A verse by verse commentary on Ezekiel 30 dealing with a lament for Egypt and its many idols to be demolished.

1. EZEKIEL 30 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
A Lament Over Egypt
1 The word of the Lord came to me:
BARNES, "Third prophecy Ezek. 30:1-19 against Egypt, probably to be
connected with the previous verses (compare Eze_30:10 with the Eze_
29:17-21 note). Some consider it to belong to the earlier part of Ezek. 29
(compare Eze_29:10, Eze_29:12 with Eze_30:5-6).
GILL, "The word of the Lord came again unto me,.... Whether this prophecy
was delivered about the time of that in the former part of the preceding
chapter, namely, in the tenth year, tenth month, and twelfth day of it; or
whether about the time that was which is recorded in the latter part of the
chapter, in the seven and twentieth year of Jehoiachin's captivity, is not
easy to say; I am inclined to think it was about the time of the latter, since
the time of the fulfilment of it is said to be near, Eze_30:3,
HENRY, "The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is here very full and
particular, as well as, in the general, very frightful. What can protect a
provoking people when the righteous God comes forth to contend with
them?
JAMISON, "Eze_30:1-26. Continuation of the prophecies against Egypt.
Two distinct messages:
(1) At Eze_30:1-19, a repetition of Eze_29:1-16, with fuller details of
lifelike distinctness. The date is probably not long after that
mentioned in Eze_29:17, on the eve of Nebuchadnezzar’s march
against Egypt after subjugating Tyre.
(2)A vision relating directly to Pharaoh and the overthrow of his
kingdom; communicated at an earlier date, the seventh of the first
1

2. month of the eleventh year. Not a year after the date in Eze_29:1, and
three months before the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
K&D 1-5, "Announcement of the judgment upon Egypt and its allies. -
Eze_30:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze_30:2. Son of
man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Howl ye! Woe to the
day! Eze_30:3. For the day is near, the day of Jehovah near, a day of cloud,
the time of the heathen will it be. Eze_30:4. And the sword will come upon
Egypt, and there will be pangs in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt,
and they take her possessions, and her foundations are destroyed. Eze_
30:5. Ethiopians and Libyans and Lydians, and all the rabble, and Chub,
and the sons of the covenant land, will fall by the sword with them. - In the
announcement of the judgment in Eze_30:2 and Eze_30:3, Ezekiel rests
upon Joe_1:13, Joe_1:15, and Joe_2:2, where the designation already
applied to the judgment upon the heathen world by Obadiah, viz., “the day
of Jehovah” (Oba_1:15), is followed by such a picture of the nearness and
terrible nature of that day, that even Isaiah (Isa_13:6, Isa_13:9) and
Zephaniah (Zep_1:7, Zep_1:14) appropriate the words of Joel. Ezekiel also
does the same, with this exception, that he uses ‫הּ‬ ָ‫ה‬ instead of ‫הּ‬ ָ‫ֲה‬‫א‬, and adds
to the force of the expression by the repetition of ‫ב‬ ‫ר‬ ָ‫ק‬ ‫ם‬ ‫.י‬ In Eze_30:3, the
words from ‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ‫ָן‬‫נ‬ָ‫ע‬ to ‫ֶה‬‫י‬ ְ‫ה‬ִ‫י‬ are not to be taken together as forming one
sentence, “a day of cloud will the time of the nations be” (De Wette),
because the idea of a “time of the nations” has not been mentioned before,
so as to prepare the way for a description of its real nature here. ‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ‫ָן‬‫נ‬ָ‫ע‬ and
‫ת‬ֵ‫ע‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ‫גּ‬ contain two co-ordinate affirmations concerning the day of Jehovah.
It will be a day of cloud, i.e., of great calamity (as in Joe_2:2), and a time of
the heathen, i.e., when heathen (‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ‫גּ‬ without the article) are judged, when
their might is to be shattered (cf. Isa_13:22). This day is coming upon Egypt,
which is to succumb to the sword. Ethiopia will be so terrified at this, that it
will writhe convulsively with anguish (‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫ל‬ ַ‫,ח‬ as in Nah_2:11 and Isa_21:3).
‫ח‬ ַ‫ק‬ ָ‫ל‬ ‫ָהּ‬‫נ‬ֹ‫מ‬ֲ‫ה‬ signifies the plundering and removal of the possessions of the
land, like ‫א‬ ָ‫ָשׂ‬‫נ‬ ‫ָהּ‬‫נ‬ֹ‫מ‬ֲ‫ה‬ in Eze_29:19. The subject to ‫חוּ‬ ְ‫ק‬ ָ‫ל‬ is indefinite, “they,”
i.e., the enemy. The foundations of Egypt, which are to be destroyed, are not
the foundations of its buildings, but may be understood in a figurative sense
as relating to persons, after the analogy of Isa_19:10; but the notion that
Cush, Phut, etc. (Eze_30:9), i.e., the mercenary troops obtained from those
places, which are called the props of Egypt in Eze_30:6, are intended, as
Hitzig assumes, is not only extremely improbable, but decidedly erroneous.
The announcement in Eze_30:6, that Cush, Phut, etc., are to fall by the
sword along with the Egyptians (‫ם‬ ָ‫תּ‬ ִ‫,)א‬ is sufficient of itself to show that
these tribes, even if they were auxiliaries or mercenaries of Egypt, did not
constitute the foundations of the Egyptian state and kingdom; but that, on
the contrary, Egypt possessed a military force composed of native troops,
which was simply strengthened by auxiliaries and allies. We there interpret
2

3. ָ‫יה‬ ֶ‫ת‬ ‫ד‬ֹ‫ס‬ְ‫,י‬ after the analogy of Psa_11:3 and Psa_82:5, as referring to the real
foundations of the state, the regulations and institutions on which the
stability and prosperity of the kingdom rest.
The neighbouring, friendly, and allied peoples will also be smitten by the
judgment together with the Egyptians. Cush, i.e., the Ethiopians, Phut and
Lud, i.e., the Libyans and African Lydians (see the comm. on Eze_27:10),
are mentioned here primarily as auxiliaries of Egypt, because, according to
Jer_46:9, they served in Necho's army. By ‫ב‬ ֶ‫ר‬ֶ‫ע‬ ָ‫ל־ה‬ָ‫,כּ‬ the whole of the mixed
crowd (see the comm. on 1Ki_10:15 - πάντες οἱ ἐπίμικτοι, lxx), we are then to
understand the mercenary soldiers in the Egyptian army, which were
obtained from different nations (chiefly Greeks, Ionians, and Carians, οἱ
επίκουροι, as they are called by Herodotus, iii. 4, etc.). In addition to these,
‫כּוּב‬ ,eseht (ἁπ λεγ.) is also mentioned. Hävernick connects this name with the
people of Kufa, so frequently met with on the Egyptian monuments. But,
according to Wilkinson (Manners, etc., I 1, pp. 361ff.), they inhabited a
portion of Asia farther north even than Palestine; and he ranks them (p.
379) among the enemies of Egypt. Hitzig therefore imagines that Kufa is
probably to be found in Kohistan, a district of Media, from which, however,
the Egyptians can hardly have obtained mercenary troops. And so long as
nothing certain can be gathered from the advancing Egyptological
researches with regard to the name Cub, the conjecture that ‫כּוּב‬ is a mis-
spelling for ‫לוּב‬ is not to be absolutely set aside, the more especially as this
conjecture is naturally suggested by the ‫ים‬ ִ‫לוּב‬ of Nah_3:9 and 2Ch_16:8, and
the form ‫לוּב‬ by the side of ‫ים‬ ִ‫לוּב‬ is analogous to ‫לוּד‬ by the side of ‫ים‬ ִ‫לוּד‬ in
Jer_46:9, whilst the Liby-Aegyptii of the ancients, who are to be
understood by the term ‫ים‬ ִ‫לוּב‬ (see the comm. on Gen_10:13), would be quite
in keeping here. On the other hand, the conjecture offered by Gesenius
(Thes. p. 664), viz., ‫,נוּב‬ Nubia, has but a very weak support in the Arabic
translator; and the supposition that ‫לוּב‬ may have been the earlier Hebrew
form for Nubia (Hitzig), is destitute of any solid foundation. Maurer
suggests Cob, a city (municipium) of Mauretania, in the Itiner. Anton. p. 17,
ed. Wessel. - The following expression, “sons of the covenant land,” is also
obscure. Hitzig has correctly observed, that it cannot be synonymous with
‫י‬ ֵ‫ֲל‬‫ע‬ ַ‫בּ‬ , their allies. But we certainly cannot admit that the covenant land
(made definite by the article) is Canaan, the Holy Land (Hitzig and
Kliefoth); although Jerome writes without reserve, de filiis terrae foederis,
i.e., de populo Judaeorum; and the lxx in their translation, καὶ τῶν υιῶν τῆς
διαθήκης μου, undoubtedly thought of the Jews, who fled to Egypt, according
to Theodoret's exposition, along with Jeremiah after the destruction of
Jerusalem and the murder of the governor Gedaliah, for fear of the
vengeance of the Chaldeans (Jer 42-43, and 44). For the application of the
expression “land of the covenant” to the Holy Land is never met with either
in the Old or New Testament, and cannot be inferred, as Hitzig supposes,
from Psa_74:20 and Dan_11:28, or supported in any way from either the
epithet “the land of promise” in Heb_11:9, or from Act_3:25, where Peter
calls the Jews “the children of the prophets and of the covenant.” We
3

4. therefore agree with Schmieder in regarding ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫א‬ as signifying a definite
region, though one unknown to us, in the vicinity of Egypt, which was
inhabited by a tribe that was independent of the Egyptians, yet bound to
render help in time of war.
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
ORACLES (3) Ezekiel 30:1-19 AND (4) Ezekiel 30:20-26 AGAINST EGYPT
We may outline this chapter thus:
A. Announcement of the Day of the Lord (Ezekiel 30:1-5)
B. Allies, Dependents also destroyed (Ezekiel 30:6-9)
C. Wealth of Egypt to be carried away (Ezekiel 30:10-12)
D. Princes and Cities to be destroyed (Ezekiel 30:13-19)
E. God breaks Pharaoh's arm (Ezekiel 30:20-26)
THE DAY OF THE LORD COMES TO EGYPT (Ezekiel 30:1-19)
Ezekiel 30:1-5
"The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say,
4

5. Thus saith Jehovah: Wail ye, alas for the day! For the day is near, even the day of
Jehovah is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations. And a sword shall
come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in
Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken
down. Ethiopia and Put and Lud, and all the mingled peoples, and Cub, and the
children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword."
The announcement here that the Day of Jehovah is near cannot be separated from
its eschatological overtones relating to that final and Eternal Day of the Lord when
his righteous judgments shall be executed upon the fallen and rebellious race of
Adam, that day of Doom and Destruction mentioned in Genesis, upon which God
said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die!" (Genesis 2:17)
Regarding that particular day, upon which God promised the death of Adam and
Eve in the case of their eating of the forbidden tree, it was the seventh day of
creation, a day, which, according to Hebrews 4th chapter, is still going on and has
not ended yet. The meaning of that sentence upon the sinful progenitors of our
fallen race is that Adam and Eve in the person of their total posterity shall be totally
destroyed, the redeemed of all dispensations and all ages "in Christ Jesus" being the
sole exceptions to that universal destruction that shall at last terminate God's
Operation Adam on that Day of Jehovah.
We have already written many comments relating to the Day of Jehovah, especially
in Joel, Amos, and Zephaniah, etc. These will be found in the appropriate volumes
of our commentaries under the following references: Isaiah 13:6-9; Joel 1:15;
2:1,11; 3:14; Amos 5:18-20; Obadiah 1:1:15; Zephaniah 1:7,14; Zechariah 14:1; 1
Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews
9:27; Matthew 25:31-46, and many other references.
Many other signal judgments of God executed upon wicked nations, just like the one
here prophesied for Egypt, are token judgments pointing forward to that great and
final Day when, as John Milton expressed it:
5

6. "God shall cast his throne in middle Air
And judge before Him all the nations there!"
As Feinberg wrote, "Thus we take God's judgment on Egypt here as identified in
principle with that Day upon which he will call all nations to give an account."[1] As
this same author declared, "We would not dare to interpret this chapter as if it were
not related to the many other references in the Word of God to `The day of
Jehovah.'"[2]
The prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem given by Christ himself in Matthew 24
is another example of an earthly judgment against a wicked city that promises also
an ultimate fulfillment in the Final Judgment. We also believe that there are
multiple examples of this in Amos 1-2.
One of the most impressive features of this chapter is the list of the principal cities of
Egypt; but critics like Cooke have brought vigorous allegations against the list
which he called "haphazard; three of the cities belong to Upper Egypt and five to
Lower Egypt; but they are named without any sense of their geographical location,
as though the writer knew them only by hearsay."[3] Like many another allegation
of some radical critic, intent upon denying the passage to Ezekiel, this comment also
is inaccurate, as indicated by the opinions of many able scholars. "All of the towns
singled out for mention here, without exception, are of religious, political, or
military importance."[4] "Every single center of cultural and political power in
Egypt was mentioned."[5] "The listing here indicates an exact knowledge of the
chief cities of Egypt for that period."[6] In this light, it is clear that Cooke's
allegations should be rejected.
Some interpreters divide this oracle into four subdivisions, each of which begins
with, "Thus saith the Lord," as in Ezekiel 30:2,6,10,13. However, we cannot see any
necessity for such fragmentary divisions.
6

7. It should be remembered that the necessity for God's destruction of the pagan
nations of that period derived from their false view that God's punishment of Israel
that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of her people
constituted a victory for their pagan gods over Jehovah. Upon the occasion of God's
deliverance of Israel from Egyptian captivity, that matter of which God was really
God had been settled in the great victory for Jehovah; but the apostasy of the
Chosen People and God's ensuing destruction of them had changed all that; and it
was very necessary for God, all over again, to demonstrate his own superiority over
the pantheon of paganism.
Each one of the cities mentioned later in the chapter was the seat of some pagan god.
The allies and dependencies of Egypt would do her no good when the judgment fell.
"Put, Lud, and Cub ..." (Ezekiel 30:5). "Put and Lud were two tribes living west of
Egypt in Africa;"[7] however, "Cub is an unknown name."[8] These peoples were
allies of Egypt and were considered part of her strength (see Nahum 3:9). What is
stressed here is that allies and dependents alike will experience destruction along
with Egypt.
"The children of the land that is in league ..." (Ezekiel 30:5). The marginal reading
in our version has "children of the land of the covenant"; and if this is allowed, the
reference is to the Jews who, following the murder of Gedaliah had returned to
Egypt contrary to the stern warnings of Jeremiah. Beasley-Murray denied that this
reading should be followed; but, in any case, whether stated here or not, those Jews
who had returned to Egypt would (and did) suffer the same destruction as that of
Egypt.
PETT, "Introduction
Chapter 30 The Third and Fourth Oracles Against Egypt.
7

8. The Third Oracle. Judgment on Egypt (Ezekiel 30:1-19).
This is an undated oracle which has been variously allocated. It divides into four
sections, Ezekiel 30:2-19.
Verses 1-5
‘The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying, “Son of man, prophesy and say,
‘Howl, alas the day, for the day is near, the day of Yahweh is near, a day of clouds,
it will be the time of the nations. And a sword will come on Egypt, and anguish will
be on Cush, when the slain will fall in Egypt. And they will take away large
numbers of her, and the foundations will be broken down. Ethiopia and Put and
Lud, and all the mingled people, and Cub and the children of the land which is in
league will fall by the sword.”
That this refers primarily to the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar is made clear in
Ezekiel 30:10. The ‘day of Yahweh’ is coming for Egypt. ‘The day of Yahweh’ is a
phrase used of any time when God visits a nation or nations in judgment after they
have incurred His anger. It finally came to signify the final day of Yahweh when he
brings about His final purposes (Isaiah 2:12-21; Joel 3:14), but we must not read
that into every usage. Here it refers to His day on Egypt.
The awfulness of what is shortly to come on Egypt is brought out by the
introduction, ‘Howl, alas the day, for the day is near’. And along with her will suffer
those who are in alliance with her. These alliances help to explain how an invasion
of Egypt could drive Pharaoh and his forces out of Egypt into allied lands, only to
be allowed to return once peace negotiations have succeeded. It would seem that
there was defeat on Egyptian soil, with large numbers being taken captive and
carried off to Babylon, followed by a withdrawal into allied lands as Egyptian
administration collapsed, until peace terms were agreed.
8

9. ‘A day of clouds.’ Thick clouds were often seen as accompanying Yahweh when He
visited in judgment (Judges 5:4; 2 Samuel 22:12; Psalms 18:11-12; Psalms 77:17;
Psalms 97:2; Jeremiah 4:13; Joel 2:2; Zephaniah 1:15).
‘The time of the nations.’ That is the nations in alliance with Egypt who were about
to be described.
‘A sword will come on Egypt.’ That is the sword of Yahweh as wielded through
Nebuchadnezzar.
‘Anguish will be on Cush, when the slain will fall in Egypt.’ The allies gathered in
Egypt to resist the forces of Nebuchadnezzar and many were slain of both Egyptians
and their allies so that Cush (Nubia/Northern Sudan) wept.
‘Cush and Put and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Cub and the children of the
land which is in league will fall by the sword.’ Cush is Nubia/Northern Sudan, Put is
African, but whether Eastern Sudan or Libya is disputed. Babylonian puta became
T’ Tmhw (Lybia) in Egyptian which supports the latter. Lud is a descendant of Ham
in Genesis 10:13 and thus also an African nation. Cub may well be part of Lybia.
These were seemingly in league with Egypt against the threat of Babylon, and many
were slain in the invasion. ‘The mingled people’ (compare Jeremiah 25:20) refers to
mercenaries.
2 “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what
the Sovereign Lord says:
9

10. “‘Wail and say,
“Alas for that day!”
CLARKE, "Howl ye, Wo worth the day! - My Old MS. Bible, - Soule gee, woo
woo to the day! ‫ליום‬ ‫הה‬ ‫הילילו‬ heylilu, hah laiyom! “Howl ye, Alas for the day!” The
reading in our present text is taken from Coverdale’s Bible, 1536. The expressions signify
that a most dreadful calamity was about to fall on Egypt and the neighboring countries,
called here the “time of the heathen,” or of the nations; the day of calamity to them. They
are afterwards specified, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, and Chub, and the mingled people,
probably persons from different nations, who had followed the ill fortune of Pharaoh-
hophra or Pharaoh-apries, when he fled from Amasis, and settled in Upper Egypt.
GILL, "Son of man, prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God,.... Prophesy
against Egypt's king and inhabitants, and in the name of the Lord thus speak against
them:
howl ye; ye Egyptians, and also ye Ethiopians, and all others after named, which should
share in the destruction of Egypt; this is said to give them notice of it, and prepare them
for it:
woe worth the day! or, "alas for the day!" (d) O the unhappy day! what a sad dismal
day is this! O that we should ever live to see such wretched times!
HENRY 2-3, " It shall be a very lamentable destruction, and such as shall occasion
great sorrow (Eze_30:2, Eze_30:3): “Howl you; you may justly shriek now that it is
coming, for you will be made to shriek and make hideous outcries when it comes. Cry
out, Woe worth the day! or, Ah the day! alas because of the day! the terrible day! Woe
and alas! For the day is near; the day we have so long dreaded, so long deserved. It is
the day of the Lord, the day in which he will manifest himself as a God of vengeance.
You have your day now, when you carry all before you, and trample on all about you, but
God will have his day shortly, the day of the revelation of his righteous judgment,” Psa_
37:13. It will be a cloudy day, that is, dark and dismal, without the shining forth of any
comfort; and it shall threaten a storm - fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. It
shall be the time of the heathen, of reckoning with the heathen for all their heathenish
practices, that time which David spoke of when God would pour out his fury upon the
heathen (Psa_79:6), when they should sink, Psa_9:15.
10

11. TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD
Howl ye, Woe worth the day!
Ver. 2. Woe worth the day.] Ah! de die ista. This shall be the voice much more of
reprobates at that last "day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God." [Romans 2:5] Enoch foretold this dreadful day before Noah predicted the
deluge. That day is longer before it comes, but shall be more terrible when it is
come.
WHEDON, "2. Woe worth the day — That is, Woe be to the day. This is not satire;
it is real lamentation. There is no nation or people without a heavenly Father’s love
and watch care. Just as Jehovah brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, so did
he bring up “the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir” (Amos 9:7;
see also Psalms 87).
PULPIT, "Howl ye. The words read like an echo of Isaiah 13:6, and find a parallel
also in Joel 1:11, Joel 1:13; Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:14. Woe worth the day! It
may be well to note that the familiar phrase is a survival of the Anglo-Saxon verb
weorthan (German werden), "to become," so that its exact meaning is "Woe be to
the day""
3
For the day is near,
the day of the Lord is near—
a day of clouds,
11

12. a time of doom for the nations.
BARNES, "The time of the pagan - The time when the pagan (Egyptians) shall be
judged.
GILL, "For the day is near,.... The day of Egypt's destruction, the time fixed for it:
even the day of the Lord is near; the day appointed by him, and in which he would
make himself known by the judgments he executed: Kimchi observes, that, the same
year this prophecy was delivered, Egypt was given into the hands of the king of Babylon:
a cloudy day; or; "a day of cloud" (e); which was seldom seen in Egypt in a literal sense,
rarely having any rain, their country being watered by the Nile; but now, in a figurative
sense, the clouds would gather thick and black, and threaten with a horrible tempest of
divine wrath, and of ruin and destruction:
it shall be the time of the Heathen: both when the Heathen nation of the Chaldeans
should distress and conquer others; and when Heathen nations, as the Egyptians,
Ethiopians, and others, should be destroyed by them. The Targum is,
"it shall be the time of the breaking or destruction of the people.''
JAMISON, "the time of the heathen — namely, for taking vengeance on them.
The judgment on Egypt is the beginning of a world-wide judgment on all the heathen
enemies of God (Joe_1:15; Joe_2:1, Joe_2:2; Joe_3:1-21; Oba_1:15).
COKE, "Ezekiel 30:3. The day is near— The day of the Lord implies a day of
sacrifice and vengeance upon his enemies. The destruction of Babylon, described in
such awful terms, as if all nature suffered by the shock, is represented as the day of
the Lord, Isaiah 13:6. So is the destruction of Bozrah and Idumaea, Isaiah 34:8. See
also Jeremiah 46:10. Joel 3:14. Zephaniah 2:2-3. When the figurative day is used in
general to express the period of any one's existence, then it denotes time; but when it
is used to express any particular thing or employ, then it signifies some
characteristical circumstance. Thus that signal catastrophe in the fortunes of the
Jews, both spiritual and temporal, is called their day, Hosea 1:11. See Div. Leg. vol.
4: Sharp on the Rise and Fall of Jerusalem; and Calmet.
12

13. TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:3 For the day [is] near, even the day of the LORD [is] near, a
cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
Ver. 3. A cloudy day.] Heb., A day of a cloud, which was rarely seen in Egypt.
POOLE, "Ezekiel 30:26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and
disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 26. See Ezekiel 30:23. They would hardly believe it, and therefore are so often
assured of it.
PULPIT, "The day of the Lord. Here, as everywhere (see note on Ezekiel 13:5), the
words stand for any time in which the Divine judgments manifest themselves in the
world's history. Of it Ezekiel says, following in the footsteps of Joel (Joel 2:2), that it
shall be a day of cloud, i.e. of darkness and trouble; a day of the heathen, i.e. a time
in which the heathen who had exulted in the punishment of Israel should know that
the Lord was their Judge also, that he had his "day" appointed for them.
4
A sword will come against Egypt,
and anguish will come upon Cush.[a]
When the slain fall in Egypt,
her wealth will be carried away
13

14. and her foundations torn down.
GILL, "And the sword shall come upon Egypt,.... The sword of the
Chaldeans shall come upon the Egyptians, by which they should be cut off; it
having a commission from the Lord for that purpose:
and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt;
Ethiopia being a neighbouring nation to Egypt, shall be in a panic when it
shall hear of the sword of the Chaldeans being in Egypt, and of the ravages
made by it, of the multitudes slain with it; fearing it will be their turn next to
fall into the same hands, and in the same manner; and the rather, not only
as they were neighbours, but allies:
and they shall take away her multitude; that is, the Chaldeans shall carry
captive vast numbers of the Egyptians; such as fell not by the sword should
not escape the hand of the enemy, but be taken and carried into other lands.
Egypt was a very populous country; according to Agrippa's speech in
Josephus (f), there were in it 7,500,000 persons from Ethiopia to
Alexandria, besides the inhabitants of the latter, as might be gathered from
the tribute each person paid; hence they are compared to the trees of a
forest that cannot be searched, and to grasshoppers innumerable, Jer_
46:23, but now their numbers should be lesser:
and her foundations shall be broken down; either in a literal sense, the
foundations of the cities, towers, and fortified places in Egypt, should be
undermined and destroyed, and consequently the buildings on them must
sink and fall; or in a figurative sense, her king, princes, magistrates, laws,
and government, which are the support of a state, should be removed, and
be of no more service.
HENRY 4-5, "II. It shall be the destruction of Egypt, and of all the states
and countries in confederacy with her and in her neighbourhood. 1. Egypt
herself shall fall (Eze_30:4): The sword shall come upon Egypt, the sword
of the Chaldeans, and it shall be a victorious sword, for the slain shall fall in
Egypt, fall by it, fall before it. Is the country populous? They shall take
away her multitude. Is it strong, and well-fixed? Her foundations shall be
broken down, and then the fabric, though built ever so fine, ever so high,
will fall of course. 2. Her neighbours and inmates shall fall with her. When
the slain fall so thickly in Egypt great pain shall be in Ethiopia, both that in
Africa, which is in the neighbourhood of Egypt on one side, and that in Asia,
which is near to it on the other side. When their neighbour's house was on
14

15. fire they could not but apprehend their own in danger; nor were their fears
groundless, for they shall all fall with them by the sword, Eze_30:5.
Ethiopia and Libya (Cush and Phut, so the Hebrew names are, two of the
sons of Ham who are mentioned, and Mizraim, that is, Egypt, between
them, Gen_10:6), and the Lydians (who were famous archers, and are
spoken of as confederates with Egypt, Jer_46:9), these shall fall with Egypt
and Chub (the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of the inner Libya); these and
others were the mingled people; there were those of all these and other
countries who upon some account or other resided in Egypt, as did also the
men of the land that is in league, some of the remains of the people of Israel
and Judah, the children of the covenant, or league, as they are called (Act_
3:25), the children of the promise, Gal_4:28. These sojourned in Egypt
contrary to God's command, and these shall fall with them. Note, Those that
will take their lot with God's enemies shall have their lot with them, yea,
though they be in profession the men of the land that is in league with God.
JAMISON, "pain — literally, “pangs with trembling as of a woman in
childbirth.”
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall
be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her
multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
Ver. 4. Great pain.] Heb., Pain upon pain, as the throes in childbirth.
POOLE, " The sword: see Ezekiel 29:8.
In Ethiopia; next neighbour and ally to Egypt; they shall tremble at so great danger,
so near, and they uncertain whether it will come on them, but very certain to be
ruined if it does come, and as certain that they have cause to suspect it will come on
them.
When the slain shall fall in Egypt; when the Egyptians, under the eye of the
Ethiopians, shall fall in battle, and at the taking of their towns.
15

16. They shall take away her multitude; in miserable captivity carry them to Babylon,
by whole droves.
Her foundations, their government, laws, counsellors, strong holds, which are to a
nation as foundations to a house, are destroyed.
PULPIT, "Great pain shall be in Ethiopia. The words point to the extension of the
invasion of Egypt—by Nebuchadnezzar in the first instance, and afterwards by
other conquerors—to the upper valley of the Nile. They shall take away her
multitude. The word is taken by Keil, Smend, and others of things rather than
persons, the multitude of possessions. Hengstenberg renders "tumult" in the sense
of the stir of a crowded city. The foundations are probably to be taken figuratively
of the bases of the prosperity of Egypt, its allies and mercenaries, rather than of
actual buildings (comp. Psalms 11:3; Psalms 82:5).
5 Cush and Libya, Lydia and all Arabia, Kub and
the people of the covenant land will fall by the
sword along with Egypt.
BARNES, "Libya, and Lydia - Or, as in Eze_27:10, Phut and Lud.
The mingled people - Foreigners, who settled in Egypt. The Saite dynasty of
Egyptian kings were especially favorable to foreign immigrants. Hophra employed many
of them in his armies, and in this way, according to Herodotus, lost the affections of his
Egyptian subjects. See Jer_25:20 note.
Chub - The word occurs here only. It was some tribe in alliance with Egypt, either of
African race like Lud and Phut, or settlers like the “mingled people.” A not-improbable
suggestion connects it with Coptos, of which the Egyptian form was Qeb, Qebt or Qabt.
The men of the land that is in league - Rather, the children of the land of the
covenant, i. e., of Israel (see Eze_16:8). After the destruction of Jerusalem Jews
withdrew into Egypt Jer_43:7. Many of them would naturally enough be found in the
16

17. Egyptian armies. This is in favor of the later date assigned to this section.
CLARKE, "Lydia - This place is not well known. The Ludim were contiguous to
Egypt, Gen_11:13.
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,” etc. The
Septuagint adds “the Persians and the Cretans.”
GILL, "Ethiopia, Lybia, and Lydia,.... Or, "Cush, Phut, and Lud". Cush and Phut
were both sons of Ham, from whom Egypt is sometimes called the land of Ham; and Lud
or Ludim was the son of Mizraim, the son of Ham, the common name of Egypt in
Scripture, Gen_10:6. Cush is by us rendered Ethiopia; and is thought by some to be a
part of Arabia, which lay near to Egypt. Phut and Lud are properly enough rendered
Lybia and Lydia; and both these, with Ethiopia, are represented as the allies and
confederates of Egypt, Jer_46:9.
And all the mingled people; the Syriac version renders it, "all Arabia": and so
Symmachus, according to Jerom; though others think they are the Carians, Ionians, and
other Greeks, which Pharaohapries got together to fight with Amasis (g): and "Chub"; or
"Cub"; the inhabitants of this piece are thought to be the Cobii of Ptolemy (h), who dwelt
in Mareotis, a country of Egypt; though some, by a change of a letter, would have them
to be the Nubians, a people in Africa; and so the Arabic version here reads it. Of these
Strabo (i) says, on the left of the stream of the Nile dwell the Nubians, a large nation in
Lybia; and which he afterwards mentions along with the Troglodytes, Blemmyes,
Megabarians, and Ethiopians, that dwell above Syene: and so Ptolemy (k) speaks of
them along with the Megabarians, and as inhabiting to the west of the Avalites: and
Pliny (l) calls them Nubian Ethiopians, whom he places near the Nile: and a late traveller
(m) in those parts informs us that the confines of Egypt and Nubia are about eight miles
above the first cataract (of the Nile); Nubia begins at the villages of Ellkalabsche, and of
Teffa; the first is to the east of the Nile, and the second to the west.
And the men of the land that is in league shall fall with them by the sword;
all the nations above mentioned, with whomsoever should be found that were
confederates with Egypt, should share the same fate with them. The Septuagint render
it, "and those of the children of my covenant"; as if the Jews were meant that were in
Egypt, who are sometimes called "the children of the covenant", and of "the promise",
Act_3:25, and so some interpret the place; but it takes in all the allies of Egypt, and does
not design the Jews, at least not them only.
JAMISON, "the mingled people — the mercenary troops of Egypt from various
lands, mostly from the interior of Africa (compare Eze_27:10; Jer_25:20, Jer_25:24;
Jer_46:9, Jer_46:21).
17

18. Chub — the people named Kufa on the monuments [Havernick], a people
considerably north of Palestine [Wilkinson]; Coba or Chobat, a city of Mauritania
[Maurer].
men of the land that is in league — too definite an expression to mean merely,
“men in league” with Egypt; rather, “sons of the land of the covenant,” that is, the Jews
who migrated to Egypt and carried Jeremiah with them (Jeremiah 42:1-44:30). Even
they shall not escape (Jer_42:22; Jer_44:14).
COKE, "Ezekiel 30:5. Lybia and Lydia— Or, Mauritania and Abyssinia. All the
mingled people, mean their mercenaries and auxiliaries; Chub means the Chubians,
placed by Ptolemy in the Mareotis. "I do not know (says Calmet) whether the name
of Egypt may not be derived from Cub, or Cubti, or Gubti;—Egubti." The men of
the land that is in league, mean the neighbouring people, who were confederate with
the Egyptians against the king of Babylon.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people,
and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the
sword.
Ver. 5. Chub.] Certain Africans, who shall be worse put to it than were those
succeeding Africans, who had a prophecy (but not of like credit with this of Ezekiel),
that when the Romans sent an army into their country, Mundus cum tota sua prole
periret, which made them think the world should then be at an end. But afterwards
the Romans sent an army thither under the conduct of one Mundus, who in battle
was slain, together with his sons, by the Africans, and discovered the illusion of the
devil. The Septuagint render Chub Spaniards, which I like the better, saith Lavater,
(a) because Strabo saith Nebuchadnezzar came with his victorious army as far as
Spain.
POOLE, " Ethiopia, Heb. Cush, which are commonly thought to be the Ethiopians
in Africa, but some more inquisitive geographers have found them originally and
chiefly in Arabia, which was either subject or ally to Egypt in its prosperity; and
these were, as Ezekiel 30:4, in a panic that, lest the Babylonian should pass the sea,
and take them in his way home.
18

19. Libya, Heb. Phut; hence the Putaens or Phutaans, who afterwards were better
known by Libyans, a part of whose country was near to Egypt.
Lydia; Lydians, not the Asiatic, but the Africans, placed between some part of
Cyrene and Egypt.
All the mingled people; the hired soldiers from all parts, a confused mixture of
nations, such as the Libyans had got together; or all Arabia, so the word 2
Chronicles 9:14 Isaiah 13:20; or all that ravenous sort of people, that like crows fly
to slaughters; so soldiers of fortune follow the wars, and the Hebrew word is crow,
Leviticus 11:15 Deuteronomy 14:14 Psalms 147:9, as well as mixed.
Chub; Ethiopians beyond Egypt south, the inhabitants of the inmost Libya, which
reached to the Nigritae; perhaps they may be the Nubians at this day, a letter easily
changed.
The men of the land that is in league; the sons of the land of the covenant: some
refer to the Jews, children of the covenant, but this is forced; it is all the people of
Egypt’s league, all the allies of the Egyptian kingdom. With them; with the
Egyptians.
By the sword; in war by the sword of Babylon.
WHEDON, " 5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia — R.V., “Ethiopia [or, Cush], and
Put, and Lud.” (See notes Ezekiel 27:10; compare Ezekiel 38:5.) LXX. reads
“Persia” for Ethiopia, but Ethiopia about this time had especial prominence in the
world’s annals. The Assyrian monarch conquered Tirhakah of Egypt (about 671
B.C.), and called him on a stele of Senjerli “king of Ethiopia” (Kuss), and
represented him on the tablet as a little negro with curly hair (B. and O. Record,
July, 1891).
Mingled people — It is not known to what people this refers (compare Jeremiah
19

20. 25:24), if indeed it does not refer to the mercenaries and allies in Hophra’s army.
Chub — R.V., “Cub.” Naville compares with the Egyptian Keneb, the name for the
Ethiopians and negroes; Brugsch with Qeb, Qabt (Coptos); Smend reads Lub, with
LXX., that is, “Libyans” (compare Nahum 3:9; 2 Chronicles 16:8), which is the most
probable, with present knowledge.
Men of the land that is in league — Literally, the children of the land of the
covenant, but probably not referring here to the Israelites. Toy reads “Cherethites.”
(Compare Ezekiel 25:16.) One version reads “Cretans.” (Compare the khab-iri,
“confederates,” mentioned in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets.)
PULPIT, "Libya. Here the Authorized Version gives (rightly enough, though
inconsistently) the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Phut, which is reproduced in the
Revised Version. The Lydians, in like manner, stand for Lud; but we have to
remember, as before (Ezekiel 27:10), that they are the African, and not the Asiatic,
people of that name. In Jeremiah 46:9 the two nations are named among the
auxiliaries of Egypt. Possibly the similarity of name may have led to the term being
used also for the Lydian and Ionian forces enlisted by Psam-metichus I. (Herod;
Jeremiah 3:4); but there seems more reason for including these in the mingled
people that are next mentioned. Chub, or Cub (Revised Version), is found here only,
and has consequently given occasion to many guesses Havernick connects it with the
Kufa, a district of Media, often named in Egyptian monuments; Michaelis, with
Kobe on the Ethiopian coast of the Indian Ocean; Maurer, with Cob, a city of
Mauretania; Gesenius, Ewald, and Bunsen suggest the reading Nub, and identify it
with Nubia; Keil and Smend adopt the form Lub, found in the Lubim of 2
Chronicles 16:8 and Nahum 3:9. On the whole, there are no adequate data for the
solution of the problem. The men of the land that is in league. Here, again, we are in
a region of many conjectures.
20

21. 6 “‘This is what the Lord says:
“‘The allies of Egypt will fall
and her proud strength will fail.
From Migdol to Aswan
they will fall by the sword within her,
declares the Sovereign Lord.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord, they also that uphold Egypt shall fall,.... That is,
by the sword; either their allies and auxiliaries without, that supported the Egyptians
with men and money; or their principal people within, their nobles that supported their
state with their estates, their counsellors with their wisdom, their soldiers with their
valour and courage:
and the pride of her power shall come down; or the power they were proud of, the
dominion and grandeur they boasted of; the greatness of their king, and the largeness of
their empire, with the wealth and riches of it:
from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord God;
or rather, from "Migdol to Syene"; so the Septuagint and Arabic versions, from one end
of Egypt to the other; the sword would ravage, and multitudes fall by it, in all cities and
towns, between the one and the other; which denotes the general slaughter that should
be made; See Gill on Eze_29:10.
HENRY 6-7, " All that pretend to support the sinking interests of Egypt shall come
down under her, shall come down with her (Eze_30:6): Those that uphold Egypt shall
fall, and then Egypt must fall of course. See the justice of God; Egypt pretended to
uphold Jerusalem when that was tottering, but proved a deceitful reed; and now those
that pretended to uphold Egypt shall prove no better. Those that deceive others are
commonly paid in their own coin; they are themselves deceived. 1. Does Egypt think
herself upheld by the absolute authority and dominion of her king? The pride of her
power shall come down, Eze_30:6. The power of the king of Egypt was his pride; but
that shall be broken, and humbled. 2. Is the multitude of her people her support? These
21

22. shall fall by the sword, even from the tower of Syene, which is in the utmost corner of
the land, from that side of it by which the enemy shall enter. Both the countries and the
cities, the husbandmen and the merchants, shall be desolate, Eze_30:7, as before, Eze_
29:12. Even the multitude of Egypt shall be made to cease, Eze_30:10. That populous
country shall be depopulated. The land shall be even filled with the slain, Eze_30:11. 3.
Is the river Nile her support, and are the several channels of it a defence to her? “I will
make the rivers dry (Eze_30:12), so that those natural fortifications which were thought
impregnable, because impassable, shall stand them in no stead.” 4. Are her idols a
support to her? They shall be destroyed; those imaginary upholders shall appear more
than ever to be imaginary, for so images are when they pretend to be deliverers and
strongholds (Eze_30:13): I will cause their images to cease out of Noph. 5. Is her royal
family her support? There shall be no more a prince in the land of Egypt; the royal
family shall be extirpated and extinguished, which had continued so long. 6. Is her
courage her support, and does she think to uphold herself by the bravery of her men of
war, who have now of late been inured to service? That shall fail: I will put a fear in the
land of Egypt. 7. Is the rising generation her support? is she upheld by her children, and
does she think herself happy because she has her quiver full of them? Alas! the young
men shall fall by the sword (Eze_30:17) and the daughters shall go into captivity (Eze_
30:18), and so she shall be robbed of all her hopes.
K&D 6-9, "All the supports and helpers of Egypt will fall, and the whole land with its
cities will be laid waste. - Eze_30:6. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Those who support
Egypt will fall, and its proud might will sink; from Migdol to Syene will they fall by the
sword therein, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Eze_30:7. And they will lie waste in
the midst of waste lands, and its cities be in the midst of desolate cities. Eze_30:8. They
shall learn that I am Jehovah, when I bring fire into Egypt, and all its helpers are
shattered. Eze_30:9. In that day will messengers go forth from me in ships to terrify
the confident Ethiopia, and there will be writing among them as in the day of Egypt;
for, behold, it cometh. - ”Those who support Egypt” are not the auxiliary tribes and
allies, for they are included in the term ָ‫יה‬ ֶ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ֹ‫ע‬ in Eze_30:8, but the idols and princes
(Eze_30:13), the fortified cities (Eze_30:15), and the warriors (Eze_30:17), who formed
the foundation of the might of the kingdom. ‫ן‬ ‫א‬ְ‫גּ‬ , “the pride of its might,” which is an
expression applied in Eze_24:21 to the temple at Jerusalem, is to be taken here in a
general sense, and understood not merely of the temples and idols of Egypt, but as the
sum total of all the things on which the Egyptians rested the might of their kingdom, and
on the ground of which they regarded it as indestructible. For '‫ֹל‬‫דּ‬ְ‫ג‬ ִ‫מּ‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫,וגו‬ see the comm.
on Eze_29:10. The subject to ‫לוּ‬ ְ‫פּ‬ִ‫י‬ ‫הּ‬ ָ‫ב‬ is the '‫י‬ֵ‫כ‬ ְ‫מ‬ֹ‫ס‬ ‫.מצר‬ Eze_30:7 is almost a literal
repetition of Eze_29:12; and the subject to ‫מּוּ‬ַ‫ָשׁ‬‫נ‬ is ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ר‬ ְ‫צ‬ ִ‫מ‬ regarded as a country, though
the number and gender of the verb have both been regulated by the form of the noun.
The fire which God will bring into Egypt (Eze_30:8) is the fire of war. Eze_30:9. The
tidings of this judgment of God will be carried by messengers to Ethiopia, and there
awaken the most terrible dread of a similar fate. In the first hemistich, the prophet has
Isa_18:2 floating before his mind. The messengers, who carry the tidings thither, are not
the warlike forces of Chaldea, who are sent thither by God; for they would not be content
with performing the service of messengers alone. We have rather to think of Egyptians,
who flee by ship to Ethiopia. The messengers go, ‫ַי‬‫נ‬ָ‫פ‬ ְ‫ל‬ ִ‫,מ‬ from before Jehovah, who is
22

23. regarded as being present in Egypt, while executing judgment there (cf. Isa_19:1). ‫ים‬ ִ‫,צ‬
as in Num_24:24 = ‫ּים‬ִ‫י‬ ִ‫צ‬ (Dan_11:30), ships, trieres, according to the Rabbins, in
Hieron. Symm. on Isa_33:21, and the Targum on Num. (cf. Ges. Thes. p. 1156). ‫ח‬ ַ‫ט‬ ֶ‫בּ‬ is
attached to ‫,כּוּשׁ‬ Cush secure or confident, equivalent to the confident Cush (Ewald, §
287c). '‫ה‬ ָ‫ת‬ְ‫י‬ ָ‫ה‬ ְ‫ו‬ ‫,חלח‬ repeated from Eze_30:4. ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ה‬ ָ‫,בּ‬ among the Ethiopians. '‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ְ‫כּ‬ ‫,מצר‬ as
in the day of Egypt, i.e., not the present day of Egypt's punishment, for the Ethiopians
have only just heard of this from the messengers; but the ancient, well-known day of
judgment upon Egypt (Exo_15:12.). Ewald and Hitzig follow the lxx in taking ‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ְ‫כּ‬ for
‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ְ‫;בּ‬ but this is both incorrect and unsuitable, and reduces '‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ‫מצר‬ into a tame
repetition of ‫ם‬ ‫יּ‬ ַ‫בּ‬ ‫חוּא‬ ַ‫.ה‬ The subject to ‫ֵה‬‫נּ‬ ִ‫ה‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫א‬ ָ‫ב‬ is to be taken from the context, viz., that
which is predicted in the preceding verses (Eze_30:6-8).
COFFMAN, ""Thus saith Jehovah: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall: and the
pride of her powers shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it
by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the
countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are
wasted. And they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and
all her helpers are destroyed; in that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships
to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish upon them, as in
the day of Egypt, for, lo, it cometh."
DESTRUCTION TO INCLUDE ALLIES AND DEPENDENTS
The meaning of this paragraph is stated both at the beginning and at the end of it.
"They also that uphold Egypt shall fall." "All her helpers are destroyed." Fear and
anguish are prophesied here as coming upon Egypt and all of her helpers.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:6 Thus saith the LORD They also that uphold Egypt shall fall;
and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall
in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
Ver. 6. They that uphold Egypt shall fall,] i.e., Their confederates; or, as some, their
tutelar gods. Herodotus writeth that Cambyses wasted with the sword Egypt and
23

24. Ethiopia, killed their god Apis, and defaced all their idols. This he did, doubtless,
rather in scorn of all religion than hatred of idolatry.
And the pride of her power shall come down.] Tumbling down as a great and
weighty bullet from a very high and steep mountain.
From the tower of Syene.] See Ezekiel 29:10.
POOLE, " They also that uphold Egypt; either the princes, counsellors, and martial
men in Egypt, or those abroad, that favour her and help her.
The pride of her power; the glory of all her strength, of which she was proud.
Shall come down; be trodden under foot. From the tower; from Magdalum in the
north-east part of Egypt, toward the Red Sea, to Syene in the most south-west part
of Egypt. See Ezekiel 29:10.
PETT, "Verses 6-9
“Thus says the Lord Yahweh, They also who uphold Egypt will fall, and the pride of
her power will come down, from Migdol to Seveneh will they fall in it by the sword,
says the Lord Yahweh. And they will be desolate in the midst of the countries that
are desolate, and her cities will be in the midst of the cities which are wasted. And
they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her
helpers are destroyed. In that day will messengers go forth from before me in ships
to make the careless Cush afraid, and there will be anguish on them as in the day of
Egypt. For lo, it comes.”
The message of gloom for Egypt continues. Their allies will also fall, and the ‘pride
24

25. of their power’ (their powerful leadership or cities?) will come down, from northern
border to southern border, smitten by the sword. All at the word of the Lord
Yahweh. And their desolation will be shared by countries round about. It will be as
though a fire has been lit in Egypt which will consume them and their allies. And
when this happens all will know by experience that He is Yahweh, the One Who is
what He wants to be.
Then Yahweh’s messengers (possibly referring to the Babylonians?) will go by ship
up the Nile to Cush who thought they were safe, and they too will suffer anguish.
These may be Yahweh’s messengers simply because they carry news of what
Yahweh has done, or in the sense that troops are shipped with a ‘message’ of action
and destruction.
We do not have external information on how far Nebuchadnezzar went in his
invasion before, in the end, he accepted peace terms. But Egypt would not have
surrendered easily.
‘Lo, it comes.’ What was to happen was inevitable. Nothing would prevent it.
PULPIT, "They that uphold Egypt. The words include the allies named in Ezekiel
30:5; but also embrace the rulers, generals, perhaps the idols, of Egypt itself. From
the tower of Syene. As before, in Ezekiel 29:10, "from Migdol to Syene."
7
“‘They will be desolate
among desolate lands,
25

26. and their cities will lie
among ruined cities.
CLARKE, "Shall be desolate - All these countries shall be desolated, and the
places named shall be chief in these desolations.
GILL, "And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are
desolate,.... Or among them, shall be ranked with them, and be as desolate as they are;
as Judea and other countries, ravaged by the same enemy:
and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted; undergo the
same fate as they have done, as Jerusalem and others. The cities of Egypt were very
numerous; Diodorus Siculus (n) says, that in ancient times Egypt had cities and villages
of note, more than 18,000. Herodotus (o) writes, that it was said, that under King
Amasis there were 20,000 cities in it; and the first mentioned writer (p) says, under
Ptolemy Lagus they were reckoned more than 30,000; and, according to Theocritus (q),
under Ptolemy Philadelphus they were 33,339.
JAMISON, "in the midst of ... countries ... desolate — Egypt shall fare no
better than they (Eze_29:10).
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:7 And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries [that
are] desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities [that are] wasted.
Ver. 7. And they shall be desolate.] See Ezekiel 29:10.
POOLE, " They, all those before mentioned,
shall be desolate; as much wasted as any of them that are most wasted. Her cities, of
Egypt, equally wasted with other cities that have been sacked, as Jerusalem, Tyre,
26

27. Zidon, Rabbath, &c.
8
Then they will know that I am the Lord,
when I set fire to Egypt
and all her helpers are crushed.
GILL, "And they shall know that I am the Lord,.... The Egyptians shall know the
Lord to be the true God, and acknowledge him to be omniscient and omnipotent, that
should so exactly foretell their destruction, and accomplish it:
when I have set a fire in Egypt: a war there; the heat of battle, very devouring and
consuming, as well as very grievous and terrible, as fire is. The Targum is,
"when I shall give (or set) people that are strong as fire against Egypt;''
the army of the Chaldeans:
and when all her helpers shall be destroyed; her auxiliaries, the neighbouring
nations in alliance with them, before mentioned.
HENRY, "IV. God shall inflict these desolating judgments on Egypt (Eze_30:8):
They shall know that I am the Lord, and greater than all gods, than all their gods, when
I have set a fire in Egypt. The fire that consumes nations is of God's kindling; and, when
he sets fire to a people, all their helpers shall be destroyed. Those that go about to
quench the fire shall themselves be devoured by it; for who can stand before him when
he is angry? When he pours out his fury upon a place, when he sets fire to it (Eze_30:15,
Eze_30:16), neither its strength nor its multitude can stand it in any stead.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:8 And they shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have set a
27

28. fire in Egypt, and [when] all her helpers shall be destroyed.
Ver. 8. And they shall know that I am the Lord.] Men will not take knowledge of
this till they have paid for their learning, Vexatio dat intellectum. Smart makes wit.
(a)
When I have set a fire in Egypt.] War is fitly compared to fire; it feeds upon the
people. See Isaiah 9:19. {See Trapp on "Isaiah 9:19"}
POOLE, " They shall know; all that act, and all that suffer, in this tragedy, shall by
the evidence of the things be enforced to own God’s hand, and ascribe justice, and
truth, and glory to him.
A fire; that war, which like increasing fire consumeth all.
Shall be destroyed; the destruction of so many and powerful aids shall prove that it
was God’s hand did it.
WHEDON, "8. The day of the Lord is near — The day when accounts shall be
settled and punishment or reward meted out to the nations; a day of darkness to the
wicked and rebellious, a day of triumph to the righteous (Ezekiel 7:7; Amos 5:8;
Jeremiah 27). One of these times of divine settlement seemed near, and was near.
(Compare Isaiah 2, 3, 13; Joel 2:1; Joel 2:12.)
9 “‘On that day messengers will go out from me in
ships to frighten Cush out of her complacency.
28

29. Anguish will take hold of them on the day of
Egypt’s doom, for it is sure to come.
BARNES, "Careless Ethiopians - The Ethiopians, who were dwelling in fancied
security Zep_2:15, shall tremble at Egypt’s ruin.
CLARKE, "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.”
GILL, "In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships,.... Either by the
river Nile, or by the Red sea, to Arabia Felix, which some think is meant by Ethiopia.
Cush or Ethiopia was encompassed about with water, so that there was no coming to it
but by ships; see Gen_2:13, compare with this Isa_18:1, the messengers here were either
such who under a divine impulse, or however by the providence of God, were directed to
go to Ethiopia, and tell them the news of the destruction of Egypt; or these were
messengers sent by the king of Babylon, to demand a surrender of their country to him;
or it may design him himself, and his army, who marched thither to subdue that country
also, after the conquest of Egypt. So the Targum,
"at that time messengers shall go forth from before me with legions;''
and because all this was by the appointment and providence of God, they are
represented as messengers sent by him:
to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; with the news of the fall of Egypt their
confederate, and of a mighty army coming against them; who had dwelt securely and
confidently, at ease and unconcerned, without any sense of danger, or fear of any enemy:
and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt; either as of old,
when the plagues were on Egypt, and especially when they were drowning in the Red
sea; or as of late, when the sword was in Egypt, and ravaging there:
for, lo, it cometh; the same day was coming on them as came on Egypt, the day of the
Lord, a cloudy one, and the time of the Heathen; it was certain, just at hand, and there
was no escaping it; see Eze_30:3.
29

30. JAMISON, "messengers ... in ships to ... Ethiopians — (Isa_18:1, Isa_18:2).
The cataracts interposing between them and Egypt should not save them. Egyptians
“fleeing from before Me” in My execution of judgment, as “messengers” in “skiffs”
(“vessels of bulrushes,” Isa_18:2) shall go up the Nile as far as navigable, to announce
the advance of the Chaldeans.
as in the day of Egypt — The day of Ethiopia’s “pain” shall come shortly, as Egypt’s
day came.
K&D 10-12, "The executors of the judgment. - Eze_30:10. Thus saith the Lord
Jehovah, And I will put an end to the tumult of Egypt through Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon. Eze_30:11. He and his people with him, violent of the nations, will be brought
to destroy the land; they will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with
slain. Eze_30:12. And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of
wicked men, and lay waste the land and its fulness by the hand of foreigners; I Jehovah
have spoken it. - ‫ן‬ ‫מ‬ ָ‫ה‬ cannot be understood as signifying either the multitude of people
only, or the abundance of possessions alone; for ‫ית‬ ִ‫בּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫ה‬ is not really applicable to either
of these meanings. They are evidently both included in the ‫ן‬ ‫מ‬ ָ‫,ה‬ which signifies the
tumult of the people in the possession and enjoyment of their property (cf. Eze_26:13).
The expression is thus specifically explained in Eze_30:11 and Eze_30:12.
Nebuchadnezzar will destroy the land with his men of war, slaying the people with its
possessions. ‫י‬ֵ‫יצ‬ ִ‫ר‬ָ‫,ע‬ as in Eze_28:7. ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ ָ‫,מוּב‬ as in Eze_23:42. '‫יק‬ ִ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ה‬ ‫,וגו‬ cf. Eze_12:14,
Eze_12:28; 7. ‫ל‬ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫אוּ...ח‬ ְ‫ל‬ ָ‫,מ‬ as in Eze_11:6. ‫ים‬ ִ‫ֹר‬‫א‬ְ‫,י‬ the arms and canals of the Nile, by
which the land was watered, and on which the fertility and prosperity of Egypt
depended. The drying up of the arms of the Nile must not be restricted, therefore, to the
fact that God would clear away the hindrances to the entrance of the Chaldeans into the
land, but embraces also the removal of the natural resources on which the country
depended. ‫ר‬ָ‫כ‬ ָ‫,מ‬ to sell a land or people into the hand of any one, i.e., to deliver it into his
power (cf. Deu_32:30; Jdg_2:14, etc.). For the fact itself, see Isa_19:4-6. For '‫י‬ ִ‫ת‬ֹ‫מּ‬ ִ‫הֲשׁ‬ ‫,וגו‬
see Eze_19:7.
COKE, "Ezekiel 30:9. In that day shall messengers go forth, &c.— In that day shall
swift messengers go forth from me, who shall terrify the secure Ethiopian; and he
shall have great fears concerning the day of Egypt, because it shall be nigh.
Houbigant; who observes, that as the messengers are sent to Cush or Ethiopia, if the
Arabians be meant, they were not to be gone to by ships: if the Ethiopians, properly
so called, to the south of Egypt, it was not proper for messengers to be sent to them
in ships, because the navigation was against the stream, and could not be so quick as
30

31. it ought upon an approaching calamity.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to
make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the
day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh.
Ver. 9. In that day shall messengers go forth from me,] i.e., The Chaldeans, by an
instinct from me to subdue Ethiopia also.
In ships.] For Nile was navigable:
“ Lene fluit Nile. ” - Claudian.
To make the careless Ethiopians.] Heb., Confident Cush. Security ushereth in
calamity.
As in the day of Egypt.] That cloudy day, [Ezekiel 30:3] when clouds of blood were
dissolved upon them. Or that dismal day of old, when they perished in the Red Sea.
[Exodus 15:10]
POOLE, " In that day; the day of God’s severe but just judgments, and Egypt’s
fatal desolation.
Messengers; such as having seen and escaped the sword, shall tell the dismal news.
From me; by my permission and providence they shall go, as if sent by me.
31

32. In ships; ships that either carried them over into Pentapolis, crossing the river Nilus,
or rather going down the river into the Mediterranean, and so to any part of those
north parts of Africa, and others by ship through the Red Sea to Arabia Felix,
which is that Ethiopia which is here meant; though it is possible in those days the
African Ethiopia might, as once it did, extend quite to the mouth of the Red Sea. on
whose shore their ancestors must needs first land out of Arabia, whence the
Abyssinians, who are our present Ethiopians, do own their descent. So messengers
by ships might carry the news to both the Ethiopian, Asian, and African, by the Red
Sea.
The careless Ethiopians; in much security they had hitherto lived, the most potent
and formidable neighbour having been their ancient ally, till the news of so mighty
an enemy at their very doors.
Great pain; apprehensions of danger, that puzzles their wisdom, weakens their
courage, makes them in perplexity, both sick and astonished.
As in the day of Egypt; either like that which, when their host was drowned in the
Red Sea, seized all Egypt, or rather like this latter fear, which arose from the mighty
havoc made by the Chaldean.
It cometh; a storm like that certainly cometh against you.
WHEDON, " 9. From me in ships — LXX, and Peshito, in haste; R.V., “from before
me in ships.” (Compare Isaiah 18:2.)
As in the day — Omit “as.” The Ethiopians fear that Nebuchadnezzar will not stop
at Syene, but will press on into their country (notes Ezekiel 29:10-11).
PULPIT, "In that day shall messengers, etc. The whole passage seems an echo of
Isaiah 18:2. The ships are those that bear the tidings of the conquest of Lower Egypt
to the upper valley of the Nile. The careless Ethiopians are so named as confiding in
32

33. their remoteness from the scene of action. They thought themselves safe, and were
lulled into a false security (comp. Isaiah 32:9-11 and Zephaniah 2:15, for a like
rendering of the verb). As in the day of Egypt. As Isaiah (Isaiah 9:4) refers to "the
day of Midian," so Ezekiel points to the memorable time when like tidings of the
judgments that fell on Egypt carried dismay into the hearts of the surrounding
nations (Exodus 15:14, Exodus 15:15).
10 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt
by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will make the multitude of Egypt to
cease,.... The vast numbers of people that inhabited Egypt; some of its cities were very
populous, especially the city No, after mentioned; but now the numbers should be
greatly lessened, and the whole land sadly depopulated: or the "noise" (r), "tumult", and
hurry of it; which is very great where there are large numbers of people, and which
ceases when they are cut off. The Syriac version renders it, the riches of Egypt. Now the
instrument God would make use of to do all this is mentioned by name, as follows,
by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; the then greatest monarch in
the world.
HENRY 10-13, "The king of Babylon and his army shall be employed as instruments
of this destruction: The multitude of Egypt shall be made to cease and be quite cut off by
the hand of the king of Babylon, Eze_30:10. Those that undertook to protect Israel from
the king of Babylon shall not be able to protect themselves. It is said of the Chaldeans,
33

34. who should destroy Egypt, 1. That they are strangers (Eze_30:12), who therefore shall
show no compassion for old acquaintance-sake, but shall behave strangely towards
them. 2. That they are the terrible of the nations (Eze_30:11), both in respect of force
and in respect of fierceness; and, being terrible, they shall make terrible work. (3.) That
they are the wicked, who will not be restrained by reason and conscience, the laws of
nature or the laws of nations, for they are without law: I will sell the land into the hand
of the wicked. They do violence unjustly, as they are wicked; yet, so far as they are
instruments in God's hand of executing his judgments, it is on his part justly done. Note,
God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another; and even wicked men acquire a
title to prey, jure belli - by the laws of war, for God sells it into their hands.
COFFMAN, ""Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also make the multitude of
Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He and his people
with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and
they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. And I
will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will
make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Jehovah,
have spoken it."
THE WEALTH OF EGYPT TO BE CARRIED AWAY
"And I will make the rivers dry ..." (Ezekiel 30:12). We have no historical record of
such a drought falling upon the Nile; but that cannot mean that it never happened.
The forty years of desolation that has been mentioned again and again with
reference to God's judgment upon Egypt would indeed have followed such a
disaster as the drying up of the Nile. There is also the possibility that the language
here may be allegorical or figurative.
However, there is one overwhelmingly good reason for believing that all of the
disasters here prophesied came to pass exactly as God's prophet said they would.
Here is that reason: Egypt was steeped and settled into the most arrogant paganism.
They worshipped dogs, cats, snakes, their king, the Nile river, etc. Why did they
quit? Why did they renounce paganism? That they did so cannot be denied. Why?
The only imaginable events that could have caused such a change are the very
disasters mentioned in these prophecies. Why did they stop worshipping the Nile? It
dried up for forty years!
34

35. Alexander has given us an excellent summary of what is promised here against
Egypt:
"Egypt's Day of the Lord is a day of doom (Ezekiel 30:9), a day of clouds (Ezekiel
30:3), a dark day in her history. The masses would fear as Egypt's proud strength
ceases before the sword of Nebuchadnezzar. Many would be slain (Ezekiel
30:6,10,11,13, and 18). Not even a prince (leader) would be left in the country
(Ezekiel 30:13). Many idolatrous statues of the Egyptian gods would be destroyed or
carried away in the Babylonian quest for victory and wealth. All of Egypt's allies
would fall to the sword: Ethiopia and Lydia in western Anatolia (modern Turkey),
Arabia in the east, Lydia in the west (Ezekiel 30:5-7), Put and Lud in the west; and
even those `people of the covenant land,' the Jews who fled to Egypt following the
murder of Gedaliah would suffer the ravages of the Babylonian invasion. The
judgment of God would be comprehensive; it would be awful; but the purpose of
God would be accomplished."[9]
Egypt would learn that Jehovah is God! Did they really learn it? of course, they did!
None of the silly old pagan gods has been worshipped in Egypt for millenniums of
time.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:10 Thus saith the Lord GOD I will also make the multitude of
Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.
Ver. 10. I will also make the multitude.] Or, The great noise and hurry. They shall
have no more cause to complain that they are too many of them, so that they cannot
one live by another.
PETT, "Verse 10-11
“Thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will also make the multitude (of either people or
35

36. wealth) of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. He and
his people with him, the terrible of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the
land, and they will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.”
Through Nebuchadnezzar God will ‘make the multitude of Egypt to cease’. This
may refer to population or to wealth, but in this section of Ezekiel ‘multitude’ tends
to mean people. So either the population would be decimated or their wealth would
be. In fact in such a war it would happen to both as cattle were slaughtered or run
off, spoils were seized and people were put to the sword. For ‘the terrible of the
nations’ compare Ezekiel 28:7. Note that Nebuchadnezzar and his hordes ‘will be
brought in’, that is by Yahweh. They are seen as under Yahweh’s command.
11
He and his army—the most ruthless of nations—
will be brought in to destroy the land.
They will draw their swords against Egypt
and fill the land with the slain.
GILL, "He and his people with him,.... He and his army, consisting chiefly of
Chaldeans; though there were of other nations among them, as were in his army when
he besieged Jerusalem, as seems to be suggested in the next clause:
the terrible of the nations shall be brought to destroy the land; the Chaldeans,
the most fierce, cruel, and terrible of all people, and others the most terrible that could
be collected out of all nations under the yoke of the king of Babylon; and all of them
terrible to the nations against whom they came, as now against Egypt to destroy it; see
36

37. Hab_1:6,
and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the
slain; go through the land with their drawn swords, and kill all they meet; and not put
them up till they have quite depopulated the land, and filled it with dead carcasses.
TRAPP. "Ezekiel 30:11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall
be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and
fill the land with the slain.
Ver. 11. The terrible of the nations.] Tyranni gentium. Homo homini lupus.
POOLE, " He; Nebuchadrezzar.
His people; his own subjects, not hired soldiers.
The terrible: this is the description of them, Habakkuk 1:7, a fierce and cruel
people, as Psalms 137:8,9.
Shall be brought, by the hand of God, using means for that end, as before noted,
Ezekiel 29:4.
Draw their swords against Egypt; readily, and with resolution not to sheath them
till Egypt be filled with slain.
37

38. 12
I will dry up the waters of the Nile
and sell the land to an evil nation;
by the hand of foreigners
I will lay waste the land and everything in it.
I the Lord have spoken.
CLARKE, "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, etc. By rivers, we may understand the various
canals cut from the Nile to carry water into the different parts of the land. When the Nile
did not rise to its usual height these canals were quite dry.
GILL, "And I will make the rivers dry,.... Egypt was a country that abounded with
rivers; however, with canals cut from the river Nile; its wealth and riches very much
depended here on, partly on account of the multitude of fishes taken out of them, and
the paper reeds that grew upon their banks; but chiefly because the whole land, was
watered by them, and made exceeding fruitful, rain being not so common in it; so that to
dry up the riven was in effect to take away their substance and dependence; besides,
hereby the way was made easy and passable for the enemy; there was nothing to obstruct
him, he could overrun and ravage the land at pleasure:
and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; the Chaldeans under
Nebuchadnezzar, who were wicked idolaters, men of flagitious lives, and of merciless
and cruel dispositions; who would show no favour to the inhabitants of the land, when
delivered up to them, which is called a selling it; for, as things sold are delivered to the
buyer, so should this land be to them; which though they had no right to it before, yet by
the event of war, and disposal of divine Providence, came to have a property in it, given
them by him who is the proprietor of all lands; and after them into the hands of the
38

39. Persians, under Cambyses, and Ochus; who were very wicked and cruel princes, and may
be reckoned among the terrible or violent ones of the nations in the preceding verse; and
then into the hands of the Grecian, Romans, Saracen, Mamaluck, and now the Turks, all
very wicked people:
and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of
strangers; the Babylonians, people of another country and distant, of another
language, and with whom they had no commerce, alliance, and friendship, and so would
not spare them, and their land, when in their possession; and so all the rest above
mentioned, into whose hands they successively fell:
I the Lord have spoken it; determined it, prophesied of it; and it shall come to pass,
as it did accordingly.
JAMISON, "rivers — the artificial canals made from the Nile for irrigation. The
drying up of these would cause scarcity of grain, and so prepare the way for the invaders
(Isa_19:5-10).
COKE, "Ezekiel 30:12. I will make the rivers dry, &c.— "I will destroy the strength
of Egypt." The metaphor is taken from the decrease or falling of the Nile, upon the
overflowings of which all the plenty and prosperity of Egypt depended. See 2 Kings
19:24 and Isaiah 37:25.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the
hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the
hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken [it].
Ver. 12. And I will make the rivers dry.] The Chaldees shall drink them up; {as 2
Kings 19:24} or I will dry them up, for a punishment of your vain trust in them, and
boasting of them. [Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 29:9]
And sell the land.] Pass it away utterly from you. "The earth is the Lord’s"; he is
the true proprietary.
POOLE, " I will make the rivers dry; either by some extraordinary drought, or
rather by means of that mighty lake, which drew so much water from Nilus, that all
39

40. their canals were ever after shallow, and the lake, as the oracle foretold, helped their
enemy, and hurt their friends; or the Chaldeans might divert them, and so their
fortified towns would want one great defence.
Sell the land: God gave it, here he sells; the one is proper, the other a borrowed
expression; indeed God seems to pay wages with it, Ezekiel 29:19,20; but hereby is
intimated, that as sellers deliver into the hand of the buyer, so God would deliver
Egypt into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, as surely as if he had bought it. arid we
may conclude the Chaldean as a buyer will make the most of all he buys.
Of the wicked; not of just and compassionate, but of injurious and merciless men.
Strangers, who leave nothing they can carry away, eat up, or spoil.
I the Lord have spoken it; it is the decree and edict of Heaven, which cannot be
broken.
PETT, "Verse 12
“And I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hands of evil men.
And I will make the land desolate, and all that is in it by the hand of strangers. I
Yahweh have spoken it.”
Egypt would not only have to cope with invasion but with drought as the level of the
Nile fell and many tributaries dried up. The irrigation canals, which required
constant attention by the people, would be neglected and silt up. Furthermore as
regularly happens in such a war there would be a rise of brigandage, to add to the
people’s troubles as the desolation continued through visiting armies. All this would
be seen as Yahweh’s doing.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 30:12
40

41. I will make the rivers dry. The rivers are the Nile-blanches of the Delta, and their
being dried up points, perhaps, literally to a failure in the inundation of the Nile on
which its fertility depended; figuratively to a like failure of all its sources of
prosperity.
13 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘I will destroy the idols
and put an end to the images in Memphis.
No longer will there be a prince in Egypt,
and I will spread fear throughout the land.
BARNES, "Noph - Memphis Isa_19:13.
CLARKE, "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. See the note on Eze_29:14.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols,.... With which
Egypt abounded, making an idol of all sorts of creatures, rational and irrational, animate
and inanimate, and in which they trusted; wherefore these being destroyed, they had
nothing to put their confidence in:
41

42. I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; called Moph, Hos_9:6 and which
we there rightly render Memphis, as many versions do here, and was very famous for
idolatry: here stood the temple of Serapis, and the temple of other idols; here Isis and
Osiris were worshipped; and it was in Jerom's time, as he says, the metropolis of the
Egyptian superstition. It was built by Menes (s), the Mizraim of the Scriptures, the first
king of Egypt; though Diodorus Siculus (t) makes Uchoreus to be the founder of it. Some
interpreters take this city to be the same with what is now called Alkair, or Grand Cairo;
or, however, that this is built upon the same spot, or near the same place that was, in
which I have followed them on Isa_19:13 whereas Cairo stands right over against old
Memphis, the Nile being between them, on the east side of it, and Memphis on the west;
as is clear from Herodotus (u), and from the charts of Dr. Shaw, and Mr. Norden; and
who observe, that some take the place of it to have been where a village now stands, Dr.
Shaw calls Geza, and Mr. Norden Gize:
and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt; that is, a native of that
country; or that should rule over the whole of it, and in that grandeur the kings of Egypt
had before; or, however, not dwell in Memphis, which was the seat of the kings of Egypt,
but now should be so no more: when Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, it was
under the Babylonians; and then under the Persians; and then under the Greeks; and
afterwards under the Romans; since under the Saracens and Mamalucks; and now in the
hands of the Turks; so that it never recovered its former glory; and indeed, after
Nectanebus was driven out of it by Ochus, king of Persia, it never after had a king:
and I will put a fear in all the land of Egypt; a panic in all the inhabitants of it; as
soon as they shall hear of the king of Babylon entering into it, their courage, bravery, and
fortitude, shall at once leave them, and they shall be dispirited, and have no heart to
defend themselves, and oppose the enemy.
JAMISON, "Noph — Memphis, the capital of Middle Egypt, and the stronghold of
“idols.” Though no record exists of Nebuchadnezzar’s “destroying” these, we know from
Herodotus and others, that Cambyses took Pelusium, the key of Egypt, by placing before
his army dogs, cats, etc., all held sacred in Egypt, so that no Egyptian would use any
weapon against them. He slew Apis, the sacred ox, and burnt other idols of Egypt.
no more a prince — referring to the anarchy that prevailed in the civil wars between
Apries and Amasis at the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion. There shall no more be a
prince of the land of Egypt, ruling the whole country; or, no independent prince.
K&D 13-19, "Further Description of the Judgment
Eze_30:13. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will exterminate the idols and cut off the
deities from Noph, and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt; and I
put terror upon the land of Egypt. Eze_30:14. And I lay Pathros waste, and bring fire
into Zoan, and execute judgments upon No; Eze_30:15. And I pour out my fury upon
Sin, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of No; Eze_30:16. And I put fire
in Egypt; Sin will writhe in pain, and No will be broken open, and Noph - enemies by
day. Eze_30:17. The men of On and Bubastus will fall by the sword, and they
themselves will go into captivity. Eze_30:18. At Tachpanches the day will be darkened
when I shatter the yokes of Egypt there, and an end will be put to its proud
42

43. haughtiness; cloud will cover it, and its daughters till go into captivity. Eze_30:19. And
thus I execute judgments upon Egypt, that they may know that I am Jehovah. - Egypt
will lose its idols and its princes (cf. Jer_46:25). ‫ים‬ ִ‫לּוּל‬ִ‫גּ‬ and ‫ים‬ ִ‫יל‬ ִ‫ֱל‬‫א‬ are synonymous,
signifying not the images, but the deities; the former being the ordinary epithet applied
to false deities by Ezekiel (see the comm. on Eze_6:4), the latter traceable to the reading
of Isa_19:1. ‫ֹף‬‫נ‬, contracted from ‫נף‬ ְֹ‫מ‬, Manoph or Menoph = ‫ֹף‬‫מ‬ in Hos_9:6, is Memphis,
the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, with the celebrated temple of Ptah, one of the
principal seats of Egyptian idolatry (see the comm. on Hos_9:6 and Isa_19:13). In Eze_
30:13 ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫א‬ ֵ‫מ‬ ‫'מצר‬ belongs to ‫יא‬ ִ‫ָשׂ‬‫נ‬, there shall be no more a prince from the land of
Egypt, i.e., a native prince. ‫ן‬ ַ‫ָת‬‫נ‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫א‬ ְ‫ר‬ִ‫,י‬ to put fear upon (cf. Eze_26:17). From Lower
Egypt Ezekiel passes in Eze_30:14 to Upper Egypt (Pathros, see the comm. on Eze_
29:14), which is also to be laid waste, and then names several more of the principal cities
of Lower Egypt along with the chief city of Upper Egypt. ‫ן‬ַ‫,צֹע‬ Egypt. Zane, Copt. Jane, is
the Τανίς, Tanis, of the Greeks and Romans, on the Tanitic arm of the Nile, an ancient
city of Lower Egypt; see the comm. on Num_13:22 and Isa_19:11. ‫ֹא‬‫נ‬ = ‫ֹא‬‫נ‬ ‫ן‬ ‫מ‬ ָ‫א‬ in Nah_
3:8, probably “abode of Amon,” Egypt. P-amen, i.e., house of Amon, the sacred name of
Thebes, the celebrated royal city of Upper Egypt, the Διὸς πόλις ἡ μεγάλη of the Greeks
(see the comm. on Nah_3:8). ‫ין‬ ִ‫ס‬ (literally, mire; compare the Aram. ‫ַן‬‫י‬ ְ‫)ס‬ is Πηλούσιον,
Pelusium, which derives its name from πηλός (ὠνόμασται ἀπὸ τοῦ πηλοῦ πηλός, Strab.
xvii. p. 802), because there were swamps all round. It was situated on the eastern arm of
the Nile, to which it gave its name, at a distance of twenty stadia from the sea. The
Egyptian name Pehromi also signifies dirty, or muddy. From this the Arabs have made
Elfarama; and in the vicinity of the few ruins of the ancient Pelusium there is still a
castle called Arab. t{i=nh, Tineh (compare the Chaldee ‫ָא‬‫נ‬‫י‬ ִ‫,ט‬ clay, in Dan_2:41). Ezekiel
calls it the “fortress or bulwark of Egypt,” because, as Strabo (l.c.) observes, “Egypt is
difficult of access here from places in the East;” for which reason Hirtius (de bell. Al. c.
27) calls it “the key of Egypt,” and Suidas (s.v.) “the key both of the entrance and exit of
Egypt.” On the history of this city, see Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia. In ‫ן‬ ‫מ‬ֲ‫ה‬ ‫ֹא‬‫נ‬
many of the commentators find a play upon the name of the god ‫ן‬ ‫מ‬ ָ‫א‬ (Jer_46:25), the
chief deity of Thebes, which is possible, but not very probable, as we should not expect to
find a god mentioned again here after Eze_30:13; and ‫י‬ ִ‫תּ‬ ַ‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ ִ‫ה‬ would be inappropriate. -
In Eze_30:16 Sin (= Pelusium) is mentioned again as the border fortress, No (=
Memphis) as the capital of Upper Egypt, as all falling within the range of the judgment.
The expression ‫ֹף‬‫נ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ָ‫צ‬ ‫ם‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ has caused some difficulty and given occasion to various
conjectures, none of which, however, commend themselves as either simple or natural
explanations.
(Note: Ewald proposes to alter ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ָ‫צ‬ into ‫י‬ ִ‫ד‬ ְ‫צ‬ (after the Aramaean), “rust,” and
renders it: “Memphis will be eternal rust.” But to this Hitzig has very properly
objected that in Eze_24:6, Eze_24:11, rust is called ‫ה‬ ָ‫א‬ ְ‫ל‬ ֶ‫;ח‬ and that even in Psa_6:3
‫ם‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ does not mean perpetual or eternal. Hävernick proposes to explain ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ָ‫,צ‬ from
the Aramaean zerâ', to rend or tear in pieces, “Memphis shall become perpetual
rents.” To this also it may be objected, that ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ָ‫צ‬ in Hebrew has the standing
meaning of oppressors; and that ‫ם‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫,י‬ interdiu, is not equivalent to perpetual; and
43

44. still further, that the preposition ְ‫ל‬ could not be omitted before ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ָ‫).צ‬
As Hitzig has correctly observed, ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ָ‫צ‬ ‫ם‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ is the same as ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ֹד‬‫שׁ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫הֳר‬ ָֽ‫צּ‬ ַ‫בּ‬ in Jer_15:8,
and is the opposite of ‫י‬ ֵ‫ד‬ ְ‫ד‬ֹ‫שׁ‬ ‫ה‬ָ‫ל‬ְ‫י‬ַ‫ל‬ in Oba_1:5. The enemy who comes by day, not in the
night, is the enemy who does not shun open attack. The connection with ‫ֹף‬‫נ‬ is to be
explained by the same rule as Jer_24:2, “the one basket - very good figs.” Memphis will
have enemies in broad daylight, i.e., will be filled with them.ֶ‫ון‬ ָ‫א‬ = ‫ן‬ ‫,א‬ ‫ן‬ֹ‫א‬, in Gen_41:45,
Gen_41:50 (Egyptian An, or Anu), is the popular name of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt (see
the comm. on Gen_41:45); and the formֶ‫ון‬ ָ‫א‬ (a vain thing, or idol) is probably selected
intentionally in the sense of an idol-city (see the comm. on Hos_4:15), because On-
Heliopolis (‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫מ‬ֶ‫ית־שׁ‬ ֵ‫בּ‬ in Jer_43:13) was from time immemorial one of the principal seats
of the Egyptian worship of the sun, and possessed a celebrated temple of the sun, with a
numerous and learned priesthood (see the comm. on Gen_41:45, ed. 2). ‫ת‬ ֶ‫ס‬ ֶ‫י־ב‬ ִ‫,פּ‬ i.e.,
βουβαστός (lxx), or βουβαστίν (Herod. ii. 59), Egyptian Pi-Pasht, i.e., the place of Pasht,
so called from the cat-headed Bubastis or Pasht, the Egyptian Diana, which was
worshipped there in a splendid temple. It was situated on the royal canal leading to Suez,
which was begun by Necho and finished under Ptolemy II, not far from its junction with
the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. It was the chief seat of the Nomos Bubastites, was
destroyed by the Persians, who demolished its walls (Diod. Sic. xvi. 51), and has entirely
disappeared, with the exception of some heaps of ruins which still bear the name of Tel
Bastah, about seven hours' journey from the Nile (compare Ges. Thes. pp. 1101ff., and
Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia, s.v.). The Nomos of Bubastis, according to Herod. ii.
166, was assigned to the warrior-caste of Calasirians. The ‫ים‬ ִ‫חוּר‬ ַ‫,בּ‬ the young military
men, will fall by the sword; and ‫ָה‬‫נּ‬ ֵ‫,ה‬ not αἱ γυναῖκες (lxx and others), but the cities
themselves, i.e., their civil population as distinguished from the military garrison, shall
go into exile. This explanation of ‫ָה‬‫נּ‬ ֵ‫ה‬ is commended by ָ‫יה‬ ֶ‫ת‬ ‫נ‬ ְ‫בּ‬ in Eze_30:18. ‫ס‬ ֵ‫ח‬ְ‫נ‬ ְ‫פ‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫תּ‬ or
‫ס‬ ַ‫ח‬ְ‫נ‬ַ‫פּ‬ ְ‫ח‬ ַ‫תּ‬ (Jer_43:7., Eze_44:1; Eze_46:14), and ‫ֵס‬‫נ‬ ְ‫פ‬ ְ‫ח‬ ַ‫תּ‬ in Jer_2:16 (Chetib), is Τάφναι,
Τάφνη (lxx), or Δάφναι (Herod. ii. 30. 107), a frontier city of Egypt in the vicinity of
Pelusium, after the time of Psammetichus a fortification with a strong garrison, where a
palace of Pharaoh was also to be found, according to Jer_43:9. After the destruction of
Jerusalem, a portion of the Jews took refuge there, and to them Jeremiah predicted the
punishment of God on the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer_43:7., Eze_44:1.).
In the case of ‫השך‬ the reading varies; the printed Masora at Gen_39:3 giving ַ‫שׂ‬ ָ‫ח‬ as
the reading to be found in all the codices examined by the author of the Masora;
whereas many of the codices and printed editions have ַ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫,ח‬ and this is adopted in all
the ancient versions. This is evidently the correct reading, as ‫חשׂ‬ does not furnish an
appropriate meaning, and the parallel passages, Eze_32:8; Isa_13:10; Joe_3:4; Amo_
8:9, all favour ‫.חשׁ‬ The darkening of the day is the phenomenal prognostic of the
dawning of the great day of judgment upon the nations (cf. Joe_2:10; Joe_3:4, Joe_
3:15; Isa_13:10, etc.). This day is to dawn upon Egypt at Tachpanches, the border
fortress of the land towards Syria and Palestine, when the Lord will break the yokes of
Egypt. These words point back to Lev_26:13, where the deliverance of Israel from the
bondage of Egypt is called the breaking in pieces of its yokes (see also Eze_34:27). That
which took place then is to be repeated here. The yokes which Egypt put upon the
nations are to be broken; and all the proud might of that kingdom is to be brought to an
44

45. end (‫ן‬ ‫א‬ְ‫גּ‬ ‫ָהּ‬‫זּ‬ֻ‫,ע‬ as in Eze_30:6). In Eze_30:18, ‫יא‬ ִ‫,ה‬ which stands at the head in an
absolute form, points back to ‫ס‬ ֵ‫ח‬ְ‫נ‬ ְ‫פ‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫תּ‬ ִ‫.בּ‬ The city (Daphne) will be covered with cloud,
i.e., will be overthrown by the judgment; and her daughters, i.e., the smaller cities and
hamlets dependent upon her (cf. Eze_16:46 and Eze_26:6), will go into captivity in the
persons of their inhabitants. It follows from this that Daphne was the chief city of a
Nomos in Lower Egypt; and this is confirmed by the circumstance that there was a royal
palace there. If we compare the threat in this verse, that in Tachpanches an end is to be
put to the proud might of Pharaoh, with the threatening words of Jer_43:9., to the effect
that Nebuchadnezzar would set up his throne at Tachpanches and smite Egypt, it is
evident that the situation of Daphne must at that time have been such that the war
between Egypt and Babylonia would necessarily be decided in or near this city. These
prophetic utterances cannot be explained, as Kliefoth supposes, from the fact that many
Jews had settled in Daphne; nor do the contents of this verse furnish any proof that
Ezekiel did not utter this prophecy of his till after the Jews had settled there (Jer_
43:1-13 and 44). Eze_30:19 serves to round off the prophecy.
COFFMAN, ""Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah: I will also destroy the idols, and I will
cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from
the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. And I will make
Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments upon No.
And I will pour my wrath upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the
multitude of No. And I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No
shall be broken up; and Memphis shall have adversaries in the day-time. The young
men of Avert and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these cities shall go into
captivity. At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break
there the yokes of Egypt and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for her, a
cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus will I execute
judgments upon Egypt; and they shall know that I am Jehovah."
THE CITIES TO BE DESTROYED
"Memphis ..." (Ezekiel 30:13) "This was the principal city of Lower Egypt, built on
the left bank of the Nile 10 miles south of Cairo."[10] "This city was also called
`Noph.'"[11]
"I will destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease ..." (Ezekiel 30:13).
45

46. "The `idols' here were great men and princes, as indicated in NEB."[12] Since the
Pharaohs themselves pretended to divine honors, the term "idols" is appropriate.
"Pathros, Zoan, and No ..." (Ezekiel 30:14) "Pathros was the native name of Upper,
or Southern Egypt; Zoan, called `Tanis' by the Greeks, was mentioned by Moses in
Numbers 13:22. It was an important city of the Eastern Delta."[13]
No was located some 400 miles south of Memphis; it was the capital of Upper Egypt,
known to the Greeks as Thebes, and featured in the Book of Nahum under the name
of No-Amon. There is nothing haphazard about this list of Egyptian cities.
Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt, and its supporting cities was named first, and
then Thebes, or No, the capital of Upper Egypt was named next.
No was famous as a residential city for the Pharaohs between 1380,930 B.C.; and
many of the greatest of the Pharaohs were buried there.[14] The sun-god Amon was
worshipped there; and his name was often incorporated into that of the city, as in
No-Amon (Nahum 3:8f).
Each one of the cities mentioned here, "was identified with a particular pagan deity;
and therefore God's prophecies against these cities may be construed as a frontal
assault upon the paganism of Egypt."[15]
"Sin ..." (Ezekiel 30:16). This place is called the "stronghold of Egypt." It is usually
associated with Pelusium, but the actual location is disputed.
"Avert ..." (Ezekiel 30:17). "This word means `nothingness,' or 'wickedness,' and is
a contemptuous rendition of On (Heliopolis), the words being spelled exactly alike in
Hebrew. Joseph's father-in-law was Potiphera the high priest there (Genesis 41:45).
It was the center of sun-worship.
"Pibeseth ..." (Ezekiel 30:17). At this place, "The cat-headed goddess Ubastet was
46

47. worshipped."[16]
Herodotus has the report of a Persian ruler, Cambyses, who won a victory over this
city by deploying several thousand dogs and cats in front of the Persian army. The
Egyptians would not attack through fear of killing some of the animals which were
sacred to their god.
"Tehaphnehes ..." (Ezekiel 30:18). "This place is now Tel-Deffeneh, 10 miles west of
E1-Kantara on the Suez Canal."[17] It is the place where Jeremiah prophesied that
the king of Babylon would erect his throne (Jeremiah 43:8f).
The list of cities mentioned here has now been noted; and we appreciate Eichrodt's
comment that, "This list provides a very suitable means of representing the almost
inexhaustible resources of that kingdom on the Nile."[18]
"When I shall break there the yokes of Egypt ..." (Ezekiel 30:18). Some of the
versions have "yokes and bars." "Both words are used as a figure of tyranny, and of
Egyptian tyranny in particular."[19]
COKE, "Ezekiel 30:13. Noph— Or, Memphis; and so Ezekiel 30:16. There shall be
no more a prince, &c. seems to mean that there shall be no more a natural prince of
the Egyptian race, but it shall be subject to foreigners. It is probable, that these
prophesies respect the time of Cambyses and Darius Ochus. See the note on chap.
Ezekiel 29:15 and Usher's Annals, A.M. 3478 and 3653.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 30:13 Thus saith the Lord GOD I will also destroy the idols, and I
will cause [their] images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of
the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
Ver. 13. I will also destroy their idols.] He did so by Cambyses. See on Ezekiel 30:6.
He doth so still by the Turks. When they invade Popish countries, they break down
47

48. their mawmets.
Out of Noph.] Called also Moph, [Hosea 9:6] afterwards Memphis (the metropolis of
idolatry; Nazianzen calleth it ανοια, the mad city, because ειδωλομανης, madly set
upon idols, Apis especially), afterwards Babylon, and now Alcair; famous for its
incredible greatness, fair situation, pillars and pyramids. It was the seat royal of the
sultans, till taken by the Turks from Camson Gaurus and the Mamelukes about the
year 1515.
And there shall be no more a prince.] For forty years at least.
POOLE, " I will also destroy; God did it by the Babylonians; those proud and
impious nations did triumph over the gods of the conquered, and out of contempt of
them burnt them or broke them, as is well known; so Sennacherib threatened, 2
Chronicles 32:19 Isaiah 37:19,24, against the true God, as he did to idol gods.
The idols; dunghill gods, as the words, fitter to be trod under foot than to be decked
and respected.
Their images; these nothings, as the word imports; whoever destroyed the image
destroyed the god, for it was nothing but an image.
Noph; Memphis, now Grand Cairo, the chief city of the country, the seat of their
kings first, of their priests by consequence, and of all their several gods too; but the
Chaldeans destroyed the nest and birds too.
A prince; either an Egyptian horn, or independent, or over all Egypt, or that shall
have the power, wealth, or honour like a former brave Egyptian king. A fear of
consternation and cowardice, that should disable them for counsel and action in
their most urgent affairs.
48