A cloudy day - So times of trouble are called. Of the heathen - The time when God will reckon with the Heathens.
Ethiopia - The neighbour and ally to Egypt. Take away - Into miserable captivity. Her foundations - Their government, laws, and strong holds.
Lydia - Not the Asiatic, but the Africans placed between some part of Cyrene and Egypt. The mingled people - The hired soldiers from all parts, a confused mixture of nations. And Chub - The inhabitants of the inmost Libya; perhaps they may be the Nubians at this day. The men - All the allies of Egypt. With them - With the Egyptians.
Upheld - Those that favour and help her. The pride - The glory of all her strength.
They - All those before mentioned.
Destroyed - The fire that consumes nations is of God's kindling: and when he sets fire to a kingdom, all they that go about to quench the fire, shall be consumed by it.
Messengers - Such as having escaped the sword, shall tell the news. From me - By my permission and providence. In ship's - Messengers by ships might carry the news to both the Ethiopian, Asian, and African, by the Red - sea. As in the day - During the mighty havock made by the Chaldeans. It - A like storm.
His people - His own subjects, not hired soldiers.
The rivers dry - Probably the Chaldeans diverted them, and so their fortified towns wanted one great defence. Sell - Give it up entirely.
Noph - Memphis, now Grand Cairo, the chief city of the country. A prince - Either an Egyptian born, or independent, and over all Egypt. A fear - Consternation and cowardice.
In Zoan - Zoan shall be burnt down to ashes. In No - A great and populous city situate on one of the mouths of the Nile.
Sin - Pelusium, which was the key of Egypt, and therefore always well fortified, and strongly garrisoned.
Shall be rent - Her walls, and towers, and fortresses broken through by the violence of engines, and by the assaults of the soldiers.
Young men - 'Tis probable these might be a body of valiant youths, collected out of these ten cities. Aven - Bethshemesh, or Heliopolis, an idolatrous city, in which was a stately temple of the sun: an hundred and fifty furlongs, that is six miles and three quarters in compass. Phibeseth - Bubastus, sometimes called Hoephestus, not far from Aven.
Tehaphnehes - A great and goodly city of Egypt; Tachapanes, Tachpanes, Tahapanes, Tahpanes, Chanes, and Hanes, are names given it, and this from a queen of Egypt of that name in Solomon's time. It stood not far from Sin, or Pelusium. Darkened - A night shall come upon it. Break - I shall break the kingdom of Egypt, that it no more oppress with yokes, that is, burdens. Her daughters - Her towns and villages.
The eleventh year - Of Jeconiah's captivity, three months and two days before Jerusalem was taken, about the time that the Egyptians attempted to raise the siege of Jerusalem.
Have broken - Partly by the victory of the Chaldeans over Pharaoh - necho, partly by the victory of the Cyreneans over Pharaoh - hophra. The sword - None can heal the wounds that God gives but himself. They whom he disables, cannot again hold the sword.
His arms - Both his arms. The strong - That part of his kingdom which remains entire. Broken - That which was shattered before.
Will strengthen - As judges on the bench like Pilate, so generals in the field, like Nebuchadrezzar, have no power but what is given them from above.
His multitude - His numerous subjects.
A cedar - Like the most goodly cedar for strength and beauty.
The waters - Cedars grow great by the water - courses. The deep - The sea sent out her waters, which gave being to the rivers, that watered him. His plants - The provinces of this mighty kingdom, that were like plants about a great tree. All the trees - To all his subjects.
All the fowls - All kind of men, nobles, merchants, husbandmen. Made their nests - Settled their habitations. In his boughs - In his kingdom, in the cities and towns of it. All great nations - No nation that was great at that time, but, sought the friendship of this kingdom.
The cedars - The greatest kings. Garden of God - In the most fruitful gardens. Hide - Could not ever top, and shade him. The fir - trees - Lesser kings, and kingdoms, were not equal to his boughs. Nor any tree - All summed up, none like him in all the kingdoms of the world.
Him - The proud king of Assyria, Sardanapalus. The mighty one - Arbaces, who first struck at the root of this Cedar, might well be styled the mighty one of the heathen, since he could bring together four hundred thousand of Medes, Persians, Babylonians, and Arabians.
Strangers - Foreigners.
To the end - All this is designed to be a warning to mortals. All the trees - The emperors, kings, or flourishing states. By the waters - Planted most commodiously, and furnished most abundantly with power and wealth. The children of men - As common men, of no quality or distinction.
He - The king of Assyria. A mourning - There was much lamentation. Fainted - Probably there were portentous signs in the sea, and great waters, and the rivers, and among the trees.
Shake - All that heard the noise of his fall, trembled at it. Cast him down - Brought the king and kingdom, as a dead man to the grave among them, that before were dead and buried. All the trees - All kings, and particularly the greatest. All that drink water - Enjoyed great power, riches, and glory. Comforted - He speaks to the dead with allusion to the manner of the living, who rejoice to see the proud brought low.
They also - His neighbouring kings. Hell - Perished with him, and went to those whom God had slain for their pride and wickedness. They that were his arm - His loyal and faithful subjects and friends, on whom he relied, and by whom he acted.
Yet - Thou shalt be like them in thy fall. Thou shalt lie - As unclean, despised, loathsome and under a curse. This is - This will be their end.
Twelfth year - Of the captivity of Jeconiah.
Like a young lion - Spoiling all thou canst. Crocodile - The crocodiles lay in the rivers, though sometimes they went down the river to the sea. With thy rivers - Raisedst mighty armies, and didst lead them out against thy neighbours. The waters - The people, and kings near thee. Thy feet - With thy soldiers. Fouledst - Didst spoil all the conveniences of thy neighbours.
With a company - In the countries, where these creatures were hunted, they went in mighty companies.
Leave thee - This was literally fulfilled in the deserts of Lybia, where the slain of Hophra's army, were left to be devoured by fowls and beasts.
With thy height - With the carcasses of thy princes.
Even to the mountains - Blood shall be poured forth, as if it were to rise to the very mountains. Full of thee - O thy blood, and of thy carcasses cast into them.
Put thee out - As a torch is extinguished. Cover the sun - Probably some unusual darkness was seen in the heavens, and on the earth, about that time.
Thy destruction - The fame of it. Not known - Such as were strangers to Egypt, shall be troubled with apprehension of what mischief may come upon the world from so mighty a conqueror.
Shall tremble - Be greatly afraid, lest Nebuchadnezzar, who is God's sword, should smite them. Every man - Every one of the kings, whose kingdoms are near to Egypt.
All the beasts - The sheep, and oxen devoured, or driven away: the horses taken up to mount the horsemen, whose own horses were tired, or spoiled. Great waters - The pasture lying along the river side. Trouble them - There shall be so few men left in Egypt, that they shall not as formerly, disturb the waters by digging, swimming, or rowing on them. Nor the hoofs - So few horses or cows, that they shall not at watering - times, or in the heat of the day, foul the waters.
Like oil - A figurative expression, signifying, there shall be such an universal sadness and heaviness upon the whole nation, that the very rivers which used to flow briskly, shall grow deep, and slow, and heavy.
Of that - Men and women, cattle, wealth, and peace.
This is the lamentation - This mournful account, which the prophet has given of Egypt.
Wail - Prepare the funeral ceremonies at the burial of Egypt. The daughters - And celebrate the funerals of other cities and kingdoms that lie buried in their own ruins. The nether parts of the earth - A well known description of the state of the dead. The pit - The Egyptians affected to be buried in the Pyramids, and their kings, and great ones, would be laid by themselves; but Ezekiel provides them their grave among common people, being buried just where they fall.