CHAPTER XXVIII. 1 God's judgment upon the prince of Tyrus for his sacrilegious pride. 11 A lamentation of his great glory corrupted by sin. 20 The judgment of Zidon. 24 The restoration of Israel. THE word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the 'midst of the seas; 'yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: 3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: 4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy trea sures: 5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: 6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; 7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. 8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that 'slayeth thee. 10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. 11 ¶ Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the 'sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the 'emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets Heb. by the greatness of thy wisdom. 16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. 20 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 21 Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it, 22 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. 23 For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 24 ¶ And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. 25 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from 4 Or, woundeth. 5 Or, ruby. 6 Or, chrysolite. 8 Heb terrors. 7 Or, chrysoprase. 169 the people among whom they are scattered, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; and shall be sanctified in them in the sight yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their have executed judgments upon all those that land that I have given to my servant Jacob. "despise them round about them; and they 26 And they shall dwell 'safely therein, | shall know that I am the LORD their God. 9 Or, with confidence. 10 Or, spoil. Verse 5. "By thy great wisdom and by thy truffick hast thou increased thy riches."—It will be observed that the early part of this chapter is addressed to the "prince" or "king of Tyre." Heeren, with reference to these verses, observes: "The prophet Ezekiel, in his prophecy against the king of Tyre, makes us acquainted with the power of the sovereign of that city. He represents him as a powerful prince, surrounded with great splendour, but faithful to the spirit of commercial states, filling his coffers by commerce, and conforming himself at first to the maxims of political wisdom, but soon degenerating into cunning and injustice, the chastisement of which was foretold and duly received. It also results from this remarkable passage, that the revenues of the Tyrian kings, and doubtless those of other Phoenician cities, were founded upon commerce; but we are uninformed whether they arose from dues and customs, or from monopolies exercised by the sovereign, or whether from both sources at once." 13. "Every precious stone was thy covering."-This verse seems to show, in a very striking manner, the pitch to which luxury and splendour had arrived among the princely merchants of Tyre. 22. "Zidon."-See the account of Zidon given under Josh. xix., with an engraving, representing the modern town. CHAPTER XXIX. 1 The judgment of Pharaoh for his treachery to Israel. 8 The desolation of Egypt. 13 The restoration thereof after forty years. 17 Egypt the reward of Nebuchadrezzar. 21 Israel shall be restored. In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: 3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great 'dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. 4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. 5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the 'open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. 6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 7 When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou 1 Psal. 74. 13, 14. Isa. 27. 1, and 51.9 Heb face of the field. Isa. 19. 23. Jer. 46. 26. brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand. 8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee. 9 And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it. 10 Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of 'Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. 11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. 12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 13 Yet thus saith the Lord God; At the 'end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered: 14 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their 'habitation; and they shall be there a "base kingdom. 15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. Heb. wastes of waste. 5 Heb. Sevencħ. 3 Kings 18. 21. Isa. 36 6. 8 Heb, low. 19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and 'take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD. 21 In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD. Heb. spoil her spoil, and prey her prey. 10 Or, for his hire. rse 3. "The great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers."-The crocodile is doubtless alluded to. This animal sewhere, and very properly, made to represent the Egyptian king; and it is remarkable that it was also used among Ancients as a symbol of Egypt, and appears as such upon some Roman coins. My river is mine own."-This was the Nile, which here symbolizes the kingdom of Egypt, as the crocodile in it does ting. The king alluded to is doubtless Apries, the Pharaoh-hophra of Scripture; and it well deserves observation exactly this vaunting language agrees with the character which Herodotus gives of the same king. "He consi1 himself so securely established, that he is said to have been of opinion that it was beyond the power of a god to ve him of his kingdom." (Euterpe, 169.) Yet he was deprived of it by a God whom he knew not. See the ant which has been given of his affairs under Jer. xliv. 30. The verses which follow evidently refer to the same 3 which Jeremiah foretold. "From the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia."-Syene itself being the last town of Egypt towards rontier of Ethiopia, this version does not convey the sense of the original, which is correctly given by Newcome,m Migdol to Syene, even to the border of Ethiopia." Migdol, rendered "tower" in our version, but which should reserved as a proper name, was in the north of Egypt, while Syene was at its southern frontier; so "from Migdol vene," is an expression for describing the whole extent of the country, analogous to "from Dan to Beersheba." cataracts (or rather the first cataract) of the Nile, which occur above this place, and the difficult navigation of iver, make a natural boundary-line, so that Syene (now called Assouan) has under all governments been consi dered the frontier town of Egypt in this direction. Speaking more strictly, the boundary may be said to be formed by the mighty terraces of that peculiar kind of reddish granite, called syenite from the name of the place. These terraces, shaped into peaks, stretch across the bed of the Nile, and over them the great river rolls its foaming stream, forming the cataracts so often mentioned in every description of Egypt. It was from the quarries at this place that the Egyptians obtained the stone so frequently employed by them in their obelisks and colossal statues. The town of Syene long retained its importance, with a very considerable population. Ruins of works and buildings, by the successive masters of the land, the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, the Romans, and the Arabians, are still seen on and around the site of the old town, which the present town so closely adjoins on the north, that the northern wall of the old town forms the southern one of the new. The removal is said to have been made in the year 1403 A.D. (806 A.н.), in consequence of a plague, which destroyed 21,000 of the inhabitants; from which the importance of the place, down to comparatively later times, may be estimated. The scenery in this part is very striking:-"The river is rocky here, and the navigation, by night at least, dangerous. At the pass of Assouan, ruin and devastation reign around. This pass, which nature has so well fortified, seems ill-treated by man. Hardly anything was to be seen but the vast remains of the old town of Syene, with mud built walls and hovels on every side. Rocks, forming islands, were in the middle of the stream, upon which shrubs were growing. The scene altogether was wild and forlorn. In the distance appear high mountains, or masses of stone; with trees, corn, and grass, of great height, extending to the water's edge." (Madox's Excursions in the Holy Land, Egypt,' &c. vol. i. pp. 285-6.) 15. "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms.”—By this, and as usually explained, we are to understand that Egypt should speedily become, and should long remain, subject to oppressing strangers. And how markedly this has been accomplished, the slightest acquaintance with history suffices to evince! For more than two thousand years Egypt has ever been subject to a succession of foreign governors. Under the Persians, the Egyptians were allowed at first to retain their own kings, by becoming tributary to the conquerors; repeated attempts, however, having been made by the Egyptians to re-establish their own independence, it was finally annexed by the Persians to their empire as a province, governed by Persians. Such it remained, till it was conquered by Alexander, whose successors established a royal dynasty in Egypt from the termination of which, through the long series of ages down to our own time, Egypt has never lifted its head in independence, but, under its successive foreign rulers-the Romans, Arabians, Mamelukes, and Turks—has been subject to the most intense oppression from a foreign body of people. Egypt has indeed been an independent kingdom under the Ptolemies and the Saracens, and it may be possible that the present ruler should establish its independence. But this matters not: for these independent sovereigns in Egypt were foreigners, surrounded by people of their own nation, who engrossed all wealth, power, and distinction; leaving Egypt as a country, and the proper Egyptians as a people, oppressed and miserable. This is surely a marked fulfilment of prophecy, delivered at a time when Egypt, under its own kings, great and magnificent, took no second place among the nations. And further, where is the nation against which the prophecies were delivered? The present inhabitants of the country are altogether a different people. The descendants of the ancient Egyptians have usually been sought in the Copts, a body of people, few in number, who act as shopkeepers, &c. in Egypt. But since opportunities have been obtained of comparing their persons with the sculptures and statues representing the form and appearance of the ancient Egyptians, their claim to this distinction has been much weakened; and if it be set aside, it remains undetermined where the remnant of the old Egyptian nation should be sought, if any remnant still survives. That, if it does not exist in the Copts, it is not now to be found in the present Egypt, is, however, agreed. On this point, see the observations of Dr. Richardson, and also the curious account given by Mr. Madden (Travels,' p. 91-95) of the results obtained by the comparison and measurement of the heads of twelve adult mummies with the heads of twelve living Copts and Nubians. The result seems as decisive against the Copts as that obtained from a comparison of their forms exhibited in ancient paintings and sculptures; but whether equally in favour of the Nubians, as the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, as Madden and others incline to suppose, seems a question not so well determined, nor is the investigation required for our present purpose. CHAPTER XXX. 1 The desolation of Egypt and her helpers. 20 The arm of Babylon shall be strengthened to break the arm of Egypt. THE word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day! 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 8 And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed. 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. 10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; 1 will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the ter- | rible 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. 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. 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. 14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. 15 And I will pour my fury upon 'Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. 16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily. 17 The young men of Aven and of "Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity. 10 18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. 19 Thus will I execute judgments in › Heb. drought. 6 Heb. the fulness thereof. Egypt: and they shall know that I am the 20 ¶ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. 22 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man. 25 But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. 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. 7 Zech. 13. 2. 8 Or, Tanis. 9 Or, Pelusium. 10 Or, Heliopolis. 11 Or, Pubastum. 12 Or, restrained. Verse 14. Zoan."-See Num. xiii. 22. Some other Egyptian names which here occur have already passed under our notice: we shall now attend to those which have not previously engaged our attention. 17. "Aven."-This place is mentioned by several names in Scripture. By On, which seems to have been the native Egyptian name, and which occurs in the history of Joseph, who married a daughter of the priest of On, a fact which shows the extreme antiquity of the place. The Hebrew name for it seems to have been Beth-shemesh, or "house of the sun," which, or "city of the sun," is the meaning of all the names given to the place, except that of Aven, or Bethaven, as in the text, meaning "vanity," or "house of vanity," being a nick-name which the Hebrews were accustomed to apply to noted places of idolatrous worship-to Bethel, for instance. The Greek name of the place was Heliopolis, by which name the Seventy render the original; and it is well in such cases to defer as much as possible to their authority, as they, of all men, were likely to know well the corresponding Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek names of the same places. But indeed their conclusion, in the present case, has not been disputed. Heliopolis received its name from the worship of the sun, to which a very celebrated temple was here consecrated. It was a famous seat of the Egyptian science and learning. The inhabitants are said by Herodotus to have been the wisest of the Egyptians; and it is said that Moses spent his youth here, and received that education which rendered him "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." This is not unlikely; but it is more certain, that in the college of priests at this place, Eudoxus, Plato, and Herodotus received their instruction in the astronomy, philosophy, and history-in all that learning of the Egyptians, which sacred and profane writers concur in celebrating. This college, and those of Thebes and Memphis, were those alone which sent deputations to form, at Thebes, the tribunal of Thirtythat supreme court of justice which Diodorus compares to the Areopagus at Athens, or to the Senate of Lacedemon. Of the proper history of Heliopolis we have little information. Josephus says that it was given to the Israelites to dwell in when they first went to Egypt; but of this Scripture says nothing. The destruction of the city, the temple, and the people, which Jeremiah and Ezekiel foretold, was probably accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar. The town gave its name to the district (nome) in which it was situated: and in Isa. xix. 18, there is a supposed allusion to this name of the province, which is usually explained with reference to the town and temple which the expelled Jewish highpriest, Onias, obtained permission to found within it. See the note there. |