Ezekiel 29:17

In the seven and twentieth year. — This is the latest date among all Ezekiel’s prophecies, and is more than sixteen years after the prophecy of the former part of the chapter. This date corresponds with the thirty-fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign (see 2 Kings 25:2; 2 Kings 25:8), and, from Ezekiel 29:18, was evidently uttered after the close of the siege of Tyre. As that siege lasted thirteen years, it must have been begun at least as early as Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-second year, or within three years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Josephus, however, states (Antt. x. 9, § 7) that in the twenty-third year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar made a successful expedition against Cælosyria, after which he brought the Ammonites and Moabites into subjection, and then conquered Egypt. The two former campaigns are consistent enough with the still progressing siege of Tyre; but hardly the latter. We must, therefore, suppose a considerable interval between these conquests, of which Josephus takes no notice.

The present utterance may have been either simultaneous with or only just before the conquest of Egypt. Its most probable time is during the early part of the campaign against Egypt.

This passage is placed with the other prophecies against Egypt in order to bring them all together, and is assigned to this particular place, after the analogy of Ezekiel 26:7, in order to bring the mention of the agent by whom the conquest is to be effected immediately after the general prophecy of judgment.