assyrian is now sharing their fate (for this thought, compare ch. xxxii. 31 and Isa. xiv. 9, 10). " All the trees of Eden " are all the powerful and noble princes. The idea itself, " trees of Eden," is explained by the apposition, " the choice and beautiful ones of Lebanon," i.e. the picked and finest cedars, and still further strengthened by the expression D*D *5feP7g (cf. ver. 14). 3iD} "*$?? are connected, as in 1 Sam. ix. 2; and both words are placed side by side in the construct state, as in Dan. i. 4 (cf. Ewald, § 3395). They comfort themselves because they have gone down with him into Sheol, so that he has no advantage over them. They come thither to those pierced with the sword, i.e. to the princes and peoples whom Asshur slew in wars to establish his imperial power, ij™ might also belong to *PHJ as a second subject. In that case fe? UB*J should be taken in a relative sense: u and his arm," i.e. his resources, u which sat in his shadow among the nations." With fhis explanation toT| would be different from Dn, and could only denote the army of the Assyrian. But this does not harmonize with the sitting in his shadow among the nations, for these words obviously point back to ver. 6; so that tihl is evidently meant to correspond to DW D^3"79 (ver. 6), and is actually identical with Dn? i.e, with all the trees of Eden. We therefore agree with Osiander, Grotius, and others, in regarding the whole of the second hemistich as more precisely determining the subject, — in other words, as a declaration of the reason for their descending into hell along with the Assyrians,— and render the passage thus: " for as his arm (as his might) thev sat in his shadow among the nations \n so that the cop. 1 is used in place of ■ causal particle. In any case, the conjecture which Ewald has adopted from the LXX. and the SjriaCj viz. tonfl, and his seed, in support of which appeal might he made to Isa. xiv. 21, is unsuitable, for the simple reason that the statement, that it sat in his shadow among the nations, does not apply. — After this description of the greatness and the destruction of the imperial power of Assyria, Ezekiel repeats in ver. 18 the question already asked in ver. '.*>: to whom is Pharaoh like? r03j so, i.e. under such circumstances, when the glorious cedar Asshur has been smitten by such a fate (Ilitzig). The reply to this question is really contained in the description given already; so that it is immediately followed by the announcement, " and thou wilt be thrust down," etc. Q?"W, uncircumcised, equivalent to ungodly heathen 'd CT, not " he is," as that would require wn n'y-iQ; but K¥l is the predicate: this is {i.e. so does it happen to) Pharaoh. totorij as in ver. 2.

The chapter contains two lamentations composed at different times: the first, in vers. 1-1 6, relating to the fall of Pharaoh, which rests upon the prophecy contained in ch. xxix. 1-16 and ch. xxx. 20-26; the second, in vers. 17-32, in which the prophecy concerning the casting down of this imperial power into hell (ch. xxxi. 14-17) is worked out in elegiac form.

Vers. 1-16. Lamentation over the King of Egypt. — Pharaoh, a sea-monster, is drawn by the nations out of his waters with the net of God, and cast out upon the earth. His flesh is given to the birds and beasts of prey to devour, and the earth is saturated with his blood (vers. 2-6). At his destruction the lights of heaven lose their brightness, and all the nations will be amazed thereat (vers. 7-10). The king of Babel will come upon Egypt, will destroy both man and beast, and will make the land a desert (vers. 11-16). — The date given in ver. 1 — " In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the ivord of Jehovah came to me, saying " — agrees entirely with the relation in which the substance of the ode itself stands to the prophecies belonging to the tenth and eleventh years in ch. xxix. 1-16 and ch. xxx. 20-26; whereas the different date found in the Septuagint cannot come into consideration for a moment. Vers. 2-6. The destruction of Pharaoh. — Ver. 2. Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and say to him, Tliouwast compared to a. young lion among the nations, and yet wast like a dragon in the sea; thou didst break forth in thy streams, and didst trouble the waters with thy feet, and didst tread their streams. Ver. 3. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Therefore ivill I spread out my net over thee in the nddst of many nations, that they may draw thee up in my yarn; Ver. 4. And will cast thee upon the land, hurl thee upon the surface of the field, and will cause all the birds of the heaven to settle upon thee, and the beasts of the whole earth to satisfy tltemselves with thee. Ver. 5. Tliy flesh will I put upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy funeral heap. Ver. 6. / will saturate the earth with thine outflow of thy blood even to the mountains, and the low places shall become full of thee. — This lamentation begins, like others, with a picture of the glory of the fallen king. Hitzig objects to the ordinary explanation of the words ^£1? E^3 TED, \eovTL idvwv wfAOLcodrjs (LXX.), leoni gentium assimilatus es (Vulg.), on the ground that the frequently recurring WW would only have this meaning in the present passage, and that *&&*, which would then be synonymous, is construed in three other ways, but not with the nominative. For these reasons he adopts the rendering, " lion of the nations, thou belongest to death." But it would be contrary to the analogy of all the nirp to commence the lamentation with such a threat; and Hitzigs objections to the ordinary rendering of the words will not bear examination. The circumstance that the Niplial HDT3 is only met with here in the sense of o/aoiovo-Ocll, proves nothing; for n91 nas tn*s meaning in the Kal} Pielj and Hithpael, and the construction of the Niphal with the accusative (not nominative; as Hitzig says) may be derived without difficulty from the construction of the synonymous fe'J?3 with 3. But what is decisive in favour of this rendering is the fact that the following clause is connected by means of the adversative nrisi (but thou), which shows that the comparison of Pharaoh to a O^n forms an antithesis to the clause in which lie is compared to a young lion. If rPD*B 'J TBS contained a declaration of destruction, not only would this antithesis be lost, but the words addressed to it as a lion of the nations would float in the air and be used without any intelligible meaning. The lion is a figurative representation of a powerful and victorious ruler; and D]i3 "VB3 is really equivalent to D*ia 7X in ch. xxxi. 11. Pharaoh was regarded as a mighty conqueror of the nations, " though he was rather to be compared to the crocodile, which stirs up the streams, the fresh waters, and life-giving springs of the nations most perniciously with mouth and feet, and renders turbid all that is pure" (Ewald). D*3flj as in ch. xxix. 3. Ewald and Hitzig have taken offence at the words Trnn:a nan, " thou didst break forth in thy streams," and alter ^rfvua into TO"11???, with thy nostrils (Job xli. 12); but they have not considered that run would be quite out of place with such an alteration, as n*3 in both the Kal and Hiphil (Judg. xx. 33) has only the intransitive meaning to break out. The thought is simply this: the crocodile lies in the sea, then breaks occasionally forth in its streams, and makes the waters and their streams turbid with its feet. Therefore shall Pharaoh also end like such a monster (vers. 3-6). The guilt of Pharaoh did not consist in the fact that he had assumed the position of a ruler among the nations (Kliefoth); but in his polluting the water-streams, stirring up and disturbing the life-giving streams of the nations. God will take him in His net by a gathering of nations, and cause him to be drawn out of his element upon the dry land, where he shall become food to the birds and beasts of prey (cf. ch. xxix. 4, 5, xxxi. 12, 13). The words '"\ D^y bnpll are not to be understood as referring to the nations, as spectators of the event (Havernick); but 2 denotes the instrument, or medium employed, here the persons by whom God causes the net to be thrown, as is evident from the 1vg51 which follows. According to the parallelismus membrorum, the air. \ey. rfiD"1 can only refer to the carcase of the beast, although the source from which this meaning of the word is derived has not yet been traced. There is no worth to be attached to the readincr nisi in some of the codices, as hdi does not vield a suitable meaning either in the sense of reptile, or in that of putrefaction or decomposed bodies, which lias been attributed to it from the Arabic. Under these circumstances we adhere to the derivation from DVi, to be high, according to which JTO"i may signify a height or a heap, which the context defines as a funeral-pile. HEftf, strictly speaking, a participle from EpIX, to flow, that which flows out, the outflow (Ilitzig), is not to be taken in connection with ptf, but is a second object to WgSffn; and the appended word IBTO indicates the source whence the flowing takes place, and of what the outflow consists. D'~]?? ^, to the mountains, i.e. up to the top of the mountains. The thought in these verses is probably simply this, that the fall of Pharaoh would bring destruction upon the whole of the land of Egypt, and that many nations would derive advantage from his fall.

Vers. 7-10. His overthrow fills the whole world with mourning and terror. — Ver. 7. When I extinguish thee, I will cover the sky and darken its stars; I icill cover the sun with cloud, and the moon icill not cause its liaht to shine. Ver. 8. All the shinina lights in the sly do I darken because of thee, and I bring darkness over ihy land, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ver. 9. And T will trouble the heart of many nations when I bring out thine overthroic among the nations into lands which thou knoicest not, Ver. 10. And 1 will make many nations amazed at thee, and their

-\\.\. 7). In ""'-:- Pharaoh is no doubt regarded as a star of the first magnitude in the sky; but in this conception Ezekiel is upon Isa. xiv. 12, where the king of Babylon is designated as a bright morning-star. That this passage was in the prophet's mind, is evident at once from the fact that ver. 7 coincides almost verbatim with Isa. xiii. 10.— The extinction and obscuration of the stars are not merely a figurative representation of the mourning occasioned by the fall of Pharaoh; still less can vers. 9 and 10 be taken as an interpretation in literal phraseology of the figurative words in vers. 7 and 8. For vers. 9 and 10 do not relate to the mourning of the nations, but to anxiety and terror into which they are plunged by God through the fall of Pharaoh and his might. x> D^jDn to afflict the heart, does not mean to make it sorrowful, but to fill it with anxiety, to deprive it of its peace and cheerfulness. u When I bring thy fall among the nations" is equivalent to " spread the report of thy fall." Consequently there is no need for either the arbitrary alteration of T)i$ into T}?^, which Ewald proposes, with the imaginary rendering announcement or report; nor for the marvellous assumption of Havernick, that 1!^ describes the prisoners scattered among the heathen as the ruins of the ancient glory of Egypt, in support of which he adduces the rendering of the LXX. alyjiaXwaiav crov, which is founded upon the change of yow into y2W. For ver. 10a compare ch. xxvii. 35. *]Sty, to cause to fly, to brandish. The sword is brandished before their face when it falls time after time upon their brother the king of Egypt, whereby they are thrown into alarm for their own lives. ^V}]?y by moments = every moment (see the comm. on Isa. xxvii. 3).

Vers. 11-16. The judgment upon Egypt will be executed by the king of Babylon. — Ver. 11. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon thee. Ver. 12. By swords of heroes will I cause thy tumult to fall, violent ones of the nations are they all, and will lay waste the pride of Egypt, and all its tumult will be destroyed. Ver. 13. And 1 will cut off all its cattle from the great waters, that no foot of man may disturb them any more, nor any hoof of cattle disturb them. Ver. 14. Then will I cause their waters to settle and their streams to flow like oil, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, Ver. 15. When I make the land of Egypt a desert, and the land is made desolate of its fulness, because I smite all the inhabitants therein, and they ful ode) is this, and they will sing it mournfully; the daughters of' the nations will sing it mournfully, over Egypt and over all its tumult will they sing it mournfully, is the saying of the Lord

Jehovah. — In this concluding strophe the figurative announcement of the preceding one is rammed up briefly in literal terms; ami toward the close (ver. 14) there is a slight intimation of a better future. The destruction of the proud might of Egypt will be effected through the king of Babylon and his brave and violent hosts. DiJ T""!V, M in ch. xxxi. 12 (see the comm. on eh. xxviii. 7). |tefl in vers. 12 and 13 must not be restricted to the multitude of people. It signifies tumult, and embraces everything in Egypt by which noise and confusion were made (as in ch. xxxi. 2 and 18); although the idea of a multitude of people undoubtedly predominates in the use of P^n in ver. 12a. D^TCD pN'3, the pride of Egypt, is not that of which Egypt is proud, but whatever is proud or exalts itself in Egypt. The utter devastation of Egypt includes the destruction of the cattle, i.e. of the numerous herds which fed on the grassy banks of the Nile and were driven to the Nile to drink (cf. Gen. xlvii. G, xli. 2sqq.; Ex. ix. 3); and this is therefore specially mentioned in ver. 13, with an allusion to the consequence thereof, namely, that the waters of the Nile would not be disturbed anv more either by the foot of man or hoof of beast (compare ver. 136 with ch. xxix. 11). The disturbing of the water is mentioned with evident reference to ver. 2, where Pharaoh is depicted as a sea-monster, which disturbs the streams of wTater. The disturbance of the water is therefore a figurative representation of the wild driving of the imperial power of Egypt, by which the life-giving streams of the nations were stirred up. — Ver. 14. Then will God cause the waters of Egypt to sink. Hitzig and Kliefoth understand this as signifying the diminution of the abundance of water in the Nile, which had previously overflowed the land and rendered it fertile, but for which there was no further purpose now. According to this explanation, the words would contain a continued picture of the devastation of the land. But this is evidently a mistake, for the simple reason that it is irreconcilable with the TK, by which the thought is introduced. TK, tunc, is more precisely defined by 'W WI2 in ver. 15 as the time when the devastation has taken place; whereas Kliefoth takes the 15th verse, in opposition both to the words and the usage of the language, as the sequel to ver. 14, or in other words, regards W)3 as synonymous with WJ31. The verse contains a promise, as most of the commentators, led by the Chaldee and Jerome, have correctly assumed.1 $Ti?Bfy to make the water sink, might no doubt signify in itself a diminution of the abundance of water. But if we consider the context, in which reference is made to the disturbance of the water through its being trodden with the feet (ver. 13), ypvn can only signify to settle, i.e. to become clear through the sinking to the bottom of the slime which had been stirred up (cf. ch. xxxiv. 18). The correctness of this explanation is confirmed by the parallel clause, to make their streams flow with oil. To understand this as signifying the slow and gentle flow of the diminished water, would introduce a figure of which there is no trace in Hebrew. Oil is used throughout the Scriptures as a figurative representation of the divine blessing, or the power of the divine Spirit. PJ^, like oil, according to Hebrew phraseology, is equivalent to " like rivers of oil." And oil-rivers are not rivers which flow quietly like oil, but rivers which contain oil instead of water (cf. Job xxix. 6), and are symbolical of the rich blessing of God (cf. Deut. xxxii. 13). The figure is a very appropriate one for Egypt, as the land is indebted to the Nile for all its fertility. Whereas its water had been stirred up and rendered turbid by Pharaoh; after the fall of Pharaoh the Lord will cause the waters of the stream,

1 The explanation of Jerome is the following: " Then will purest waters,

which had been disturbed by the sway of the dragon, be restored not by another, but by the Lord Himself; so that their streams flow like oil, and are the nutriment of true light."

which pours its blessing upon the land, to purify themselves, and will make its streams flow with oil. The clarified water and flowing oil are figures of the life-giving power of the word and Spirit of God. But this blessing will not flow to Egypt till its natural power is destroyed. Ewald has therefore given the following as the precise meaning of ver. 14: " The Messianic times will then for the first time dawn on Egypt, when the waters no more become devastating and turbid, that is to say, through the true knowledge to which the chastisement leads." Ver. 16 "rounds off the passage by turning back to ver. 2" (Ilitzig). The daughters of the nations are mentioned as the singers, because mourning for the dead was for the most part the business of women (cf. Jer. ix. 1G). The words do not contain a summons to the daughters of the nations to sing the lamentation, but the declaration that they will do it, in which the thought is implied that the predicted devastation of Egypt will certainly occur.

Vers. 17-32. Funeral-dirge for the Destruction of the Might of Egypt. — This second lamentation or mourning ode, according to the heading in ver. 17, belongs to the same year as the preceding, and to the 15th of the month, no doubt the 12th month; in which case it was composed only fourteen days after the first. The statement of the month is omitted here, as in ch. xxvi. 1; and the omission is, no doubt, to be attributed to a copyist in this instance also. In the ode, which Ewald aptly describes as a " dull, heavy lamentation," we have six regular strophes, preserving the uniform and monotonous character of the lamentations for the dead, in which the thought is worked out, that Egypt, like other great nations, is cast down to the nether world. The whole of it is simply an elegiac expansion of the closing thought of the previous chapter (ch. xxxi.).

Vers. 18-21. Introduction and first strophe. — Ver. 18. Son of man, lament over the tumult of Egypt, and hurl it down, her, like the daughters of glorious nations, into the nether world, to those who go into the pit! Ver. 19. Whom dost thou surpass in loveliness? Go down and lay thyself with the uncircumcised. Ver. 20. Among those slain with the sioord loill they fall; the sword is handed, draw her down and all her tumult. Ver. 21. The strong ones of the heroes say of it out of the midst of hell with its helpers: they are gone down, they lie there, the uncircumcised, slain with the sivord. — nn^ utter a lamentation, and irrnim, thrust it (the tumult of Egypt) down, are co-ordinate. With the lamentation, or by means thereof, is Ezekiel to thrust down the tumult of Egypt into hell. The lamentation is God's word; and as such it has the power to accomplish what it utters, nrritf is not intended as a repetition of the suffix ^~, but resumes the principal idea contained in the object already named, viz. ^TP?9 Egypt, i,e. its population. nrriK and the daughters of glorious nations are co-ordinate. rta, as in the expression, daughter Tyre, daughter Babel, denotes the population of powerful heathen nations. The D^a D"HK can only be the nations enumerated in vers. 22, 24 sqq., which, according to these verses, are already in Sheol, not about to be thrust down, but thrust down already. Consequently the copula 1 before nU3 is to be taken in the sense of a comparison, as in 1 Sam. xii. 15 (cf. Ewald, § 340&). All these glorious nations have also been hurled down by the word of God; and Egypt is to be associated with them. By thus placing Egypt on a level with all the fallen nations, the enumeration of which fills the middle strophes of the ode, the lamentation over Egypt is extended into a funeral-dirge on the fall of all the heathen powers of the world. For nisnnn ps and "U2 *Trt*j compare ch. xxvi. 20. The ode itself commences in ver. 1(J, by giving prominence to the glory of the falling kingdom. But this prominence consists in the brief inquiry n?py: ''tpp, before whom art thou lovely? i.e. art thou more lovely than any one else? The words are addressed either to (ton DJTO? (ver. 18), or what is more probable, to Pharaoh with all his tumult (cf. vcr. 32), i.e. to the world-power, Egypt, as embodied in the person of Pharaoh; and the meaning of the question is the following: — Thou, Egypt, art indeed lovely; but thou art not better or more lovely than other mighty heathen nations; therefore thou canst not expect any better fate than to go down into Sheol, and there lie with the uncircumcised. Dv^g, as in ch. xxxi. 18. This is carried out still further in ver. 20, and the ground thereof assigned. The subject to vB* is the Egyptians, or Pharaoh and his tumult. They fall in the midst of those pierced with the sword. The sword is already handed to the executor of the judgment, the king of Babel (ch. xxxi. 11). Their destruction is so certain, that the words are addressed to the bearers of the sword: " Draw Ecvpt and all its tumult down into Sheol" (*3I7b is imperative for iDt^p.in Ex. xii. 21), and, according to ver. 21, the heathen already in Sheol are speaking of his destruction, i? V121T is rendered by many, " there speak to him, address him, greet him," with an allusion to Isa. xiv. 9 sqq., where the king of Babel, when descending into Sheol, is greeted with malicious pleasure by the kings already there. But however obvious the fact may be that Ezekiel has this passage in mind, there is no address in the verse before us as in Isa. xiv. 10, but simply a statement concerning the Egyptians, made in the third person. Moreover, V"}Tjrns could hardly be made to harmonize with V D3T, if S? signified ad eum. For it is not allowable to connect FJTJTTW (taken in the sense of along with their helpers) with D*")i3J vK as a noun in apposition, for the simple reason that the two are separated by?)#& Tjinp. Consequently VjtjmK can only belong to VIST: they talk (of him) with his helpers. VHT'y? his (Pharaoh's) helpers are his allies, who have already gone down before him into hell (cf. ch. xxx. 8). The singular suffix, which has offended Hitzig, is quite in order as corresponding to i?. The words, " they have gone down, lie there," etc., point once more to the fact that the same fate has happened to the Egyptians as to all the rest of the rulers and nations of the world whom God has nidged. For CHiaa vX, strong ones of the heroes, compare the comm. on ch. xxxi. 11.?iK&, hell = the nether world, the gathering-place of the dead; not the place of punishment for the damned. 2">n 7?n without the article is a predicate, and not in apposition to DylS*?- On the application of this epithet to the Egyptians, Kliefoth has correctly observed that u the question whether the Egyptians received circumcision is one that has no bearing upon this passage; for in the sense in which Ezekiel understands circumcision, the Egyptians were uncircumcised, even if they were accustomed to circumcise their flesh."

In the four following strophes (vers. 22-30) a series of heathen nations is enumerated, whom the Egyptian finds already in hell, and with whom he will share the same fate. There are six of these — namely, Asshur, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, and Sidon. The six are divisible into two classes — three great and remote world-powers, and three smaller neighbouring nations. In this no regard is paid to the time of destruction. With the empire of Asshur, which had already fallen, there are associated Elam and Meshech-Tubal, two nations, which only rose to the rank of world-powers in the more immediate and more remote future; and among the neighbouring nations, the Sidonians and princes of the north, i.e. the Syrian kings, are grouped with Edom, although the Sidonians had long ago given up their supremacy to Tyre, and the Aramean kings, who had once so grievously oppressed the kingdom of Israel, had already been swallowed up in the Assyrian and Chaldean empire. It may, indeed, be said that " in any case, at the time when Ezekiel prophesied, princes enough had already descended into Sheol both of the Assyrians and Elamites, etc., to welcome the Egyptians as soon as they came " (Kliefoth); but with the same justice may it also be said that many of the rulers and countrymen of Egypt had also descended into Sheol already, at the time when Pharaoh, reigning in Ezekiel's day, was to share the same fate. It is evident, therefore, that " any such reflection upon chronological relations is out of place in connection with our text, the intention of which is merely to furnish an exemplification" (Kliefoth), and that Ezekiel looks upon Egypt more in the light of a worldpower, discerning in its fall the overthrow of all the heathen power of the world, and predicting it under the prophetic picture, that Pharaoh and his tumult are expected and welcomed by the princes and nations that have already descended into Sheol, as coming to share their fate with them.

Vers. 22, 23. Second strophe. — Ver. 22. There is Asshur and all its multitude, round about it their graves, all of them slain, fallen by the sword. Ver. 23. Whose graves are made in the deepest pit, and its multitude is round about its grave; all slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living. — The enumeration commences with Asshur, the worldpower, which had already been overthrown by the Chaldeans. It is important to notice here, that TON, like dW in ver. 24, and?2n!J5&*B in ver. 26, is construed as a feminine, as njton which follows in every case plainly shows. It is obvious, therefore, that the predominant idea is not that of the king or people, but that of the kingdom or world-power. It is true that ill the suffixes attached to VJVUp vniMD in ver. 22, and vniTUD in vers. 25 and 26, the masculine alternates with the feminine, and Hitzig therefore proposes to erase these words; but the alternation may be very simply explained, on the ground that the ideas of the kingdom and its king are not kept strictly separate, but that the words oscillate from one idea to the other. It is affirmed of Asshur, that as a world-power it lies in Sheol, and the graves of its countrymen are round about the graves of its ruler. They all lie there as those who have fallen by the sword, i.e. who have been swept away by a judgment of God. To this is added in ver. 23 the declaration that the graves of Asshur lie in the utmost sides, i.e. the utmost or deepest extremity of Sheol; whereas so long as this power together with its people was in the land of the living, i.e. so long as they ruled on earth, they spread terror all around them by their violent deeds. From the loftiest height of earthly might and greatness, they are hurled down to the lowest hell. The higher on earth, the deeper in the nether world. Havernick has entirely misunderstood the words u round about Asshur are its graves" (ver. 22), and "its multitude is round about its grave " (the grave of this world-power), when he finds therein the thought that the graves and corpses are to be regarded as separated, so that the dead are waiting near their graves in deepest sorrow, looking for the honour of burial, but looking in vain. There is not a word of this in the text, but simply that the graves of the people lie round about the grave of their ruler.

Vers. 24 and 25. Third strophe. — Ver. 24. There is Elam, and all its multitude round about its grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, ivho went down uncircumcised into the nether world, who spread terror before them in the land of the living, and bear their shame with those who went into the pit. Ver. 25. In the midst of the slain have they made it a bed with all its multitude, round about it are their graves; all of them uncircumcised, pierced with the sword; because terror was spread before them in the land of the living, they bear their sliame with those who have gone into the pit. In the midst of slain ones is he laid. — Asshur is followed by EOT, Elam, the warlike people of Elymais, i.e. Susiana, the modern Chusistan, whose archers served in the Assyrian army (Isa. xxii. 6), and which is mentioned along with the Medes as one of the conquerors of Babylon (Isa. xxi. 2), whereas Jeremiah prophesied its destruction at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign (Jer. xlix. 34 sqq.). Ezekiel says just the same of Elam as he has already said of Asshur, and almost in the same words. The only difference is, that his description is more copious, and that he expresses more distinctly the thought of shameful destruction which is implied in the fact of lying in Sheol among the slain, and repeats it a second time, and that he also sets the bearing of shame