Ezekiel 32:1-32--A Lament over Pharaoh and Egypt

Ezekiel 32
English Standard Version

A Lament over Pharaoh and Egypt
32 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:

“You consider yourself a lion of the nations,
    but you are like a dragon in the seas;
you burst forth in your rivers,
    trouble the waters with your feet,
    and foul their rivers.
3 Thus says the Lord GOD:
    I will throw my net over you
    with a host of many peoples,
    and they will haul you up in my dragnet.
4 And I will cast you on the ground;
    on the open field I will fling you,
and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you,
    and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.
5 I will strew your flesh upon the mountains
    and fill the valleys with your carcass.
6 I will drench the land even to the mountains
    with your flowing blood,
    and the ravines will be full of you.
7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens
    and make their stars dark;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
    and the moon shall not give its light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven
    will I make dark over you,
    and put darkness on your land,
declares the Lord GOD.

9 “I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries that you have not known. 10 I will make many peoples appalled at you, and the hair of their kings shall bristle with horror because of you, when I brandish my sword before them. They shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall.

11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. 12 I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most ruthless of nations.

“They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt,
    and all its multitude shall perish.
13 I will destroy all its beasts
    from beside many waters;
and no foot of man shall trouble them anymore,
    nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14 Then I will make their waters clear,
    and cause their rivers to run like oil,
declares the Lord GOD.
15 When I make the land of Egypt desolate,
    and when the land is desolate of all that fills it,
when I strike down all who dwell in it,
    then they will know that I am the LORD.

16 This is a lamentation that shall be chanted; the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they chant it, declares the Lord GOD.”

17 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 18 “Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit:

19 ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?
    Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised.’

20 They shall fall amid those who are slain by the sword. Egypt is delivered to the sword; drag her away, and all her multitudes. 21 The mighty chiefs shall speak of them, with their helpers, out of the midst of Sheol: ‘They have come down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

22 “Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, 23 whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.

24 “Elam is there, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into the world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 25 They have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain.

26 “Meshech-Tubal is there, and all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living. 27 And they do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living. 28 But as for you, you shall be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.

29 “Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.

30 “The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.

31 “When Pharaoh sees them, he will be comforted for all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord GOD. 32 For I spread terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.”

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True to form, Ezekiel now laments the death of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.  The LORD reveals how he sees Pharaoh--not as a lion, but as a dragon (he is of his father, the devil).  He is not of the Land (Israel), but of the sea (the Gentile nations).  The LORD emphasizes many times that he is of the uncircumcised, probably meaning that he circumcised himself physically, maybe to even try to gain the favor and acceptance of the Jewish people, but he was uncircumcised of heart, which is what really matters.  

The LORD is pictured as the Hunter here who will trap, capture and kill His prey.  You don't want the LORD hunting you, because He always gets His prey--even when He does so by the hands of a pagan army commanded by a pagan king.  The LORD promises that the body of Pharaoh will be left as food for the vultures and other unclean birds that will feast on him.  His blood will drench the Land and He will cover the land of Egypt in darkness just like He did during the Ten Plagues.  No one will see where the Pharaoh fell and it will be as if his name and memory were blotted out from history. He will be quickly forgotten, though he imagined himself to be a god of equal or higher standing than the LORD.  Nations will hear that the LORD has caused the death of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and they will fear and tremble for the LORD as they anticipate the judgment and destruction that awaits them.  They will realize they are powerless to defend themselves against the LORD if the nation that was the center of black magic and the occult could not defend itself against the LORD with all of its magic, sorcery, and necromancy.  None of the Egyptian gods, not even the Pharaoh, could save the people and the Pharaoh could not even save himself.

​The LORD will cause the king of Babylon to kill all the beasts of Egypt (probably all the war horses they bred and supplied to all the other nations would be included in this).  The LORD promises to destroy all the beasts and all the people who remain in Egypt.  It will be devoid of all life and no one will even desire to travel through it.

Egypt will join he long list of wicked nations that the LORD has destroyed.  She will join the ranks of nations once great and powerful like Assyria, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, Tyre and Sidon, the princes of the north, and now Pharaoh and the army of Egypt and the people of Egypt are there too.  Though these names may mean little to nothing to you today, they were names that struck fear in the hearts of the people of that time as these were violent, oppressive peoples whom we might label as "terrorists" today.  The LORD puts Egypt in the same basket as them, and the fate of all the wicked is the same--those who die apart from the saving grace of God will spend an eternity separated from Him in the Lake of Fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.  This is a warning to all the other Gentile nations that they should repent before it is too late, but most of them will not do so because their hears are hard and dark, and they refuse to turn to the LORD in repentance, so the LORD will give them the destruction that they deserve and ask for.