CHAPTER XXX _This chapter describes, with great force and elegance, the ruin_ _of Egypt and all her allies by the Chaldeans under_ _Nebuchadnezzar_, 1-11; _with an amplification of the distress of the principal cities_ _of Egypt on that occasion_, 12-19. _The remaining verses are a short proph... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:2. _HOWL YE, WO WORTH THE DAY!_] My Old MS. Bible, - _Soule gee,_ _woo woo to the day!_ הילילו הה ליום heylilu, hah laiyom! "Howl ye, Alas for the day!" The reading in our present text is taken from _Coverdale's_ Bible, 1535. The expressions signify that a most dreadful calamity was... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:5. _LYDIA_] This place is not well known. The _Ludim_ were contiguous to Egypt, Genesis 10:13. _CHUB_] The Cubians, placed by Ptolemy in the _Mareotis_. But probably instead of וכוב _vechub_, "and Chub," we should read וכל _vechol_, "and ALL the men of the land," c. The _Septuagint... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:7. _SHALL BE DESOLATE_] All these countries shall be desolated, and the places named shall be chief in these desolations.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:9. _MESSENGERS GO FORTH FROM ME IN SHIPS_] Ships can ascend the Nile up to Syene or Essuan, by the _cataracts_; and when Nebuchadnezzar's vessels went up, they struck terror into the Ethiopians. They are represented here as the "messengers of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:12. _I WILL MAKE THE RIVERS DRY_] As the _overflowing_ of the Nile was the grand cause of fertility to Egypt, the _drying_ it up, or preventing that _annual inundation_, must be the cause of dearth, famine, c. By _rivers_, we may understand the _various canals_ cut from the Nile to... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:13. _THEIR IMAGES TO CEASE OUT OF NOPH_] Afterwards _Memphis_, and now _Cairo_ or _Kahira_. This was the seat of Egyptian idolatry; the place where _Apis_ was particularly worshipped. _NO MORE A PRINCE OF THE LAND OF EGYPT_] Not one, from that time to the present day. Ezekiel 29:14... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:14. _I WILL MAKE PATHROS DESOLATE_] See the preceding chapter, Ezekiel 29:14. _ZOAN_] _Tanis_, the ancient capital of Egypt. _NO._] _Diospolis_, or _Thebes_, the city of Jupiter.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:15. _MY FURY UPON SIN_] _Pelusium_, a strong city of Egypt, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:16. _NOPH_] _Cairo_ or _Kahira_; see Ezekiel 30:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:17. _AVEN_] Or _On, the famous Heliopolis_, or city of the sun. _PIBESETH_] _Bubastum_ or _Bubaste_, by a slight alteration of the letters. It is situated on the eastern branch of the Nile, towards Arabia.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:18. _TEHAPHNEHES_] Called also _Tahapanes_, Jeremiah 2:16. This is the _Pelusian Daphne_. _BREAK THERE THE YOKES_] The sceptres. Nebuchadnezzar broke the sceptre of Egypt when he confirmed the kingdom to _Amasis_, who had rebelled against _Apries_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:20. _IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR, IN THE FIRST_ MONTH, _IN THE_ _SEVENTH DAY_] This was the _eleventh_ year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and the date here answers to April 26, A.M. 3416; a prophecy anterior by several years to that already delivered. In collecting the writings of Ezekiel,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:21. _I HAVE BROKEN THE ARM OF PHARAOH_] Perhaps this may refer to his defeat by Nebuchadnezzar, when he was coming with the Egyptian army to succour Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:22. _I WILL CAUSE THE SWORD TO FALL OUT OF HIS HAND._] When the arm is broken, the sword will naturally fall. But these expressions show that the Egyptians would be rendered wholly useless to Zedekiah, and should never more recover their political strength. This was the case from th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 30:26. _I WILL SCATTER THE EGYPTIANS_] Several fled with _Apries_ to Upper Egypt; and when Nebuchadnezzar wasted the country, he carried many of them to Babylon. See on Ezekiel 29:12.... [ Continue Reading ]