Ezekiel 30:17

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.

The young men of Aven and of Phibeseth shall fall by the sword,.... Aven is the same with On, of which Potipherah was priest in Joseph's time and whose daughter he married, Genesis 41:45 , the same with Heliopolis, or Bethshemesh, the city of the sun, see Jeremiah 43:13 ; see Gill on Jeremiah 43:13 ; where was the temple of the sun, and where it was worshipped; and so it is rendered by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions. It is called here "Aven", or "vanity", because of the vain and idolatrous worship here performed. Phibeseth is the Bubastis of Herodotus, and called by other writers Bubastus; hence there was a nome or province in Egypt called the Bubastic nome, mentioned by Ptolemy (c), and others.

In this was a temple built to the honour of Diana, where she was worshipped and Herodotus (d) says, that Bubastis, in the Greek tongue, is Diana; here she was worshipped in the form of a cat; and Stephanus (e) observes, that the Egyptians call a cat Bubastus; and it is also said that dead cats salted were buried in this city, as being sacred: according to Diodorus Siculus (f), it was built for the sake of Isis; and Hillerus (g) says, that in the Abyssine language it was called "Phy' mly' sith"; that is, the portion of the wife, namely of Isis married to Osiris, by whom this city was built to the honour of her; as appears by the pillar of Isis, on which these words are inscribed, "for me the city of Bubastia is built; be glad, be glad, O Egypt, which brought me up.'' This place is now called Bishbesh, according to Dr. Shaw (h): now the young men of both these places, though they might exert themselves in the defence of them, yet should fail therein, and fall by the sword of the Chaldeans: and these cities shall go into captivity; the rest of the inhabitants of the cities of Aven and Pibeseth, that shall not fall by the sword, shall be carried captive into other lands. Joseph Kimchi supplies "women" instead of "cities"; and thinks, that as the males are mentioned before, the females are understood here.

Ezekiel 30:17-18 . The young men of Aven, &c. — Aven is the same with On, mentioned Genesis 41:45 , in aftertimes called Heliopolis, as the margin here explains it, because of a temple or image there dedicated to the sun: see notes on Isaiah 19:18 ; Jeremiah 43:13 . The word is so translated both here and Genesis 41:45 , by the LXX., who were very well acquainted with Egypt and all the principal places of it. And they translate Phibeseth, Bubastum. At Tehaphnehes — Elsewhere written Tahpanhes, supposed to be the same place which was afterward called Daphnæ Pelusiacæ; the day shall be darkened — By this expression is signified its being involved in great calamity; for the day, or light, in the Scripture language, is put for prosperity: therefore the day being darkened signifies a state of adversity.

(17) Of Aven and of Pi-beseth.— Aven is the same as On of Genesis 41:45 ; Genesis 41:50 , and as Bethshemesh (House of the Sun) of Jeremiah 43:13 , the Heliopolis of the Greeks, so called because from the remotest times a chief seat of the worship of the sun. The vowel points are slightly changed from On to make Aven, nothingness, often used of idols. Pi-beseth, on the monuments Pi-Pasht— so called from the cat-headed goddess there worshipped—is Bubastis, situated on the canal leading from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile towards Suez.

Verse 17. - The young men of Aven ; the "On" of Genesis 12 :45, the "house of the sun" of Jeremiah 43:13 , the Heliopolis of the LXX. and Vulgate. The form Avert ( Hebrews for "a vain thing!" as in Hosea 4:15 ; Hosea 10:5 ) was perhaps chosen as a word of scorn pointing to the idolatry of the city. Pibeseth ; LXX., Bubastos . The city situated on the Suez Canal, begun by Necho and finished under Ptolemy II. (Herod., 2:59). It derived its name from the eat-headed goddess Pasht, and was the chief seat of the home which was named after it. It was destroyed by the Persians (Diod. Sic., 15:51), but the name lingers in Tebbastat , a heap of ruins about seven hours journey from the Nile. Ezekiel 30:17

17 . young men of Aven ] i.e. On or Heliopolis, “city of the sun,” Jeremiah 43:13 ; cf. Genesis 41:45 . The obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle belonged to the sun temple in On; and in the vicinity of the ruins near the village Matariyeh stands the sycamore under which tradition affirms that the Holy Family rested in their flight to Egypt. The modern name is Ain Shems (sun-fountain) a few miles N.-E. of Cairo. Phi-beseth shall fall ] i.e. Bubastos or Bubastis, Egyptian Pa Bast, house of Bast or Pasht, the goddess to whom the cat was sacred, and who herself was represented under the aspect of the cat. The cat mummies were here preserved. The place lay on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile; the ruins, bearing the name Tell Basta, are not far from the modern Zagazig. Herod. mentions that at a yearly festival held here as many as 700,000 people would assemble.

Aven - The same as "On" Genesis 41:45 , or "Heliopolis." The word "Aven" means also "transgression" (compare Hosea 10:8 ). Some have thought that here too Ezekiel substituted the word "Aven" for "On" to mark the "sin" of idolatry there in full vogue. Pi-beseth - The Bubastis of Herodotus. The hieroglyphic name is "Pe-bast," the house of Bast (the Egyptian Artemis, the cat-headed goddess). Bubastis was situated on the easternmost, the Pelusian, branch of the Delta. The road from Pelusium to Memphis lay through Bubastis and On. In the days of Herodotus Bubastis was the seat of one of the chief annual festivals of the Egyptians. The Persians took the town and razed the walls. The ruins bear the modern name Tel-Basta.

The young men: it is probable these might be a select army of valiant youths in one body, collected out of these two cities, that resolved to break the Chaldean army, or fall in the enterprise; or else that they did to the utmost defend the walls, and were put to the sword when the city was taken by assault. Aven; Bethshemesh and Heliopolis, an idolatrous city, that worshipped the sun, and in which was a stately temple built to the sun. Its size was one hundred and fifty furlongs, six miles and three quarters, in compass, a very vain and sinful city, as its name Aven intimates. Pi-beseth; Bubastus, and sometimes called Haephestus, no inconsiderable place, and I believe not far from Avon. It should seem to be some convenient pass, as I conjecture. These cities; the citizens, cities put for citizens. Go into captivity; some of the first, it may be the very first; which put Memphis, at report of it, into a sick fit, with great pain; this being the first-fruits of the sad coming harvest.

17. Aven—meaning "vanity" or "iniquity": applied, by a slight change of the Hebrew name, to On or Heliopolis, in allusion to its idolatry. Here stood the temple of the sun, whence it was called in Hebrew, Beth-shemesh (Jer 43:13). The Egyptian hieroglyphics call it, Re Athom, the sun, the father of the gods, being impersonate in Athom or Adam, the father of mankind. Pi-beseth—that is, Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, near the Pelusiac branch of the Nile: notorious for the worship of the goddess of the same name (Coptic, Pasht), the granite stones of whose temple still attest its former magnificence. these cities—rather, as the Septuagint, "the women," namely, of Aven and Pi-beseth, in antithesis to "the young men." So in Eze 30:18, "daughters shall go into captivity" [Maurer].