Commentary - Ezekiel 32:1-16

Bird's-eye view

In this portion of Ezekiel, the prophet is commanded to take up a lamentation over Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. This is not a song of sympathy, but rather a funeral dirge, a prophetic declaration of an end that is as certain as if it had already occurred. God here pronounces a sentence of utter ruin upon a proud and powerful nation, and He does so with imagery that is both vivid and violent. Pharaoh, who fancies himself a majestic lion among the nations, is revealed by God to be nothing more than a chaotic sea monster, a thrashing beast that muddies its own waters. The central theme is the absolute sovereignty of God over the arrogant powers of this world. He will catch this monster in His net, He will butcher it, and He will feed the world with its carcass. The language is cosmic in scope, signifying that the fall of a great nation like Egypt is not a small thing; it is a de-creation event that shakes the heavens.

The passage moves from the initial taunt and pronouncement of judgment (vv. 1-8) to the effect this judgment will have on the other nations (vv. 9-10). They will be vexed, appalled, and terrified. God's purpose in judgment is not simply punitive; it is declarative. He is making His name and His power known. The instrument of this judgment is specified, the king of Babylon (vv. 11-12), but the ultimate agent is Yahweh Himself. The lament concludes with a picture of the aftermath: a desolate land, quieted waters, and the certain knowledge, hammered home, that Yahweh is God (vv. 13-16). This is a stark reminder that all earthly power is derivative and temporary, and that God alone is the ultimate reality to whom all nations must answer.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 1 And it happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

The prophecy is dated with precision, as is common in Ezekiel. This anchors the word of God in real human history. God does not speak into a timeless, abstract void. His judgments and His promises intersect with our calendars. This specific date places the prophecy in the spring of 585 B.C., shortly after the final fall of Jerusalem. The exiles are now fully aware of the disaster that has befallen their home, and God turns His prophet's attention to one of the nations that had played a significant and often treacherous role in Israel's downfall. The word of Yahweh comes; it is not a product of Ezekiel's own political analysis or poetic imagination. God speaks, and the world is rearranged accordingly.

v. 2 Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, ‘You liken yourself to a young lion of the nations, Yet you are like the monster in the seas; And you burst forth in your rivers And muddied the waters with your feet And fouled their rivers.’

Ezekiel is told to sing a funeral song for a man who is still very much alive and powerful. This is the nature of prophetic speech. God's word declares a future reality with such certainty that it can be spoken of in the past tense. The lament is a taunt. It begins by contrasting Pharaoh's self-perception with God's reality. Pharaoh sees himself as a lion, the king of beasts, majestic, powerful, ruling the nations. This is the constant temptation of earthly power, to see itself as ultimate. But God's assessment is quite different. You are not a lion; you are a sea monster, a tannin. The word can refer to a crocodile, a fitting image for the king of the Nile, but it also carries connotations of the primeval chaos monster. You are not a symbol of order and strength, but of chaos and disruption. Your great activity, your "bursting forth," is nothing more than a clumsy thrashing that muddies the water. You foul your own environment. This is what godless power does. In its frantic attempts to establish itself, it pollutes everything it touches, creating turmoil and confusion instead of the order it promises.

v. 3 Thus says Lord Yahweh, “So I will spread My net over you With an assembly of many peoples, And they shall bring you up in My net.

God now declares how He will deal with this monster. He will do what men do with great sea creatures; He will catch him in a net. But this is God's net, and it is vast. The "assembly of many peoples" refers to the Babylonian army, a multinational force that God has gathered for His purposes. Notice the pronouns. "I will spread My net...they shall bring you up in My net." God is the sovereign actor, and human armies are His instruments. Pharaoh, who thought he was a player on the world stage, is about to discover he is nothing more than a fish being hauled ashore. This is a profound statement of God's sovereignty over the nations. The rise and fall of empires is not a random, chaotic process. It is the careful work of a sovereign God, accomplishing His purposes.

v. 4 I will abandon you on the land; I will hurl you on the open field. And I will cause all the birds of the sky to dwell on you, And I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you.

The imagery is graphic and humiliating. The great sea monster is taken out of its element and thrown onto the dry land to die. This is a picture of complete helplessness and exposure. Once caught, he is unceremoniously dumped on the field. His carcass will not be buried with honor; it will become a feast for the scavengers. The birds and the beasts will be satisfied with his flesh. This is a picture of total desecration, the ultimate reversal of fortune for a king who likely planned a glorious burial for himself. God's judgment strips away all the pomp and circumstance of human power, revealing it for what it is: mere flesh, destined for decay.

v. 5 I will put your flesh on the mountains And fill the valleys with your refuse.

The scale of the carnage is immense. This is not just one man's death; it is the death of a nation's power, symbolized by its king. The body is so large that its flesh is scattered on the mountains, and the valleys are filled with its "refuse," its rotting bulk. The language is hyperbolic, intended to convey the sheer magnitude of the destruction. Egypt was a colossal power, and its fall will be a colossal event, leaving a stench in the world.

v. 6 I will also make the land drink the discharge of your blood As far as the mountains, And the ravines will be full of you.

The land itself will be soaked with the blood of this beast. The lifeblood of Egypt will be poured out upon the ground. The image is one of a massive hemorrhage, a fatal wound from which there is no recovery. The mountains and ravines, the very geography of the region, will bear witness to the slaughter. God's judgment is not a tidy, clinical affair. It is bloody and all-encompassing.

v. 7 And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, And the moon will not give its light.

Here the imagery shifts from the earthly to the cosmic. The death of Pharaoh is an event of such significance that it affects the heavens. This is what we call decreation language. When God created the world, He separated light from darkness. When He judges a great and wicked power, He reverses the process. The lights go out. This is not a literal prediction of an astronomical event, but a standard biblical way of describing the fall of a nation or a great political power. The same language is used for the fall of Babylon (Isa. 13:10) and Edom (Isa. 34:4), and Jesus uses it to describe the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Matt. 24:29). The point is that the political order of the world is a reflection of the cosmic order. When a central pillar of that political order is removed by God, it is as though the stars have fallen from the sky.

v. 8 All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you And will give darkness on your land,” Declares Lord Yahweh.

God reiterates the point for emphasis. The darkness will be total and specific: "over you," "on your land." This is a targeted judgment. The light of Egypt's glory will be extinguished, and the nation will be plunged into a literal and metaphorical darkness. The declaration is sealed with the authority of God Himself: "Declares Lord Yahweh." This is not Ezekiel's opinion. This is the settled decree of the sovereign of the universe.

v. 9 I will also vex the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction among the nations, into lands which you have not known.

The fallout from this judgment will be widespread. The hearts of many peoples will be "vexed," or troubled. The fall of a superpower sends shockwaves throughout the world. Nations that depended on Egypt, nations that feared Egypt, nations that had never even had direct contact with Egypt will be disturbed by its collapse. God's judgments are public spectacles, designed to teach the whole world a lesson about the fragility of human power and the reality of divine sovereignty.

v. 10 I will make many peoples appalled at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they will tremble every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your downfall.”

The reaction of other nations will be one of horror and fear. They will be "appalled," stunned by the totality of the destruction. Their kings, who operate in the same currency of power and pride as Pharaoh, will be terrified. When God brandishes His sword, they will see their own potential fate reflected in Egypt's demise. This is not just any sword; it is "My sword," wielded by the hand of the king of Babylon, but belonging to God. The result is constant trembling, "every man for his own life." The security that earthly power provides is shown to be an illusion. When God decides to judge, no throne is secure.

v. 11 For thus says Lord Yahweh, “The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you.

The instrument of judgment is now named explicitly. God's sword is, in this historical instance, the sword of Nebuchadnezzar. God does not need to create a judgment out of thin air. He uses the political and military realities of the day to accomplish His sovereign purposes. The king of Babylon may think he is building his own empire for his own glory, but he is, in fact, an instrument in the hand of Yahweh, a tool for bringing judgment upon Egypt.

v. 12 By the swords of the mighty ones I will cause your multitude to fall; all of them are ruthless ones of the nations, And they will devastate the lofty pride of Egypt, And all its multitude will be destroyed.

The Babylonian army is described as "mighty ones" and "ruthless ones." God is not squeamish about the instruments He uses. He can and does use wicked and violent nations to punish other wicked and violent nations. Their task is to "devastate the lofty pride of Egypt." This is the root of the problem: pride. Egypt's arrogance, its self-sufficiency, its trust in its own might and its own river, is what has brought this judgment down. And the judgment will be total. "All its multitude will be destroyed."

v. 13 I will also make all its cattle perish from beside many waters; And the foot of man will not muddy them anymore, And the hoofs of beasts will not muddy them.

The judgment extends beyond the human population to the very source of Egypt's wealth: its livestock and its waters. The Nile and its delta were the lifeblood of the nation, and the image of the waters being constantly muddied by the activity of men and beasts was a picture of a bustling, prosperous economy. God will bring that to a halt. The cattle will perish, and the waters will no longer be disturbed. This is a picture of utter desolation and economic collapse.

v. 14 Then I will make their waters settle And will cause their rivers to run like oil,” Declares Lord Yahweh.

This is a fascinating and somewhat unexpected image. After the violent thrashing and the muddying, God will bring a strange kind of peace. He will make the waters settle. They will run slow and smooth, "like oil." This is not the peace of prosperity, but the peace of the grave. It is the eerie quiet of a land that has been emptied of life and activity. The chaotic thrashing of the sea monster has ceased, and now there is only a slick, silent stillness. This is the end result of God's judgment: a forced and final tranquility.

v. 15 “When I make the land of Egypt a desolation, And the land is desolate of its fullness, When I strike all those who inhabit it, Then they shall know that I am Yahweh.

Here we have the ultimate purpose of the judgment stated plainly. It is theological. It is doxological. God brings nations to ruin so that they, and all who watch, "shall know that I am Yahweh." This is the great theme of Ezekiel. God is not acting out of caprice or arbitrary anger. He is acting to vindicate His own name and to make His own reality known in a world that is determined to ignore Him. The desolation of Egypt will be a classroom, and the subject will be the identity of the one true God.

v. 16 This is a lamentation, and they shall lament over it. The daughters of the nations shall lament over it. Over Egypt and over all her multitude they shall lament over it,” declares Lord Yahweh.

The prophecy concludes by returning to its starting point. This is a funeral song, and it will be sung. The "daughters of the nations," the professional mourners and the common people alike, will take up this lament. The fall of Egypt will be a historical event so significant that it will become the subject of songs and stories for generations. God Himself has composed the dirge, and He declares that it will be performed. The judgment is certain, and its memory will endure as a testimony to the awesome and terrible sovereignty of God.

Application

The first and most obvious application is that God is sovereign over the affairs of nations. We live in a time of political turmoil, with nations rising and falling, and arrogant men posturing on the world stage just as Pharaoh did. This passage reminds us that none of them are ultimate. They are, at best, instruments in God's hands, and at worst, sea monsters thrashing in the waters, destined to be caught in God's net. Our ultimate trust must not be in princes or presidents, but in the Lord Yahweh who gives them their little day in the sun and then extinguishes their light.

Second, we must take note of the central sin that brings about this judgment: pride. Egypt's "lofty pride" was an offense to God. The temptation to trust in our own strength, our own economy, our own military might, or our own cultural achievements is perennial. This is true for nations, and it is true for individuals. When we begin to think of ourselves as lions, we are in grave danger. We must cultivate a spirit of humility and dependence upon God, recognizing that every good gift comes from Him, and that He can take it all away in a moment.

Finally, the purpose of judgment is to reveal God. "Then they shall know that I am Yahweh." This should shape how we view the difficult and often tragic events of history. God is always at work, speaking, declaring His reality. The fall of Egypt was a bloody and terrible affair, but through it, God was making Himself known. In the cross of Jesus Christ, we see the ultimate judgment on sin and pride. There, the Son of God was thrown onto the open field of Golgotha, His blood soaking the land. The sun was darkened. But through that ultimate act of judgment, the way was opened for all the nations to truly know that He is Yahweh, not as a terrifying judge, but as a gracious Savior. The lament over Pharaoh points us to the gospel, where God's righteous judgment and His merciful salvation meet.