Discovery BoxEzekiel 30:1--32:32 
Context30:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 30:2 “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘Wail, “Alas, the day is here!” 1
30:3 For the day is near,
the day of the Lord is near;
it will be a day of storm clouds, 2
it will be a time of judgment 3 for the nations.
30:4 A sword will come against Egypt
and panic will overtake Ethiopia
when the slain fall in Egypt
and they carry away her wealth
and dismantle her foundations.
30:5 Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the foreigners, 4 Libya, and the people 5 of the covenant land 6 will die by the sword along with them.
30:6 “‘This is what the Lord says:
Egypt’s supporters will fall;
her confident pride will crumble. 7
From Migdol to Syene 8 they will die by the sword within her,
declares the sovereign Lord.
30:7 They will be desolate among desolate lands,
and their cities will be among ruined cities.
30:8 They will know that I am the Lord
when I ignite a fire in Egypt
and all her allies are defeated. 9
30:9 On that day messengers will go out from me in ships to frighten overly confident Ethiopia; panic will overtake them on the day of Egypt’s doom; 10 for beware – it is coming!
30:10 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,
by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar 11 of Babylon.
30:11 He and his people with him,
the most terrifying of the nations, 12
will be brought there to destroy the land.
They will draw their swords against Egypt,
and fill the land with corpses.
30:12 I will dry up the waterways
and hand the land over to 13 evil men.
I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
30:13 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
I will destroy the idols,
and put an end to the gods of Memphis.
There will no longer be a prince from the land of Egypt;
so I will make the land of Egypt fearful. 14
30:14 I will desolate Pathros,
I will ignite a fire in Zoan,
and I will execute judgments on Thebes.
30:15 I will pour out my anger upon Pelusium, 15
the stronghold of Egypt;
I will cut off 16 the hordes of Thebes.
30:16 I will ignite a fire in Egypt;
Syene 17 will writhe in agony,
Thebes will be broken down,
and Memphis will face enemies every day.
30:17 The young men of On and of Pi-beseth 18 will die by the sword;
and the cities will go 19 into captivity.
30:18 In Tahpanhes the day will be dark 20
when I break the yoke of Egypt there.
Her confident pride will cease within her;
a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.
30:19 I will execute judgments on Egypt.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”
30:20 In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, 21 the word of the Lord came to me: 30:21 “Son of man, I have broken the arm 22 of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 23 Look, it has not been bandaged for healing or set with a dressing so that it might become strong enough to grasp a sword. 30:22 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, 24 I am against 25 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and I will break his arms, the strong arm and the broken one, and I will make the sword drop from his hand. 30:23 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among foreign countries. 30:24 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and I will place my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan like the fatally wounded before the king of Babylon. 26 30:25 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I place my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon and he extends it against the land of Egypt. 30:26 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
31:1 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, 27 the word of the Lord came to me: 31:2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his hordes:
“‘Who are you like in your greatness?
31:3 Consider Assyria, 28 a cedar in Lebanon, 29
with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,
and extremely tall;
its top reached into the clouds.
31:4 The water made it grow;
underground springs made it grow tall.
Rivers flowed all around the place it was planted,
while smaller channels watered all the trees of the field. 30
31:5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large and its branches grew long,
because of the plentiful water in its shoots. 31
31:6 All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,
in its shade all the great 32 nations lived.
31:7 It was beautiful in its loftiness, in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down deep to plentiful waters.
31:8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it,
nor could the fir trees 33 match its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches;
no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.
31:9 I made it beautiful with its many branches;
all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.
31:10 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height, 31:11 I gave it over to the leader of the nations. He has judged it thoroughly, 34 as its sinfulness deserves. I have thrown it out. 31:12 Foreigners from the most terrifying nations have cut it down and left it to lie there on the mountains. In all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the land 35 have departed 36 from its shade and left it. 31:13 On its ruins all the birds of the sky will live, and all the wild animals 37 will walk 38 on its branches. 31:14 For this reason no watered trees will grow so tall; their tops will not reach into the clouds, nor will the well-watered ones grow that high. 39 For all of them have been appointed to die in the lower parts of the earth; 40 they will be among mere mortals, 41 with those who descend to the pit.
31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it 42 went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. 43 I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. 31:16 I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to Sheol, along with those who descend to the pit. 44 Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all that were well-watered, were comforted in the earth below. 31:17 Those who lived in its shade, its allies 45 among the nations, also went down with it to Sheol, to those killed by the sword. 31:18 Which of the trees of Eden was like you in majesty and loftiness? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword! This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
32:1 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, 46 the word of the Lord came to me: 32:2 “Son of man, sing a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him:
“‘You were like a lion 47 among the nations,
but you are a monster in the seas;
you thrash about in your streams,
stir up the water with your feet,
and muddy your 48 streams.
32:3 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘I will throw my net over you 49 in the assembly of many peoples;
and they will haul you up in my dragnet.
32:4 I will leave you on the ground,
I will fling you on the open field,
I will allow 50 all the birds of the sky to settle 51 on you,
and I will permit 52 all the wild animals 53 to gorge themselves on you.
32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains,
and fill the valleys with your maggot-infested carcass. 54
32:6 I will drench the land with the flow
of your blood up to the mountains,
and the ravines will be full of your blood. 55
32:7 When I extinguish you, I will cover the sky;
I will darken its stars.
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
and the moon will not shine. 56
32:8 I will darken all the lights in the sky over you,
and I will darken your land,
declares the sovereign Lord.
32:9 I will disturb 57 many peoples,
when I bring about your destruction among the nations,
among countries you do not know.
32:10 I will shock many peoples with you,
and their kings will shiver with horror because of you.
When I brandish my sword before them,
every moment each one will tremble for his life, on the day of your fall.
32:11 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘The sword of the king of Babylon 58 will attack 59 you.
32:12 By the swords of the mighty warriors I will cause your hordes to fall –
all of them are the most terrifying among the nations.
They will devastate the pride of Egypt,
and all its hordes will be destroyed.
32:13 I will destroy all its cattle beside the plentiful waters;
and no human foot will disturb 60 the waters 61 again,
nor will the hooves of cattle disturb them.
32:14 Then I will make their waters calm, 62
and will make their streams flow like olive oil, declares the sovereign Lord.
32:15 When I turn the land of Egypt into desolation
and the land is destitute of everything that fills it,
when I strike all those who live in it,
then they will know that I am the Lord.’
32:16 This is a lament; they will chant it.
The daughters of the nations will chant it.
They will chant it over Egypt and over all her hordes,
declares the sovereign Lord.”
32:17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, 63 the word of the Lord came to me: 32:18 “Son of man, wail 64 over the horde of Egypt. Bring it down; 65 bring 66 her 67 and the daughters of powerful nations down to the lower parts of the earth, along with those who descend to the pit. 32:19 Say to them, 68 ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty? 69 Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised!’ 32:20 They will fall among those killed by the sword. The sword is drawn; they carry her and all her hordes away. 32:21 The bravest of the warriors will speak to him from the midst of Sheol along with his allies, saying: ‘The uncircumcised have come down; they lie still, killed by the sword.’
32:22 “Assyria is there with all her assembly around her grave, 70 all of them struck down by the sword. 71 32:23 Their 72 graves are located in the remote slopes of the pit. 73 Her assembly is around her grave, all of them struck down by the sword, those who spread terror in the land of the living.
32:24 “Elam is there with all her hordes around her grave; all of them struck down by the sword. They went down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, those who spread terror in the land of the living. Now they will bear their shame with those who descend to the pit. 32:25 Among the dead they have made a bed for her, along with all her hordes around her grave. 74 All of them are uncircumcised, killed by the sword, for their terror had spread in the land of the living. They bear their shame along with those who descend to the pit; they are placed among the dead.
32:26 “Meshech-Tubal is there, along with all her hordes around her grave. 75 All of them are uncircumcised, killed by the sword, for they spread their terror in the land of the living. 32:27 They do not lie with the fallen warriors of ancient times, 76 who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, having their swords placed under their heads and their shields on their bones, 77 when the terror of these warriors was in the land of the living.
32:28 “But as for you, in the midst of the uncircumcised you will be broken, and you will lie with those killed by the sword.
32:29 “Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.
32:30 “All the leaders of the north are there, along with all the Sidonians; despite their might they have gone down in shameful terror with the dead. They lie uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, and bear their shame with those who descend to the pit.
32:31 “Pharaoh will see them and be consoled over all his hordes who were killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his army, declares the sovereign Lord. 32:32 Indeed, I terrified him in the land of the living, yet he will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.”
1 tn Heb “Alas for the day.”
2 tn Heb “a day of clouds.” The expression occurs also in Joel 2:2 and Zeph 1:15; it recalls the appearance of God at Mount Sinai (Exod 19:9, 16, 18).
3 tn Heb “a time.” The words “of judgment” have been added in the translation for clarification (see the following verses).
4 tn The same expression appears in Exod 12:38; Jer 25:20; 50:37; Neh 13:3. It may refer to foreign mercenaries serving in the armies of the nations listed here.
5 tn Heb “sons.”
6 tn The expression “sons of the covenant land” possibly refers to Jews living in Egypt (Jer 44).
7 tn Heb “come down.”
8 sn Syene is known as Aswan today.
9 tn Heb “all who aid her are broken.”
10 tn Heb “in the day of Egypt.” The word “doom” has been added in the translation to clarify the nature of this day.
11 tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “r” rather than an “n.”
12 tn The Babylonians were known for their cruelty (2 Kgs 25:7).
13 tn Heb “and I will sell the land into the hand of.”
14 tn Heb “I will put fear in the land of Egypt.”
15 tn Heb “Sin” (so KJV, NASB), a city commonly identified with Pelusium, a fortress on Egypt’s northeastern frontier.
16 tn Or “kill.”
17 tc The LXX reads “Syene,” which is Aswan in the south. The MT reads Sin, which has already been mentioned in v. 15.
18 sn On and Pi-beseth are generally identified with the Egyptian cities of Heliopolis and Bubastis.
19 tn Heb “they will go.” The pronoun and verb are feminine plural, indicating that the cities just mentioned are the antecedent of the pronoun and the subject of the verb. The translation makes this clear by stating the subject as “the cities.”
20 sn In Zeph 1:15 darkness is associated with the day of the
21 tn April 29, 587
22 sn The expression “breaking the arm” indicates the removal of power (Ps 10:15; 37:17; Job 38:15; Jer 48:25).
23 sn This may refer to the event recorded in Jer 37:5.
24 tn The word h!nn@h indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
25 tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.
26 tn Heb “him”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 sn June 21, 587
28 sn Either Egypt, or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.
29 sn Lebanon was know for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).
30 tn Heb “Waters made it grow; the deep made it grow tall. It (the deep) was flowing with its rivers around the place it (the tree) was planted, it (the deep) sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.”
31 tn Heb “when it sends forth.” Repointing the consonants of the Masoretic text would render the proposed reading “shoots” (cf. NRSV).
32 tn Or “many.”
33 tn Or “cypress trees” (cf. NASB, NLT); NIV “pine trees.”
34 tn Heb “acting he has acted with regard to it.” The infinitive absolute precedes the main verb to emphasize the certainty and decisiveness of the action depicted.
35 tn Or “earth” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
36 tn Heb “gone down.”
37 tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.
38 tn Heb “be.”
39 tn Heb “and they will not stand to them in their height, all the drinkers of water.”
40 tn Heb “for death, to the lower earth.”
41 tn Heb “the sons of men.”
42 tn Or “he.”
43 tn Heb “I caused lamentation.” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:194-95) proposes an alternative root which would give the meaning “I gated back the waters,” i.e., shut off the water supply.
44 sn For the expression “going down to the pit,” see Ezek 26:20; 32:18, 24, 29.
45 tn Heb “its arm.”
46 sn This would be March 3, 585
47 tn The lion was a figure of royalty (Ezek 19:1-9).
48 tc The Hebrew reads “their streams”; the LXX reads “your streams.”
49 tn The expression “throw my net” is common in Ezekiel (12:13; 17:20; 19:8).
50 tn Or “cause.”
51 tn Heb “live.”
52 tn Or “cause.”
53 tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.
54 tc The Hebrew text is difficult here, apparently meaning “your height.” Following Symmachus and the Syriac, it is preferable to emend the text to read “your maggots.” See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:203.
55 tn Heb “from you.”
56 tn Heb “will not shine its light.” For similar features of cosmic eschatology, see Joel 2:10; 4:15; Amos 5:18-20; Zeph 1:5.
57 tn Heb “I will provoke the heart of.”
58 sn The king of Babylon referred to here was Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek 21:19).
59 tn Heb “approach.”
60 tn Heb “muddy.”
61 tn Heb “them,” that is, the waters mentioned in the previous line. The translation clarifies the referent.
62 tn Heb “sink,” that is, to settle and become clear, not muddied.
63 tn March 17, 585
64 tn The Hebrew verb is used as a response to death (Jer 9:17-19; Amos 5:16).
65 sn Through this prophetic lament given by God himself, the prophet activates the judgment described therein. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:217, and L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:136-37.
66 tn Heb “Bring him down, her and the daughters of the powerful nations, to the earth below.” The verb “bring down” appears in the Hebrew text only once. Because the verb takes several objects here, the repetition of the verb in the translation improves the English style.
67 tn This apparently refers to personified Egypt.
68 tc The LXX places this verse after v. 21.
tn The words “say to them” are added in the translation for clarity to indicate the shift in addressee from the prophet to Egypt.
69 tn Heb “pleasantness.”
70 tn Heb “around him his graves.” The masculine pronominal suffixes are problematic; the expression is best emended to correspond to the phrase “around her grave” in v. 23. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:219.
71 tn Heb “all of them slain, the ones felled by the sword.” See as well vv. 23-24.
72 tn Heb “whose.”
73 tn The only other occurrence of the phrase “remote slopes of the pit” is in Isa 14:15.
74 tn Heb “around him her graves,” but the expression is best emended to read “around her grave” (see vv. 23-24).
75 tn Heb “around him her graves,” but the expression is best emended to read “around her grave” (see vv. 23-24).
76 tc Heb “of the uncircumcised.” The LXX reads, probably correctly, “from of old” rather than “of the uncircumcised.” The phrases are very similar in spelling. The warriors of Meshech-Tubal are described as uncircumcised, so it would be odd for them to not be buried with the uncircumcised. Verse 28 specifically says that they would lie with the uncircumcised.
77 tn Heb “and their iniquities were over their bones.” The meaning of this statement is unclear; in light of the parallelism (see “swords”) it is preferable to emend “their iniquities” to “their swords.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:135.
