Ezekiel 29

IN the tenth year Of Ieconiah's Captivity., in the tenth month Which answers to part of our December, and part of Ianuary., in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, set thy face Vide chap. 20. ver. 46. let. o. and chap. 21. ver. 2 let. i against Pharaoh Hophra, as the Scripture stiles him, Ier. 44.30. the Greek Authors call him Aprees, and Vaphres, most like he was Grandson to Necho, who slew Iosiah in Fight, 2 Chron. 35.23, 24. king of Egypt, and prophesie In Prophetick stile, and Authority declare what shall be done to him in his person. against him, and against all The whole multitude of Egyptians, for 'tis the place, for the people dwelling in it. Egypt.

Speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD That God that drowned one of thy Predecessors with his Army, Horsemen, and Horses in the Red Sea, at whose Name thou shouldest tremble, who ever fulfilled his word, and is the same, 'tis he foretells thee by my mouth what is to be.; Behold I am against thee See chap. 28. ver. 22. let. f., Pharaoh See ver. 2. let. d. king of Egypt, the great It may refer, either to the Grandeur of this King, as if he had been Pharaoh the great, or to the largeness of this Creature, to which he is by this Hieroglyphick compared. dragon Some would have it the Whale, but that lies not in Rivers, as in his own place, 'tis surely the Crocodile, of which Nilus has many; and chap. 2.2. our Prophet does, and so Isa. 51.9. compare the Egyptian King to that devouring Serpent, or Dragon. that lieth Not only at rest, but waiting for a prey, which never scapes, if this devourer lay any considerable hold of it. in the midst of his rivers Nilus was the chief River of Egypt, but, either there were some less Rivers, that run into Nilus, or some divisions of it, where it made some Islands, or the seven mouths of it, where it falls into the Sea, which may give the Name of Rivers to it, or those Channels that were cut large, and deep, to convey water into the Country, in all which these Crocodiles bred, and rested, and waited for their prey., which has said Which has thought, accounted, and boasted, by which it appears, the Prophet speaks of a Dragon in a figurative sense., my river Kingdom, Power, Riches, and Forces signified here by a River: All the strength and glory of Egypt are mine, says this proud King. is mine own At my dispose, and will; 'tis probable, that this King of Egypt was an aspiring King, who aimed at absolute power, and thought he had secured it to himself, for the River, the Emblem of the Kingdom is mine, says he., and I have made it This seems to give some credit to the conjecture, that this King had raised the Prerogative Royal, and done what others before him would, but could not, and therefore assumes it to himself, as his own work, forgetting God who gives Kingdoms, and whose they are. for my self Somewhat like the proud boast, I have built for the Glory of my Name. Dan. 4.30. and like to meet as sad an end..

But I Thou art secure against all, but God will draw thee out of thy River to thy ruine. will put hooks The Allegorie is continued; Fish are drawn out with hooks and lines, and God has Hooks for this proud Dragon, first Amasis, and next the Babylonian King: The expedition of Amasis in the head of the Cynen eans and Graecians, and the event of it is exactly represented in this Hieroglyphick in the Text. Amasis with those Forces mastered Libya, the King thereof applys for help to this Pharaoh, he gathers all the Power of Egypt out of Egypt with him into Cyrene, where he was defeated, lost all, but a few that fled with him, and on this occasion the Egyptians rebelled against him; now this short history opens the parable. The first Hook you see in the chaws of this Dragon, this drew him out of his River, i. e. his Kingdom. into thy chaws, and I will cause the fish These are the people of Egypt, the subjects of this Kingdom. of thy rivers to stick To adhere to their King in this War. unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers Both the King, and his Subjects, which made up his Army go out of the Rivers, leave Egypt, and march into Cyrene (which was part of that Kingdom now called Barca) with their King, as if they had been litt e Fishes on the back of a mighty one. Thus far the Emblem, the rest follows., and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

And I will leave When thus brought out, as a Fish out of the water, I will leave thee God le t this King. thee thrown into the wilderness The Deserts of Libya and Cyrene., thee and all the fish The whole Army of Egyptia s. of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields There was this King and his Army ruin'd.; thou shalt not be brought together, or gathered As usually the slain are to be buried, these were not buried, but le t in the Wilderness, where they fell to be a prey to wild Beasts, and Birds of prey which haunted the Wilderness, and would soon gather to their prey.; I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the fields, and to the fowls of the heaven.

And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD; because they Both King, Princes, Councellors, and people of Egypt. have been a staff of reed Treacherously, as next verse, dealt with the Iews, whom they seduced to trust, and depend on them, and then perfidiously broke promise with them; It was the sin of the Iews to trust Egypt, it was Egypts great sin to falsifie promise with the Iew, and for this God now punisheth Egypt. to the house of Israel. This mighty overthrow shall be known through all Egypt, and as it shall fill them with fears and troubles, so it should be a convincing argument to them, that God had done this, and punisht them, and their proud King, who used to say as Herodote reports, That God could not turn him out of his Kingdom.

When they The Iews unable to stand on their own legs, as men ready to fall. took hold of thee by thy hand Catch thine hand to lean on, as when besieged by the Chaldaeans. thou didst break It includes a designed, and voluntary faileur: Egypt would not support., and rent Didst tear, and pierce, and wound Arm and Shoulder, didst them much mischief instead of benefitting them, as thou hadst promised. Ier. 37.7. and 42.17. all their shoulder: and when they leaned The same thing in words little different. upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins These are the strength of a man, thou hast put them to use all their strength to repel the Enemy, thou h st been chief occasion of their engaging against. to be at a stand.

¶ Therefore, For thy Atheistical Pride, and thy perfidious mischief to the House of Israel, and other thy sins. thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword War, and the effects of it. First, a Civil war arose against this King Hophra, who weak, and contemned, and fallen under the jealousies, and disgusts of his Subjects after his overthrow in the De erts of Libya, and Cyrene was again overthrown by his Rebel Subjects in a bloody Battel at Memphis, was taken in his light towards Sain his Royal Seat, and sometime after strangled by the enraged rout. The next Sword brought on Hophra's Successor, and on the Land of Egypt was the Sword of Nebuchadnezzar in the same year after the overthrow of Tyrus, the Civil War of Egypt inviting him to take the occasion, and some few requests, 'tis likely from the Rebellious to assist them. upon thee, and cut off man By the Sword in Battle, and Sieges, and by Famine. and beast Eaten up by a numerous Army invading, and prevailing, and which will drive away what they eat not. The same phrase you have chap. 14. ver. 12. let. z. and ver. 17. let. r. out of thee.

And the land That part here intended, say some, and in the 10th verse bounded from Syene to the Borders of Aethiopia, nor is this inconsistent with that ver. 2. against all Egypt, for all Egypt suffered much, though all were not equally wasted, and turned into a desolation, as these parts shall be of Egypt shall be desolate A Desolation, i. e. most desolate, and wastness by the Sword of the Enemie, and by drought, as the word imports both, and this latter part of the Judgment was executed by the folly of the 12 Egyptian oitelets, who made a mighty Lake Maeris, to fill which they much drained and weakned Nilus that it could not as before it did, water, and fertilize the Land sutable to Isa 19.5. and waste, and they shall know that I am the LORD; because See ver. 3. let. n. o. p. q. r. he has said, The river is mine, and I have made it.

Behold therefore, I am against Chap. 28. verse 22. let. f. thee, and against thy rivers Verse 4. let. y., and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste Verse 9. let. t., and desolate, from the tower Thus as a common name, we, and the French, and others read it, but some account it a proper name of a Town or City, called Magdalum, for ought I know, the old Migdol. Exod. 14.2. and Num. 33.7, 8. 'twas on the Red Sea side, North-East of Egypt, from this part unto Syene. of Syene A City on the East of Nilus over against Arabia, says one, a City that is just below the great chataract or fall of Nilus toward Aethiopia, and such a boundary between Aethiopia, and Egypt, as admits dispute, to which it belongs. even unto the border of Aethiopia Now, to dispute nothing of this Geography, it seems likely to me, that what we render Aethiopia is not so well, and plainly rendred, for Syene being so near to Aethiopia, we must look some place of Egypt at some greater distance from Syene, than this Aethiopia is, if then 'twere translated the border of Cush, to whom Moses assigns Arabia, Gen. 10.7. Let us suppose then Magdalum instead of the Tower, as one term; Syene on the edge of Aethiopia, as another, and the opposite point on the Red Sea towards Arabia, and then almost all Egypt is comprised herein from North-east to South-east down the Red Sea, thence to the Westward, as far as Aethiopia, and thence up the Nile, as high Northward as Magdalum..

No Not strictly to be taken, but in an accommodated sense, or comparatively to what once was, or so little Traffick and passing to, and fro, that no footsteps, or tracts of men found. It's a Scripture Hyperbole, as Luk. 19.44. Isa. 14.33. and Ezek. 26.14. and 21. foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast Of profitable, useful, and tractable, as Sheep, Oxen, and Horses, but wild beasts, too many are in the desolate places of that part of the World. shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited Accounting these years from the first wastings of Egypt by their civil Dissensions and Wars some 9 or 10 years before Neb chadnezzar subdued, and wasted it which he did in the 35th, 36th, and 37th years of his Reign, or thereabout. So that these Forty years will fall in about the 30th year of Ieconiah's Captivity, and end with the 70th year of the Captivity, which was the first of Cyrus. forty years.

And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countreys 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 Some into Captivity, others by a timely retirement disperst themselves, and got among their Neighbours, who escapt, and where they kept, till the forty years expired., and will disperse them through the countreys. This verse is a farther repeated confirmation of what was said before, and needs no new explication, every thing in it being already spoken to in the former verses.

¶ Yet thus says the Lord GOD; At the end of forty See ver. 11. let. f. years will I By some eminent acts of Providence toward them, perhaps inclining the generous mind of Cyrus to favour them, and proclaim liberty to them, and under the Government of old Amasis, that Reigned 55 years says Diodorus, some 10 or 12 of which might be under Cyrus, who had a kindness for the old man, and he, to repair the wastes; obtain'd and publisht great priviledges for the new replanters. gather the Egyptians from the people Babylon, Aethiopia, Libya, and other Countreys, that can be but conjectured to have been receptacles for them. whither they were scattered.

And I will bring again the captivity Which Nebuchadnezzar led away into Babylon, of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros One Province, or Country of Egypt, it was a Southern part of Egypt, in which was the famous City Thebae, or Thebais known for its hundred Gates., into the land of their habitation The Antient Habitation of the Fathers of the most of those that did return, forty years having eaten up almost all that had lived there before., and they shall be there a base A low, tributary, dependent Kingdom subject to the Persian Kingdom as Amasis was to Cyrus, and though it did at length grow great, yet was it alwaies dependent on Greeks or Romans. kingdom.

It shall be the basest The most abject, debased, and most underling, 'tis likely the Kings, to whom Egypt was Tributary, kept them lowest, as knowing how dangerous that Kingdom might be, as it recovered its antient greatness, and the word seems to intimate this, for 'tis more than the Kingdoms, it shall be depressed. of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt it self Its Masters would so watch and check it. any more above the nations: for I will diminish Beside the hard and cruel usages of the Persian Kings, which might be unjust enough, God's most just Judgment should follow them to lessen their Numbers, Power, Wealth, and Honour. them, that they shall no more rule Though once they had subdued, and ruled, yet should they not any more, in the times of the Ptolomey's though 'twas considerable, yet then 'twas not a Kingdom, tha ruled the Nations about her, though she made war upon them. over the nations.

And it shall be no more the confidence On every occasion the Iews were wont, against express prohibition, to renew friendship with Egypt, and make Leagues for defence by them, and her they sinfully rested, as Isa. 30.2. and 31.1. and 36.6, 9. vid. v. 7. of the house of Israel, which Which sinful reliance on the arm of flesh provok't God to call to mind other their iniquities, which accompa ied this, viz. their Idolatry, and going a Whoring with these their Confederates. bringeth their iniquity to remembrance God never forgets, but when he visits, punisheth, and judgeth a Nation for their sin, then their sin is come up into remembrance., when they shall look Or in their, i. e. the house of Israel's looking after, i. e. with desire that the Egyptians would, with hope they will, and with confidence, that they c n relieve, rescue; and save them; when they forgot God, and respected Egypt. after them: but they The House of Israel shall know, that I am the Lord, and whoso know him, will put their trust in him. Psal. 9.10. shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

¶ And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth Of Ieconiah's Captivity, the year after the Conquest of Tyrus, and the 35th of Nebuchadnezzar. year, in the first moneth Part of our March, and April., in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused The Army, the inferiour Officers, and principal Commanders 'tis like were weary of the siege, and might advise the raising it, but the Authority, Presence, and immoveable Resolution of the King kept them on still, and made them hold his army to serve a great 'Twas service to the justice of God in punishing the Tyrians by the Ambition of Nebuchadnezzar, who would not endure any thing to stand against him. 'Twas great Service both for hardness of work, heaviness of burthens, and unreasonable length of the siege, thirteen years together. service against Tyrus: every head was made bald Either age, or sicknesses, (which often make men bald) or continued wearing of the Helmets, spoiled the best heads of hair amongst them, or perhaps it noteth the weeping bargain they had, though they mastered Tyre, where they got no booty, and both Nebuchadnezzar and his Army might shave their heads in token of mourning for their loss, rather than crown their heads with Garlands of joy for gaining of the City., and every shoulder was peeled Either clothes wore out, they had scarce any to their backs in so long a siege, or galled and blistered with carrying Burthens, Stones, Timber, Iron and Earth for Fortifications, and to make a passage from the Continent to Tyre, which sores, when healed, left Scabs, or dead skin that peeled off.: yet had he no wages For though Tyrus was very rich, when first besieged, no doubt very much wealth was carryed away by shipping at beginning, and during the siege, which none could prevent, very much spent and wasted in the Siege, and what was left preserved by Articles of surrender; for most conclude that it was delivered on composition, and the Conqueror had only victory for his pains, and charge. for his army for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give Yet 'tis certain that the Discontents of Egypt gave occasion, and the revolts of some of the Subjects from Hophra, or Apries, and their inviting Nebuchadnezzar gave him Egypt, but these were the irregularities of men, which God did wisely, and justly manage to effect what he design'd, and God gave, and men gave too; as the Ten Tribes gave, so God gave the Kingdom to Ieroboam, so the first cause, and second causes produce the same effect. the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude Common people, who shall be made Captives by the power of the Conqueror, and Servants, or Slaves next by the will of those that buy them of the Souldier., and take her Much of the Egyptian Riches were the spoil of other Nations, or the spoiles of one another in the late civil Wars between Pharaoh, Hophra, and Amasis, and now their dishonest gains shall be a prey to Babylonians. spoil, and take her prey That, which was once anothers possession, whilest right prevailed, but became a prey when Egypts power mastered the possessors.; and it shall be the wages His Army could not have plunder of Tyre, because it was surrendred on terms, but now they shall, and this shall be their prey. for his army.

I have given 'Tis as sure as in his possession; though he must fight for it, and it will cost blood, yet he shall surely have success. him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it Tyre., because they The proud, revengeful, covetous, and cruel Babylonians. wrought for me They designed themselves, and did work for themselves, but God had farther, higher, and more excellent ends, his work was doing by them, who thought nothing less., says the Lord GOD.

¶ In that day About that time, when Egypt was spoiled, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon, his Wars first, and soon after his life ended, about four or five years after his return out of Egypt into Babylon; for about the 37th, or 38th of his Reign, he finisht his conquest of Egypt, and in the 43 year he dyed at Babylon. will I cause the horn Iehoiakim by Evil Merodack was advanced Ier. 52.31, 32, 33 beside dignities given to Daniel, the three Children, and many others, under whose Authority, and favour the Affairs of the Iews began, as a root that had life in it, to spring and flourish, and whatever was the more immediate visible cause, that prevailed with Evil Merodach we are sure the principal cause was this, God's mercy, and veracity, who had promised he would do it, and foretold the time when he would begin to do it. of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth Thou shalt with greater Authority be heard speaking, when the sorrows thou foretoldest, and the joyes thou promisedst both come to pass; and both Iews, and Babylonians shall see, and own it, or thou shalt have liberty, and freedom as well, as will and cause to speak, to open thy mouth in comforting the good among them, and to give praise to God, who revived their hopes, and made them know him, as the Lord their God. in the midst of them: and they shall know that I am the LORD.