Ezekiel 30:25

30:20-26 Egypt shall grow weaker and weaker. If lesser judgments do not prevail to humble and reform sinners, God will send greater. God justly breaks that power which is abused, either to put wrongs upon people, or to put cheats upon them. Babylon shall grow stronger. In vain do men endeavour to bind up the arm the Lord is pleased to break, and to strengthen those whom he will bring down. Those who disregard the discoveries of his truth and mercy, shall know his power and justice, in the punishment for their sins.

But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon,.... Which is repeated for the sake of confirmation: and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down: as when a man's arms are broken; and he shall not be able to lift them up and defend himself: and they shall know that I am the Lord; namely, the Egyptians, as in Ezekiel 30:19, when I shall have put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt; that is, when he shall have a commission to carry the war into Egypt; and he shall spread desolation over all the land, cutting off the inhabitants of it everywhere, as before described in this chapter.

Verses 25, 26. - The imagery is slightly varied. The arms of the Egyptian king are described, not as broken, but as feeble. They hang down by his side instead of wielding the sword. I will scatter, etc. The prophet dwells once more, repeating the very words of Ver. 23 and Ezekiel 29:12 with all the emphasis of iteration, on the dispersion which was the almost inevitable sequel of an Oriental conquest. There in the land of exile they should see that they had been fighting against God; and so the prophet ends the chapter with his ever-recurring formula, They shall know that I am Jehovah ( Ezekiel 28:26 ; Ezekiel 29:21 ). Ezekiel 30:25

But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, {h} when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. (h) By which we see that tyrants have no power of themselves, neither can do any more harm than God appoints and when he wills they must cease.

These two foregoing verses are a repetition of God’s threats against Pharaoh, and of his promises to assist Nebuchadnezzar in the war, and every thing plain in them. Will strengthen; give the first strength, and continue it with new supplies, so that with strength from God he shall proceed. Put my sword in his hand; is strength shall have a weapon suited and proportioned to it; and what will be hard, where God’s sword and his strength are engaged to effect it? He , Hophra, shall groan; not only as the stoutest must when nature breaks, but cry out and sigh, or howl, not becoming a brave man. Before him, king of Babylon, with the groanings of a deadly wounded man; who hath given him his deadly wound, under which he roars while he hath any strength, and groans when his voice fails him. It speaks sore griefs, and deep sense of them, as Exodus 2:24 Judges 2:18 Job 24:12 .

Ezekiel 30:21 . son of man, the arm of Pharaoh the king of Egypt have I broken; and, behold, it will no more be bound up, to apply remedies, to put on a bandage to bind it up, that it may grow strong to grasp the sword. Ezekiel 30:22 . Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deal with Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and will break both his arms, the strong one and the broken one, and will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. Ezekiel 30:23 . And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them in the lands, Ezekiel 30:24 . And will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and give my sword into his hand, and will break the arms of Pharaoh, so that he shall groan the groanings of a pierced one before him. Ezekiel 30:25 . I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I give my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may stretch it against the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 30:26 . I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them in the lands; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. - The perfect שׁברתּי in Ezekiel 30:21 is not a prophetic utterance of the certainty of the future, but a pure preterite. This may be seen "both from the allusion in Ezekiel 30:21 to the condition resulting from the shbr שׁבר, and also to the obviously antithetical relation of Ezekiel 30:22 , in which future events are predicted" (Hitzig).

The arm is a figurative expression for power, here for military power, as it wields the sword. God broke the arm of Pharaoh by the defeat which the Chaldeans inflicted upon Pharaoh Hophra, when he was marching to the relief of besieged Jerusalem. חבּשׁה is a present, as is apparent from the infinitive clauses ('לתת וגו) which follow, altogether apart from הנּה; and חבשׁ signifies to bind up, for the purpose of healing a broken limb, that remedies may be applied and a bandage put on. לחזקהּ, that it may become strong or sound, is subordinate to the preceding clause, and governs the infinitive which follows. The fact that the further judgment which is to fall upon Pharaoh is introduced with לכן (therefore) here ( Ezekiel 30:22 ), notwithstanding the fact that it has not been preceded by any enumeration of the guilt which occasioned it, may be accounted for on the ground that the causal לכן forms a link with the concluding clause of Ezekiel 30:21 : the arm shall not be healed, so as to be able to grasp or hold the sword. Because Pharaoh is not to attain any more to victorious power, therefore God will shatter both of his arms, the strong, i.e., the sound one and the broken one, that is to say, will smite it so completely, that the sword will fall from his hand. The Egyptians are to be scattered among the nations, as is repeated in Ezekiel 30:23 verbatim from Ezekiel 29:12 .