WE have had three chapters dealing with the judgment of Tyre; there follow four with reference to God’s humbling the nation of Egypt. With Tyre, as we have seen, the direct cause of downfall was pride on account of commercial or business success. Egypt was lifted up with pride of a different sort: they sought power, took pride in their political wisdom, aimed to be the ruling nation in the world.
In verse 3 the figure of a monster (a crocodile, we may assume) is applied to Pharaoh. If the then reigning king of Egypt was particularly in view in the prophecy, as we may suppose, he was Pharaoh-Hophra, who is named in Jeremiah 44:3030Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life. (Jeremiah 44:30), and referred to in chapters 37:5-11, and 46, and in. Ezekiel 17:15-1715But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered? 16As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. 17Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons: (Ezekiel 17:15‑17). Complete overthrow of his power was promised him who said, “My river is my own.” The Nile was (and is) Egypt’s dependence for prosperity, its fertile lands being sustained by that stream, rain being unknown there.
Fitly, therefore, the judgment of Egypt is expressed in the figure of the crocodile taken by putting hooks in his jaws, and cast into the wilderness together with the other inhabitants of the river, to be for meat to the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the heavens. God is sovereign, and He yet rules over the kingdom of men, and gives authority to whomsoever He will (Daniel 2:21; 4:1721And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: (Daniel 2:21)
17This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. (Daniel 4:17)), though Satan has power and uses it to the extent permitted him.
Another cause than the immense pride and self-sufficiency which marked ancient Egypt was before God, in proposing to punish that land; this is revealed in verses 6 and 7. That His people erred in seeking help from Egypt other Scriptures amply show (Isaiah 30, 31; Jeremiah 42, 43, 44, etc.), but He had dealt, and would further deal, with them for that.
Because of this lofty pride and the ill-treatment of God’s people, a heavy blow was about to fall upon Egypt (verses 8 to 12); it was to lie desolate and waste for forty years, from Migdol (see the marginal note in your Bible at verse 10) to Syene. Migdol is shown by Exodus 14:22Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea. (Exodus 14:2) to have been near the Red Sea, in the north of Egypt; and Syene is the present town of Assuan or Aswan, at the first cataract of the Nile, where a great dam has been in recent times constructed across the river. The border of the present Ethiopia lies, much further south, but in olden times it was at the first cataract.
After forty years, God who scattered, would again gather the Egyptians in their land, in Pathros-(upper Egypt), and Egypt should thereafter be a petty kingdom, never to exalt itself above the nations or rule over them. This corresponds to the Egypt of our day. Never more would Israel turn to Egypt for help.
In verses 17 to 21 is a prophecy sixteen years later than that which occupies verses 1 to 16. In date, it shortly follows Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Tyre in B.C. 573, which ended a 13-year siege of the city. When the great king finally subdued the defenders, they had sent away by ship almost everything of value (the Babylonians had no navy), so that he had no “wages” for the service he performed. God, who had used Nebuchadnezzar in the humbling of Tyre, and was about to use him against Egypt, therefore caused the latter country’s spoil to fall into his hands as compensation for his labor against Tyre.
Then and not till then, following the desolating of Egypt, blessing was to begin again for Israel, and Ezekiel’s mouth be opened in testimony; then would they of Israel’s race know that He who had preserved and blessed them is Jehovah, and (we may be sure) would give up the idols they had loved.
Scripture is silent as to the death of Jeremiah, who had been taken to Egypt; and Ezekiel, who was in Chaldea, nor do we know that either of them returned to the land of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar lived ten or eleven years after he completed the conquest of Tyre; Ezekiel may have survived him a few years, but this is a matter of conjecture; Jeremiah must have been an old man when Tyre fell, if he was yet living.
ML-12/22/1935