9. messengers ... in ships to ... Ethiopians--([Is 18:1], 2). The cataracts interposing between them and Egypt should not save them. Egyptians "fleeing from before Me" in My execution of judgment, as "messengers" in "skiffs" ("vessels of bulrushes," [Is 18:2]) shall go up the Nile as far as navigable, to announce the advance of the Chaldeans.
as in the day of Egypt--The day of Ethiopia's "pain" shall come shortly, as Egypt's day came.
10. the multitude--the large population.
12. rivers--the artificial canals made from the Nile for irrigation. The drying up of these would cause scarcity of grain, and so prepare the way for the invaders ([Is 19:5-10]).
13. Noph--Memphis, the capital of Middle Egypt, and the stronghold of "idols." Though no record exists of Nebuchadnezzar's "destroying" these, we know from Herodotus and others, that Cambyses took Pelusium, the key of Egypt, by placing before his army dogs, cats, &c., all held sacred in Egypt, so that no Egyptian would use any weapon against them. He slew Apis, the sacred ox, and burnt other idols of Egypt.
no more a prince--referring to the anarchy that prevailed in the civil wars between Apries and Amasis at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. There shall no more be a prince of the land of Egypt, ruling the whole country; or, no independent prince.
14. Pathros--Upper Egypt, with "No" or Thebes its capital (famed for its stupendous buildings, of which grand ruins remain), in antithesis to Zoan or Tanis, a chief city in Lower Egypt, within the Delta.
15. Sin--that is, Pelusium, the frontier fortress on the northeast, therefore called "the strength (that is, the key) of Egypt." It stands in antithesis to No or Thebes at the opposite end of Egypt; that is, I will afflict Egypt from one end to the other.
16. distresses daily--Maurer translates, "enemies during the day," that is, open enemies who do not wait for the covert of night to make their attacks (compare [Jr 6:4]; ). However, the Hebrew, though rarely, is sometimes rendered (see [Psa 13:2]) as in English Version.
17. Aven--meaning "vanity" or "iniquity": applied, by a slight change of the Hebrew name, to On or Heliopolis, in allusion to its idolatry. Here stood the temple of the sun, whence it was called in Hebrew, Beth-shemesh ([Jr 43:13]). The Egyptian hieroglyphics call it, Re Athom, the sun, the father of the gods, being impersonate in Athom or Adam, the father of mankind.
Pi-beseth--that is, Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, near the Pelusiac branch of the Nile: notorious for the worship of the goddess of the same name (Coptic, Pasht), the granite stones of whose temple still attest its former magnificence.
these cities--rather, as the Septuagint, "the women," namely, of Aven and Pi-beseth, in antithesis to "the young men." So in [Eze 30:18], "daughters shall go into captivity" [Maurer].
18. Tehaphnehes--called from the queen of Egypt mentioned in [1Ki 11:19]. The same as Daphne, near Pelusium, a royal residence of the Pharaohs ([Jr 43:7], ). Called Hanes ([Is 30:4]).
break ... the yokes of Egypt--that is, the tyrannical supremacy which she exercised over other nations. Compare "bands of their yoke" ([Eze 34:7]).
a cloud--namely, of calamity.
20. Here begins the earlier vision, not long after that in the twenty-ninth chapter, about three months before the taking of Jerusalem, as to Pharaoh and his kingdom.
21. broken ... arm of Pharaoh--([Psa 37:17]; [Jr 48:25]). Referring to the defeat which Pharaoh-hophra sustained from the Chaldeans, when trying to raise the siege of Jerusalem ([Jr 37:5], ); and previous to the deprivation of Pharaoh-necho of all his conquests from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates ([2Ki 24:7]; [Jr 46:2]); also to the Egyptian disaster in Cyrene.
22. arms--Not only the "one arm" broken already ([Eze 30:21]) was not to be healed, but the other two should be broken. Not a corporal wound, but a breaking of the power of Pharaoh is intended.
cause ... sword to fall out of ... hand--deprive him of the resources of making war.
Chapter 31
Eze 31:1-18. The Overthrow of Egypt Illustrated by That of Assyria
Not that Egypt was, like Assyria, utterly to cease to be, but it was, like Assyria, to lose its prominence in the empire of the world.
1. third month--two months later than the prophecy delivered in [Eze 30:20].
2. Whom art thou like--The answer is, Thou art like the haughty king of Assyria; as he was overthrown by the Chaldeans, so shalt thou be by the same.
3. He illustrates the pride and the consequent overthrow of the Assyrian, that Egypt may the better know what she must expect.
cedar in Lebanon--often eighty feet high, and the diameter of the space covered by its boughs still greater: the symmetry perfect. Compare the similar image ([Eze 17:3]; [Da 4:20-22]).
with a shadowing shroud--with an overshadowing thicket.
top ... among ... thick boughs--rather [Hengstenberg], "among the clouds." But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The top, or topmost shoot, represents the king; the thick boughs, the large resources of the empire.
4. waters ... little rivers--the Tigris with its branches and "rivulets," or "conduits" for irrigation, the source of Assyria's fertility. "The deep" is the ever flowing water, never dry. Metaphorically, for Assyria's resources, as the "conduits" are her colonies.
5. when he shot forth--because of the abundant moisture which nourished him in shooting forth. But see Margin.
6. fowls ... made ... nests in ... boughs--so [Eze 17:23]; [Da 4:12]. The gospel kingdom shall gather all under its covert, for their good and for the glory of God, which the world kingdoms did for evil and for self-aggrandizement ([Mt 13:32]).
8. cedars ... could not hide him--could not outtop him. No other king eclipsed him.
were not like--were not comparable to.
garden of God--As in the case of Tyre ([Eze 28:13]), the imagery, that is applied to the Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered Assyria ([Ge 2:10-14]). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there outtopped it.
9. I ... made him--It was all due to My free grace.
10. thou ... he--The change of persons is because the language refers partly to the cedar, partly to the person signified by the cedar.
11. Here the literal supersedes the figurative.
shall surely deal with him--according to his own pleasure, and according to the Assyrian's (Sardanapalus) desert. Nebuchadnezzar is called "the mighty one" (El, a name of God), because he was God's representative and instrument of judgment ([Da 2:37], 38).
12. from his shadow--under which they had formerly dwelt as their covert ([Eze 31:6]).
13. Birds and beasts shall insult over his fallen trunk.
14. trees by the waters--that is, that are plentifully supplied by the waters: nations abounding in resources.
stand up in their height--that is, trust in their height: stand upon it as their ground of confidence. Fairbairn points the Hebrew differently, so as for "their trees," to translate, "(And that none that drink water may stand) on themselves, (because of their greatness)." But the usual reading is better, as Assyria and the confederate states throughout are compared to strong trees. The clause, "All that drink water," marks the ground of the trees' confidence "in their height," namely, that they have ample sources of supply. Maurer, retaining the same Hebrew, translates, "that neither their terebinth trees may stand up in their height, nor all (the other trees) that drink water."
to ... nether ... earth ... pit--([Eze 32:18]; [Psa 82:7]).
15. covered the deep--as mourners cover their heads in token of mourning, "I made the deep that watered the cedar" to wrap itself in mourning for him. The waters of the deep are the tributary peoples of Assyria ([Re 17:15]).
fainted--literally, were "faintness" (itself); more forcible than the verb.