In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon that lies
in the midst of his streams,
that says, ‘My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.’
4 I will put hooks in your jaws,
and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales;
and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams,
with all the fish of your streams
that stick to your scales.
5 And I will cast you out into the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your streams;
you shall fall on the open field,
and not be brought together or gathered.
To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens
I give you as food.
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.
“Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, 7 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. 8 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, 9 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
“Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’ 10 therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. 11 No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries.
13 “For thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, 14 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15 It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 16 And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.”
17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord God.
21 “On that day I will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 29 ESV
Ezekiel 29 Prophecy Against Egypt
…15For by this time I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the earth. 16But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 17Still, you lord it over My people and do not allow them to go.… Exodus 9: 15-17
1-6 Set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt - God has already had Ezekiel speak against the prince of Tyre and the king of Tyre, against Ammon, Moab and Seir, such as were under this world's system and the present ruler of this darkness. This is the most ancient of relations with Israel, for it is here that the twelve tribes grew, and from here that they were called out under the leadership of Moses.
The great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams - The Nile is famous for it's crocodiles, and the serpent of the OT, Satan, is also elevated from serpent, a creature of cunning in the garden, to dragon in the NT, a creature more feared. Pharaoh is a lesser type of dragon, not like the sea dragon, Leviathan, but fearsome none the less, yet men will be sent to capture him.
“Pharaoh was compared to a ferocious crocodile, guarding the waters of the land—the Nile and all the canals—and attacking anybody who dared to challenge his claims.” (Wiersbe)
…3Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth. 5And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne.… Revelation 12: 3-5
…8But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels. 9And the great dragon was hurled down— that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God.… Revelation 12: 8-10
My Nile is my own, I made it for myself - What a deranged statement, like Lucifer looking upon his beauty, and thinking it originated from himself, as though he was not the creature, the glory belonging to another. Pharaoh is also mad in that Egypt was great before him, God made the Nile which is the source of it's greatness. The Nile river's banks flood over every year, bringing nutrients into the surrounding land, much like deltas in other places, it is full of nutrients. The fish and crocodiles move up through the marshes, into the flooded fields, and everything is revived with minerals and fertilizer. As the water recedes the farmers plant crops in the rich soil, and also dig canals and aqueducts to irrigate even more land during the dryer times. When the river waters draw back down it is also the easiest time to fish, since everything is more concentrated. This land produces so well that Joseph was able to take a percentage of the crops for 7 years to get Egypt and its neighbors through the next 7 years of famine.
“The Nile was the source of Egypt’s greatness. It provided rich alluvial soil along its banks, beyond which was desert. It provided a continuous supply of water to irrigate the land and to slake the thirst of the Egyptians and their animals. It provided a means of transportation that made it possible for Egypt to bring its bountiful harvests to market. There would be no Egypt without the Nile.” (Vawter and Hoppe)
Note, Worldly carnal minds please themselves with, and pride themselves in, their property, forgetting that whatever we have we have only the use of it, the property is in God. We ourselves are not our own, but his. Our tongues are not our own, Ps. 12:4. Our river is not our own, for its springs are in God. The most potent prince cannot call what he has his own, for, though it be so against all the world, it is not so against God. But Pharaoh's reason for his pretensions is yet more absurd: My river is my own, for I have made it for myself. Here he usurps two of the divine prerogatives, to be the author and the end of his own being and felicity. He only that is the great Creator can say of this world, and of every thing in it, I have made it for myself. He calls his river his own because he looks not unto the Maker thereof, nor has respect unto him that fashioned it long ago, Isa. 22:11. - Matthew Henry
I will put hooks in your jaw - This also made fun of Egypt's god, Sebek, the crocodile god, for the real God will put a hook in his mouth, and the more humiliating thing will be that God will send another king to do it, another man that thinks himself a god. If you have ever watched Swamp People then you get a picture of this, with strong cord, a hook and some rotten chicken, only God would probably not consider Pharaoh a "twee Shakah".
Fish of your streams that stick to your scales - The people of Egypt, those who revered the Pharaoh.
6-9 Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel - A staff is supposed to be strong; it promises support, but when they grabbed it pull themselves up, it caused them to tear their shoulders, and when they leaned on it, it would not support their weight. Now, it is interesting too, that Israel had been warned by God, through His prophets, not to go back to Egypt, not to put their trust in them, yet God will punish both. The one who promises to protect you, says they are a god, a deliverer in time of trouble, and the one who believes such a spirit of antichrist, both will receive their reward. Assyria knew of Egypt's boasting back when they came against Judah, but it was God who delivered Jerusalem then, and God Who warned Israel's kings not to go back that way.
…20You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me? 21Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 2 Kings 18: 20-21
…15you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers. 16But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’ 17He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.…
10-21 As far as the border of Cush - Cush would be an area comprising modern day Ethiopia and then some.
Land of Pathros -
…10On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious. 11 On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.… Isaiah 11:11
Never again exalt itself above the nations - Egypt would never be a world power again, and it is actually gracious of God both on Egypt's account that He restored, but for Israel that Egypt was diminished. Think of the rich for whom it is more difficult to come to God then for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, he trust in his riches. God took Israel's crutch, their temptation of misplaced trust, this superstitious land, with it's leaders that thought themselves gods, and He turned the staff to splinters.
Wright explained his understanding of this promised and limited restoration: “The restoration of Egypt came under Greek rule, and Alexandria especially became an important centre of Judaism and Christianity, thus probably fulfilling Isaiah 19.19-25.”
iii. The lowliest of kingdoms: “Egypt did suffer from Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion, and its rule over the nations was broken and never regained. They declined under the Persians, the Ptolemies and Rome. Egypt has been a weak country in the centuries since except for a momentary revival of power during the Middle Ages.” (Feinberg)
Every shoulder was rubbed bare - Nebuchadnezzar and his army worked hard to bring down Tyre, worked themselves to the bone so to speak. Tyre is two parts though, one a city on the mainland and the other a fortified island. When Babylon put them under siege they were probably able to take most of their wealth to the island and then ship much of it away as well, for Tyre was well loved among the nations, with many allies in commerce.
“The 1st-cent. a. D.Jewish historian and apologist Flavius Josephus stated that the Babylonian siege of Tyre lasted for thirteen years (Antiquities x. 11.1). Tyre consumed its treasures in its own defense or otherwise made them unavailable to the Babylonians.” (Vawter and Hoppe)
Because they worked for me - This again expresses God's sovereignty in history. The Babylonians did what came naturally to them, and did not see themselves as the ministers of this Hebrew God, yet He accomplished His purposes through them. Just like Israel paid for trusting in Egypt, Egypt paid for their unbelief in the true God, the Pharaoh for his pride, and so will Babylon for her arrogance and excess, yet right now God is rewarding them for their work in removing the stumbling block of Egypt.
I will open your lips among them - They will have seen fulfillment of many prophecies at that time, Isaiah's, Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's, which should give them ears much more inclined to hear. All their hope in rescue from Egypt will be gone, which had been told them all along.
“This seems to mean that the skepticism of the captives regarding Ezekiel would be removed and they would come to regard him as a true prophet.” (Smith)
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