Ezek 32

32:1 On March 3: This event occurred two months after the exiles in Babylon received word of Jerusalem’s fall (see 33:21).

32:2-3 Ezekiel returns to the image of Pharaoh as a mighty beast (29:3). • Egypt’s pharaohs used the lion and the sea monster (or crocodile) as images of strength, yet both creatures could be hunted and killed, and that is what would happen to Pharaoh. God, through his agents (32:11-12), would hunt Pharaoh, catch him, and haul him in.

32:4-6 hills . . . valleys . . . mountains . . . ravines: In Hebrew, this literary device (merism) indicates both the boundaries and everything within them; here, it portrays the totality of God’s judgment. The carnage is described using hyperbole to communicate the complete destruction of Egypt.

32:7-8 As in the previous chapter, Pharaoh’s downfall would be accompanied by global darkness and widespread mourning. These images were commonly associated with the day of the Lord (cp. Joel 2:30). In this case, the darkness would also remind the Egyptians of the plague on Egypt at the time of the Exodus (Exod 10:21-22).

32:9-10 The surrounding nations and their kings would all be terrified at Egypt’s downfall, fearing for their own future.

32:11-12 The human agent of God’s wrath, the sword of the king of Babylon, was coming to shatter the power of Egypt once and for all. This would be an even greater destruction than at the time of the first Passover, when only the firstborn male humans and animals of Egypt died (Exod 12:29).

32:14 The great sea monster (32:2) would no longer thrash around in the stream, stirring up mud like an irate crocodile. After Pharaoh’s demise, the waters of Egypt would flow again as smoothly as olive oil, with the untroubled serenity of death.

32:15-16 This total and final devastation of Egypt would result in their recognizing the power of the Lord, just as they did at the time of the Exodus.

32:17-32 This last, climactic message against Egypt sums up the whole series of messages against all of the nations.

32:18-20 In an earlier message (31:17-18), God had declared that Egypt would go down to join the other nations in the underworld. Here that idea is expanded. Egypt’s destination was with the outcasts, along with those who fell by the sword. This place of horror, the pit, was already populated by many nations that once wielded power but had now gone down to destruction (cp. Isa 14:9-11).

32:21-30 Assyria . . . Elam . . . Meshech and Tubal . . . Edom . . . the princes of the north and the Sidonians: These nations that once struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere were now shadowy figures, spent forces in a world without meaning or joy. Assyria had been conquered by the Babylonians and Medes between 627 and 609 BC and had been removed from its previous status as a superpower.

32:31-32 Pharaoh and all the power of Egypt will share a similar fate. For the time appointed by God, Pharaoh caused his terror to fall upon all the living, yet when God decided to act, Egypt’s power would be broken once and for all.