Ezekiel 32:1-16

The Dirge over Pharaoh. A dirge is now sung over Pharaoh, in which he is likened, as before (Ezekiel 29:3), to a crocodile brutal and turbulent; but Yahweh will catch him in His net, and hurl his huge dripping carcase over mountain and valley, to be devoured by beasts and birds. Pharaoh, the brilliant luminary (the figure changes here), shall be extinguished; and other nations, when they behold Egypt's fate, shall tremble at the thought that the like may happen to themselves. All this means in plain terms (Ezekiel 32:11) that Egypt will be devastated by the king of Babylon. (Ezekiel 32:2. The opening words of the dirge are obscure: either thou didst liken thyself to a young lion, etc., but art only a river monster; or a young lion. is come upon thee. Rivers should perhaps be nostrils, and the reference to blowing water. Ezekiel 32:6 should perhaps read, I will water the land with thine outflow blood being a correct gloss. Ezekiel 32:9, for destruction read (LXX) captives. Ezekiel 32:14 means that the land, being desolated (Ezekiel 32:15), will be absolutely still it and its waters).