Ezekiel 32:20

They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes. SHE IS DELIVERED TO THE SWORD - namely, by God. DRAW HER - as if addressing her executioners: drag her forth to death....

17-32 Divers nations are mentioned as gone down to the grave before Egypt, who are ready to give her a scornful reception; these nations had been lately ruined and wasted. But though Judah and Jerusalem were about this time ruined and laid waste, yet they are not mentioned here. Though they suffered the same affliction, and by the same hand, yet the kind design for which they were afflicted, and the mercy God reserved for them, altered its nature. It was not to them a going down to the pit, as it was to the heathen. Pharaoh shall see, and be comforted; but the comfort wicked ones have after death, is poor comfort, not real, but only in fancy. The view this prophecy gives of ruined states shows something of this present world, and the empire of death in it. Come and see the calamitous state of human life. As if men did not die fast enough, they are ingenious at finding out ways to destro...

SHE IS DELIVERED TO THE SWORD - Rather, the sword is put forth. Draw her down as one dragged to execution....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 32:1 IN THE TWELFTH YEAR, etc. March, B.C. 584, nineteen months attar the destruction of Jerusalem. The two sections of the chapter, Ezekiel 32:1 and Ezekiel 32:17, belong to the same year, and probably, though the date of the month is net given for the second, were written within a fortnight of each other. The thoughts of the prophet still dwell upon the downfall of Egypt, and he is stirred, as by a special inspiration, to write an elaborate "lamentation" over its departed greatness. It would seem, from the repetition of the word in Ezekiel 32:16, as if th

THEY SHALL FALL IN THE MIDST OF THEM THAT ARE SLAIN BY THE SWORD,.... The Egyptians shall fall in battle by the sword of the Chaldeans: SHE IS DELIVERED TO THE SWORD; Egypt is given to the sword, to perish by it, for her sins, according to the just appointment of God: DRAW HER AND ALL HER MULTITUDES; to the place of burial; not in pomp and splendour, as great persons are drawn in hearses; but in great disgrace, as carcasses are dragged unto a common pit or grave, and cast into it: this is said to the Chaldeans, who had a commission from the Lord to slay Egypt, and to bury her, and all her people....

Ezekiel 31:1. Pharaoh's greatness is described in the first part of the chapter (Ezekiel 31:1). He is compared to the Assyrian, once so powerful and proud. The fall and desolation of the proud monarch under the picture of a tree follows in Ezekiel 31:10. The overthrow of Egypt and the resulting consternation among the nations is predicted in the last section of this chapter (Ezekiel 31:15). Ezekiel 32:1. The lamentation over Pharaoh is contained in Ezekiel 3

THE DESCENT OF EGYPT TO THE LOWER WORLD. This, the last oracle against Egypt, is unusually fascinating, whether we consider its sombre imagination, its literary power, or its religious importance. It describes the descent of Pharaoh and his multitude to the underworld, and the ironical welcome (_cf._ Isaiah 14:9 f_.)_ which they there receive from the heroes of the olden time. There appear to be two divisions in Sheol one for those heroes who have been honourably buried, the other for such as the uncircumcised and those who have enjoyed no funeral rites. In that world the national distinctions of this live on. Significantly enough, seven nations are mentioned, four great and three small Assyria, Elam (south of Assyria), Meshech and Tubal (_cf._ Ezekiel 27:13), Edom, the North (perhaps the Syri

SLAIN BY THE SWORD. Note the Figure of speech Cycloidea (App-6), by which these words occur as. refrain twelve times in the following verses (twelve being the number of governmental perfection or completion. See App-10). DRAW HER. drag her away: i.e. to the grave....

Dirge sung at the interment of Egypt and its multitude Several things are observable in this remarkable passage: 1. It is a funeral dirge primarily over the multitude or nation of Egypt; and so in the case of the other nations referred to, Asshur, Elam and the rest. These peoples are all gone down to Sheòl, uncircumcised, slain with the sword. There in the world of the dead each people has an abode to itself. Around one chief grave the graves of the general mass are gathered. The chief grave is probably that of the prince, though the prince is considered the genius, the embodiment of the spirit and being of the nation. The prophet regards the nations, even when no more existing on earth, as still having a subsistence in the world of the dead (cf. on Sodom, ch. 14). They are beings, who, having once lived, continue throughout all time. Though passed from the stage of history they still...

THEY SHALL FALL, &C.— Houbigant connects this with the preceding verse, thus, [_Be thou laid_] _among these who have fallen by the sword: the sword hath rushed in, and taken her away, and all her multitudes._...