Ezekiel 30: 1-19 The Third Oracle Against Egypt: The Day of The LORD

¹The word of the LORD came to me: ²Mortal, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD:
Wail, “Alas for the day!”
³For a day is near,
the day of the LORD is near;
it will be a day of clouds,
a time of doom for the nations.
⁴A sword shall come upon Egypt,
and anguish shall be in Ethiopia,
when the slain fall in Egypt,
and its wealth is carried away,
and its foundations are torn down.
⁵Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all Arabia, and Libya, and the people of the allied land shall fall with them by the sword.
⁶Thus says the LORD:
Those who support Egypt shall fall,
and its proud might shall come down;
from Migdol to Syene
they shall fall within it by the sword,
says the Lord GOD.
⁷They shall be desolated among other desolated countries,
and their cities shall lie among cities laid waste.
⁸Then they shall know that I am the LORD,
when I have set fire to Egypt,
and all who help it are broken.
⁹On that day, messengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the unsuspecting Ethiopians; and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt’s doom; for it is coming!
¹⁰Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,
by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.
¹¹He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations,
shall be brought in to destroy the land;
and they shall draw their swords against Egypt,
and fill the land with the slain.
¹²I will dry up the channels,
and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers;
I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it
by the hand of foreigners;
I the LORD have spoken.
¹³Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will destroy the idols
and put an end to the images in Memphis;
there shall no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt;
so I will put fear in the land of Egypt.
¹⁴I will make Pathros a desolation,
and will set fire to Zoan,
and will execute acts of judgment on Thebes.
¹⁵I will pour my wrath upon Pelusium,
the stronghold of Egypt,
and cut off the hordes of Thebes.
¹⁶I will set fire to Egypt;
Pelusium shall be in great agony;
Thebes shall be breached,
and Memphis face adversaries by day.
¹⁷The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword;
and the cities themselves shall go into captivity.
¹⁸At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark,
when I break there the dominion of Egypt,
and its proud might shall come to an end;
the city shall be covered by a cloud,
and its daughter-towns shall go into captivity.
¹⁹Thus I will execute acts of judgment on Egypt.
Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

This third oracle against Egypt is undated. It may come early (during the siege of Jerusalem) like the first oracle or late (after the failed siege of Tyre) like the second oracle. It is sandwiched between a late oracle and an early one and either situation can fit this declaration against the Egyptians. My best guess is that it follows the timeline of the immediately preceding oracle but ultimately it makes little difference to the interpretation of the prophet’s words of judgment.[1]

Ezekiel’s third oracle against Egypt taps into the thematic day of the LORD. As I mention in my longer discussion on the Evolution of the Day of the LORD, this has been used both as a phrase indicating both judgment for Judah and salvation. Here the terrifying direction of the day of the LORD is directed against Egypt, and by extension the nations. Much of the day of the LORD language is thematic and has resonances across the prophets regardless of the direction of the judgment it implies. Ezekiel echoes Zephaniah 1:15[2] storm imagery:

That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

Although the Hebrew Scriptures continually remind the reader that the LORD is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the LORD’s power is often depicted coming from the sky. But here the judgment from the sky is paired with the judgment by sword from approaching armies. The LORD is both the Lord of heaven and earth and the LORD of hosts[3]. The LORD is moving in judgment against Egypt and any who stand with them in this oracle.

One of the reasons that people have been fascinated with Egypt has been its wealth. The wealth of the nation unearthed from the tombs of the kings of Egypt draws both modern interest but also drew ancient interest as well. Egypt’s elite hoarded this wealth, and this was to be one of the distinctions between the ways of Egypt and the ways of the people of Israel. Now this wealth or horde, (Hebrew hamon) will be taken away by the sword. That which they stored in temples and tombs will now become the reward for the wielder of the sword which causes both death and destruction for this proud empire. This focus on the wealth of Egypt being carried away links this to the previous oracle when Egypt’s wealth is to be the payment to Nebuchadrezzar for the effort and resources he expended against Tyre.

Ethiopia, Libya (Put), Asia Minor (Lud), the Arabians (literally mixed hordes), and an unknown people (NRSV Libya)[4]  and “the sons of the land of the covenant” (NRSV people of allied lands) all find themselves in danger of this approaching sword and storm. The Egyptians, like most ancient armies, had fighters from many lands which formed their army. Some may have been mercenaries; others were allied or vassal kingdoms. A similar dynamic is at work in Ezekiel’s metaphor of Tyre where the men of Paras, Lud, and Put were in their army and men of Arvad, Helech, and Gamad were archers on their walls.[5] The interesting addition to this list is the ‘sons of the land of the covenant’ who were likely Judean soldiers serving Egypt. There are several ancient sources who list Judean mercenaries serving in Egyptian campaigns, and there are Judean settlements in Egypt at the time of Ezekiel’s ministry.[6] Now these Judeans both serving and residing in Egypt are warned of the coming sword (assuming Ezekiel’s missive traveled to these communities).

The terror of this coming sword penetrates the length of the Nile into Ethiopia. Egypt had endured conflict before, but the communities on the eastern and northern edge of Egypt absorbed the threat. Ethiopians at the southern end of the Nile could benefit from the economic advantages of the river while being relatively safe from an invader coming from the Middle East. But now even these places at the edge of the Egyptian empire were no longer safe in the oracle. The ‘hordes’ or ‘wealth’ of Egypt will end under King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. This force coming from the north is portrayed as the ‘most terrible of nations.’

The destruction of Egypt’s wealth and military are paralleled by the loss of both the cities and the ‘gods’ of Egypt. Just as the ‘signs and wonders’ that the LORD utilized to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt struck at both the reign of Pharoah and the Egyptian gods[7] now the ‘idols’[8] and ‘images’ are destroyed as well as the cities where the temples are located.

The actions of Nebuchadrezzar’ army are paired with the actions of the LORD against the land. Nebuchadrezzar may wield the sword, but the LORD is drying up the channels of the Nile. At Tehaphnehes the day becomes dark[9] as it is covered by a cloud, echoing the day of the LORD imagery at the beginning of the oracle. The LORD of the heavens and earth wields the natural powers of destruction while the LORD of hosts dispatches the Babylonians with the sword against the Egyptians.

Ezekiel 30: 20-26 The Fourth Oracle Against Egypt Disarming Pharoah

²⁰In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: ²¹Mortal, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; it has not been bound up for healing or wrapped with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. ²²Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall from his hand. ²³I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the lands. ²⁴I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him with the groans of one mortally wounded. ²⁵I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall stretch it out against the land of Egypt, ²⁶and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

For this fourth oracle we once again have a date, and the date helps provide a context for this message. April 29, 587 BCE would be almost four months after the initial oracle and roughly four months before the destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 37: 5-10 indicates that Pharoah did come to Jerusalem’s aid causing a temporary removal of the siege while Nebuchadrezzar turned his forces to deal with the Egyptian incursion, and that likely set the background for Ezekiel’s first oracle against Egypt. We know that the Egyptian forces did not remain and either retreated or suffered a defeat before the Babylonians. The time period of this oracle makes sense in a time after Egypt has been forced to retreat without providing liberation to Jerusalem.

The broken arm of Pharaoh is likely his weakened state after his initial defeat by Babylon. Egypt has suffered defeats to Babylon in the region before, but now this metaphorical wound which weakens Pharoah will not be bound or bandaged and allowed to heal properly. Now a weakened Pharoah with one remaining arm is left to oppose a Babylon with two strong arms, but even before the battle the LORD breaks Pharoah’s other arm as the arm of the king of Babylon is made strong and the LORD’s swords placed in his hand for judgment. Pharoah, once mighty, has now been disarmed and Egypt is vulnerable to this warrior who comes to deliver the LORD’s judgment.

[1] Many historical critical interpreters viewed this portion of Ezekiel as a later introduction by a different author of the “Ezekiel school” due to the lack of date and the language. Although it is worth acknowledging the insight of these scholars, Ezekiel often does not include a date and Ezekiel’s language varies widely throughout the book.

[2] Joel 2: 2 also utilizes this imagery, but Joel is most likely at 4^th Century BCE prophet and is echoing Ezekiel or Zephaniah.

[3] The host referred to here is a military host in this commonly used title.

[4] Put is modern day Libya. The Hebrew kub could be another North African nation, but we simply do not know.

[5] Ezekiel 27:10-11.

[6] Jeremiah 24:8, 44:1.

[7] See my comments on Exodus 7–11.

[8] Hebrew gillum, Ezekiel’s coarse image for foreign idols.

[9] Eclipsing the sun god ‘Ra.’