Ezekiel 30:16

30:1-19 The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is very full. Those who take their lot with God's enemies, shall be with them in punishment. The king of Babylon and his army shall be instruments of this destruction. God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another. No place in the land of Egypt shall escape the fury of the Chaldeans. The Lord is known by the judgments he executes. Yet these are only present effects of the Divine displeasure, not worthy of our fear, compared with the wrath to come, from which Jesus delivers his people.

And I will set fire in Egypt,.... Kindle a war there, which shall consume it; see Ezekiel 30:8 , Sin shall have great pain; as a woman in travail, seeing its destruction is just at hand; the same with Pelusium, as before: and No shall be rent asunder, the walls of it shall be broken down by the enemy, or a breach shall be made in it, like the breach of waters which were about it; see Nahum 3:8, and Noph shall have distresses daily: that is, Memphis, as before; enemies shall surround it daily, as the Targum; shall besiege and distress it, until it is taken: or, "in the daytime"; their enemies should not come as thieves in the night, openly in the day. Abendana interprets it of their unfortunate day, their star being unlucky.

16 . rent asunder ] i.e. broken through by armed assault, cf. Ezekiel 26:10 (last words). have distresses daily ] distresses (or adversaries) in the day-time; cf. Zephaniah 2:4 , “they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday” ( Jeremiah 15:8 ). The construction is unnatural, and the text may be in some confusion. LXX. reads differently. Ezekiel 30:16

Will set fire: see Ezekiel 30:14 , and Ezekiel 20:47 . Sin : see Ezekiel 30:15 . Great pain: see Ezekiel 30:9 . No: Ezekiel 30:14,15 . Rent asunder; her walls, and towers, and fortresses battered, torn, and broken through by the continued violence of engines, and by the assaults of the soldiers. Noph: see Ezekiel 30:13 . Distresses: being the chief city where king and councils sat, whence orders should be given, whither all intelligences were brought, all should be so bad abroad, that nothing but fears and distresses fill their ears, mouths, and hearts, beside the wants that would increase daily on them.

Further Description of the Judgment Ezekiel 30:13. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will exterminate the idols and cut off the deities from Noph, and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt; and I put terror upon the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 30:14. And I lay Pathros waste, and bring fire into Zoan, and execute judgments upon No; Ezekiel 30:15. And I pour out my fury upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of No; Ezekiel 30:16. And I put fire in Egypt; Sin will writhe in pain, and No will be broken open, and Noph - enemies by day. Ezekiel 30:17. The men of On and Bubastus will fall by the sword, and they themselves will go into captivity. Ezekiel 30:18. At Tachpanches the day will be darkened when I shatter the yokes of Egypt there, and an end will be put to its proud haughtiness; cloud will cover it, and its daughters till go into captivity. Ezekiel 30:19. And thus I execute judgments upon Egypt, that they may know that I am Jehovah. - Egypt will lose its idols and its princes (cf.

Jeremiah 46:25). גּלּוּלים and אלילים are synonymous, signifying not the images, but the deities; the former being the ordinary epithet applied to false deities by Ezekiel (see the comm. on Ezekiel 6:4), the latter traceable to the reading of Isaiah 19:1. נף, contracted from מנף, Manoph or Menoph equals מף in Hosea 9:6, is Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, with the celebrated temple of Ptah, one of the principal seats of Egyptian idolatry (see the comm. on Hosea 9:6 and Isaiah 19:13). In Ezekiel 30:13 מארץ מצר' belongs to נשׂיא, there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt, i.e., a native prince. נתן יראה, to put fear upon (cf. Ezekiel 26:17). From Lower Egypt Ezekiel passes in Ezekiel 30:14 to Upper Egypt (Pathros, see the comm. on Ezekiel 29:14), which is also to be laid waste, and then names several more of the principal cities of Lower Egypt along with the chief city of Upper Egypt. צען, Egypt. Zane, Copt. Jane, is the Τανίς, Tanis, of the Greeks and Romans, on the Tanitic arm of the Nile, an ancient city of Lower Egypt; see the comm. on Numbers 13:22 and Isaiah 19:11. נא equals נא אמון in Nahum 3:8, probably "abode of Amon," Egypt.