---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Ezekiel 32"
description: "CHAPTER 32   :-. TWO ELEGIES
OVER PHARAOH, ONE
DELIVERED ON THE FIRST
DAY ( :-), THE OTHER
ON THE FIFTEENTH
DAY OF THE SAME
MONTH, THE TWELFTH
OF THE TWEL"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/ezekiel/32"
---

CHAPTER 32

. TWO ELEGIES
OVER PHARAOH, ONE
DELIVERED ON THE FIRST
DAY (), THE OTHER
ON THE FIFTEENTH
DAY OF THE SAME
MONTH, THE TWELFTH
OF THE TWELFTH
YEAR.

**1.** The twelfth year from the
carrying away of Jehoiachin; Jerusalem was by this time overthrown,
and Amasis was beginning his revolt against Pharaoh-hophra.

**2. Pharaoh**—"Phra" in
Burmah, signifies the king, high priest, and idol.
**whale**—rather, any
monster of the waters; here, the crocodile of the Nile. Pharaoh is as
a lion on dry land, a crocodile in the waters; that is, an object of
terror everywhere.
**camest forth with thy
rivers**—"breakest forth" [FAIRBAIRN].
The antithesis of "seas" and "rivers" favors
GROTIUS rendering, "Thou
camest forth from the sea *into* the rivers"; that is, from
thy own empire into other states. However, *English Version* is
favored by the "thy": thou camest forth with *thy*
rivers (that is, with thy forces) and with thy feet didst fall
irrecoverably; so Israel, once desolate, troubles the waters (that
is, neighboring states).

**3. with a company of many
people**—namely, the Chaldeans ([Ezekiel 29:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/29/3);
[Ezekiel 29:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/29/4); [Hosea 7:12](../../../kjv/hosea/7/12)).
**my net**—for they are My
instrument.

**4. leave thee upon the land**—as
a fish drawn out of the water loses all its strength, so Pharaoh (in
[Ezekiel 32:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/3), compared to a water
monster) shall be ([Ezekiel 29:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/29/5)).

**5. thy height**—thy hugeness
[FAIRBAIRN]. The great
heap of corpses of thy forces, on which thou pridest thyself.
"Height" may refer to *mental elevation,* as well as
bodily [VATABLUS].

**6. land wherein thou swimmest**—Egypt:
the land watered by the Nile, the the source of its fertility,
wherein thou swimmest (carrying on the image of the crocodile, that
is, wherein thou dost exercise thy wanton power at will). Irony. The
land shall still afford seas to swim in, but they shall be seas of
blood. Alluding to the plague ([Exodus 7:19](../../../kjv/exodus/7/19);
[Revelation 8:8](../../../kjv/revelation/8/8)). HAVERNICK
translates, "I will water the land with *what flows from thee,*
even thy blood, reaching to the mountains": "with thy blood
*overflowing* even to the mountains." Perhaps this is
better.

**7. put thee out**—extinguish thy
light ([Job 18:5](../../../kjv/job/18/5)). Pharaoh is
represented as a bright star, at the extinguishing of whose light in
the political sky the whole heavenly host is shrouded in sympathetic
darkness. Here, too, as in [Job 18:5](../../../kjv/job/18/5), there is an allusion to the supernatural darkness sent
formerly ([Exodus 10:21-23](../../../kjv/exodus/10/21-23)).
The heavenly bodies are often made images of earthly dynasties
([Isaiah 13:10](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/10); [Matthew 24:29](../../../kjv/matthew/24/29)).

**9. thy destruction**—that is,
tidings of thy destruction (literally, "thy breakage")
carried by captive and dispersed Egyptians "among the nations"
[GROTIUS]; or, *thy
broken people,* resembling one great *fracture,* the ruins of
what they had been [FAIRBAIRN].

**10. brandish my sword before
them**—literally, "in their faces," or sight.

**13.** (See on ). The picture is ideally true, not to be interpreted by the
letter. The political ascendency of Egypt was to cease with the
Chaldean conquest [FAIRBAIRN].
Henceforth Pharaoh must figuratively no longer *trouble the waters
by man or beast,* that is, no longer was he to flood other peoples
with his overwhelming forces.

**14. make their waters deep**—rather,
"make . . . *to subside*"; literally, "sink"
[FAIRBAIRN].
**like oil**—emblem of
*quietness.* No longer shall they descend violently on other
countries as the overflowing Nile, but shall be still and sluggish in
political action.

**16.** As in . This is a prophetical lamentation; yet so it shall come to
pass [GROTIUS].

**17.** The second lamentation for
Pharaoh. This funeral dirge in imagination accompanies him to the
unseen world. Egypt personified in its political head is ideally
represented as undergoing the change by death to which man is liable.
Expressing that Egypt's supremacy is no more, a thing of the past,
never to be again.
**the month**—the twelfth
month ([Ezekiel 32:1](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/1)); fourteen days
after the former vision.

**18. cast them down**—that is,
predict that they shall be *cast down* (so ). The prophet's word was God's, and carried with it its own
fulfilment.
**daughters of . . .
nations**—that is, the nations with their peoples. Egypt is to
share the fate of other ancient nations once famous, now consigned to
oblivion: Elam ([Ezekiel 32:32](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/32);
[Ezekiel 32:24](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/24)), Meshech, &c. ([Ezekiel 32:24](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/24)), Edom ([Ezekiel 32:29](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/29)),
Zidon ([Ezekiel 32:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/30)).

**19. Whom dost thou pass in
beauty?**—Beautiful as thou art, thou art not more so than other
nations, which nevertheless have perished.
**go down,** &c.—to the
nether world, where all "beauty" is speedily marred.

**20. she is delivered to the
sword**—namely, by God.
**draw her**—as if
addressing her executioners: drag her forth to death.

**21.** (). Ezekiel has before his eyes , c.
**shall speak to him**—with
"him" join "with them that help him" *shall
speak to him and his helpers* with a taunting welcome, as now one
of themselves.

**22. her . . . his**—The abrupt
change of gender is, because Ezekiel has in view at one time the
*kingdom* (feminine), at another the *monarch.* "Asshur,"
or Assyria, is placed first in punishment, as being first in guilt.

**23. in the sides of the
pit**—Sepulchres in the East were caves hollowed out of the rock,
and the bodies were laid in niches formed at the sides. MAURER
needlessly departs from the ordinary meaning, and translates,
"extremities" (compare [Isaiah 14:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/14/13);
[Isaiah 14:15](../../../kjv/isaiah/14/15)).
**which caused terror**—They,
who alive were a terror to others, are now, in the nether world,
themselves a terrible object to behold.

**24. Elam**—placed next, as
having been an auxiliary to Assyria. Its territory lay in Persia. In
Abraham's time an independent kingdom (). Famous for its bowmen ().
**borne their shame**—the
just retribution of their lawless *pride.* Destroyed by
Nebuchadnezzar ().

**25. a bed**—a sepulchral niche.
**all . . . slain by . . .
sword,** c.— ([Ezekiel 32:21](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/21)
[Ezekiel 32:23](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/23); [Ezekiel 32:24](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/24)).
The very monotony of the phraseology gives to the dirge an
awe-inspiring effect.

**26. Meshech, Tubal**—northern
nations: the Moschi and Tibareni, between the Black and Caspian Seas.
HERODOTUS [3.94], mentions
them as a subjugated people, tributaries to Darius Hystaspes (see ).

**27. they shall not lie with the
mighty**—that is, they shall not have separate tombs such as
mighty conquerors have: but shall all be heaped together in one pit,
as is the case with the vanquished [GROTIUS].
HAVERNICK reads it
interrogatively, "Shall they not lie with the mighty that are
fallen?" But *English Version* is supported by the parallel
([Isaiah 14:18](../../../kjv/isaiah/14/18); [Isaiah 14:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/14/19)),
to which Ezekiel refers, and which represents them as *not*
lying as mighty kings lie in a grave, but cast out of one, as a
carcass trodden under foot.
**with . . . weapons of
war**—alluding to the custom of burying warriors with their arms
(1 Maccabees 13:29). Though honored by the laying of "their
swords under their heads," yet the punishment of "their
iniquities shall be upon their bones." Their swords shall thus
attest their shame, not their glory ([Isaiah 14:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/14/19)), being the instruments of their violence, the penalty of
which they are paying.

**28. Yea, thou**—Thou, too,
Egypt, like them, shalt lie as one vanquished.

**29. princes**—Edom was not only
governed by kings, but by subordinate "princes" or "dukes"
([Genesis 36:40](../../../kjv/genesis/36/40)).
**with their
might**—notwithstanding their might, they shall be brought down
([Isaiah 34:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/34/5); [Isaiah 34:10-17](../../../kjv/isaiah/34/10-17);
[Jeremiah 49:7](../../../kjv/jeremiah/49/7); [Jeremiah 49:13-18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/49/13-18)).
**lie with the
uncircumcised**—Though Edom was circumcised, being descended from
Isaac, he shall lie with the uncircumcised; much more shall Egypt,
who had no hereditary right to circumcision.

**30. princes of the north**—Syria,
which is still called by the Arabs the north; or the Tyrians, north
of Palestine, conquered by Nebuchadnezzar (), [GROTIUS].
**Zidonians**—who shared
the fate of Tyre ([Ezekiel 28:21](../../../kjv/ezekiel/28/21)).
**with their terror they are
ashamed of their might**—that is, notwithstanding the terror
which they inspired in their contemporaries. "Might" is
connected by MAURER thus,
"Notwithstanding the terror which resulted from their might."

**31. comforted**—with the
melancholy satisfaction of not being alone, but of having other
kingdoms companions in his downfall. This shall be his only comfort—a
very poor one!

**32. my terror**—the *Margin*
or *Keri.* The *Hebrew* text or *Chetib* is "*his*
terror," which gives good sense ([Ezekiel 32:25](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/25);
[Ezekiel 32:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/30)). "*My*
terror" implies that God puts *His* terror on Pharaoh's
multitude, as they put "their terror" on others, for
example, under Pharaoh-necho on Judea. As "the land of the
living" was the scene of "their terror," so it shall
be God's; especially in Judea, He will display His glory to the
terror of Israel's foes ([Ezekiel 32:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/30)). In Israel's case the judgment is temporary, ending in
their future restoration under Messiah. In the case of the world
kingdoms which flourished for a time, they fall to rise no more.

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