Глава 29

Chapters XXIX-XXXII contain 7 speeches on Egypt, which was also a neighbor of Israel, although in a more distant, so to speak, ideal sense (cf. Eze. 47.19 and Eze. 48.28, where the southern border of the future holy land is called the river of Egypt), but the neighbor was the most significant, powerful and most damaging and harmful to Israel, which is why the prophecy against it is much more extensive than others and even the prophecies against Tire (the latter attracts the prophetic gaze of Ezekiel not so much because of its significance for the fate of Israel, but because of its brilliance at that time and the revelation of the glory of God that its fall gave, therefore, so to speak, because of the momentary importance of the event). Egypt has long harmed Israel (Ezek.16.26, 20.23), and did not cease to harm under Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29.6–7, 16): the fall of the Kingdom of Judah was the immediate cause of the deceptive hope of help from Egypt (Zedekiah's alliance with it); this hope did not disappear completely even after the destruction of Jerusalem (the flight of the inhabitants of Judea remaining to Egypt after the murder of Gedaliah: 2 Kings 25.23, etc.). The unreliability of Egypt as an ally, the infidelity to its alliance, which destroyed Judah, is the main sin of Egypt, for which Ezekiel predicts its death. This sin is joined by the arrogance of Egypt, claims to world dominion, assigned by God to Chaldea and the contestation of which will therefore destroy Egypt. The prophecies fall on that critical time for Egypt, when the Babylonian and Egyptian armies moved against each other, for which Nebuchadnezzar temporarily lifted the siege of Jerusalem, and when the Egyptians, after a slight failure, withdrew and waited for a new attack by the Chaldeans after the conquest of Jerusalem: the dates of the prophecies cover the time from 7 months before the destruction of Jerusalem to 1½ years after it. The prophecy consists of a threat to Pharaoh (XXIX ch.), Egypt (XXX), a parable about Egypt and its destruction (XXXI) and lamentation over it (XXXII; in the prophecy at Tyre, the parable - comparing it to a ship - is combined with lamentation). There is also a prophecy about Egypt in Isaiah (Isaiah 18; Isaiah 19 and Isaiah 31), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46) and Joel (Joel 3.19). Ezek.29:1. In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: December - January 587 must have been when the Egyptian army moved to the rescue of Jerusalem from the Chaldeans who were besieging it, who actually lifted the siege for a while (Jer 37.5); this could arouse great hopes and served as the closest occasion to a prophecy parallel to the trace. Jer 37.6 and d. Greek. not in the 10th year, but in the 12th year (Glory - 10), probably out of a desire to preserve the chronological order of the prophecies, see Ezek.26.1. But Ezekiel clearly places the prophecies here in geographical order cf. Art. 17 and Ezek.30.1. Day in Greek and glory 1st, not 12th. Ezek.29:2. son of man! Turn your face towards Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and all Egypt. The pharaoh then was Ofra Ugabra Apris of the classics, also referred to in Ezek.17.7; the prophet does not name him, because the prophecy is not directed against him personally, but against his state, which is made clear by the addition “and to all Egypt.” Ezek.29:3. Speak and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, a great crocodile, who, lying among his rivers, you say: “The river is mine, and I created it for myself.” The coloring of the description is borrowed from the country. “Crocodile” (Hebrew tanim actually any sea monster - Gen. 1.21, Greek δρακων, Vulg. draco, glorified “serpent”, perhaps in reference to Exodus 7.9), the animal is immediately so terrible, disgusting and revered among the Egyptians, a distinctive affiliation of the country (now not in the Delta; two species are distinguished by the number and position of the scales on the back. Troche), was the most suitable image for the proud Egyptian monarchy, less terrible than it seemed, and often becoming the prey of brave entrepreneurs (Currey according to Tr.). Augustus depicted Egypt on coins after its subjugation under the guise of a crocodile. The Arabs mockingly call the crocodile Pharaoh. - “Lying”, feeling quite safe. The same Ofra, under whom and about whom this prophecy was written, according to Herodotus (II, 169), said that neither God nor man can take away his kingdom (dethroned by Amasis). – “Rivers” – the plural indicates the system of branches and canals of the Nile. During the 27th Dynasty the capital was Sais on the Delta. – “My river” – yeor, a word that was first applied exclusively to the Nile, taken from Egyptian (in the Rosetta inscriptions yor, in Copt. yaro) and only later received the general meaning of a river or canal (Job 28.10; Dan 12.5–6 about the Tigris). - “I created her.” A monstrous self-aggrandizement, which had an imaginary basis in the fact that the system of canals, which gives the Nile all its significance for Egypt, owes its existence to the pharaohs; Wed Dutch proverb: “God created the earth, and we created Holland.” Ezek.29:4. But I will put a hook in your jaws, and I will cleave to your scales the fish of your rivers, and I will pull you out of your rivers with all the fish of your rivers that cleave to your scales; According to Herodotus (II, 70), crocodiles are caught with a fishing rod, on which a bait of pork is planted; Now they catch more with a hook or a spear; according to Job 40.19 et seq. Both methods are equally difficult. – The crocodile was depicted with small fish on its back: hence the further comparison: “fish stuck to the scales” - the Egyptians, in particular, the army of the pharaoh, who moved from the country (which is represented by the river) to the Chaldeans. Ezek.29:5. and I will throw you in the wilderness, you and all the fish from your rivers, you will fall into the open field, they will not remove you or pick you up; I will give you to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air. The fish on land are dying; so powerless will the Egyptians be in a battle outside the country on an open field. The “Desert,” perhaps the Arabian one, where the armies moving towards each other were supposed to meet: the Chaldean (from Jerusalem) and the Egyptian. - “They won’t remove or pick up.” Deprivation of burial. Ezek.29:6. And all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord; because they were a support of reeds for the house of Israel. “And all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord” - they will be convinced that only God is powerful and gives power to whomever he wants. - “They were a support of reeds for the House of Israel” - an unreliable ally. The comparison has a local flavor: the Nile abounds in reeds. The same comparison is in 2 Kings 18.21; Isa 36.6. The classics also had no better opinion of Egypt; according to Curtius (4, 1, 29) the Egyptians are an empty people, more capable of innovations than of real work; but Hirtius (De bello Alexandr. XXIV, 1) Caesar considered them a deceitful people, well known in that they showed one thing and thought another. Ezek.29:7. When they grabbed you with their hand, you split and pierced their entire shoulder; and when they leaned on you, you broke and wounded all their loins. First of all, it is an old man who walks with a stick: perhaps a hint of Judea’s senile weakness. The deceptive hope in Egypt hastened the fall of Jerusalem and, perhaps, worsened the situation of the captives. - “The whole shoulder was stabbed,” glory. “When every hand splashes upon them,” she leaned on it with a crash. – “Wounded all the loins” – strengthening of the previous thought. Ezek.29:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and will destroy thee man and beast. The country directly takes the place of the king. See explanation of Ezek.14.13–17. Ezek.29:9. And the land of Egypt will become a desert and a steppe; and they will know that I am the Lord. Since he says: “the river is mine, and I created it”; “And the land of Egypt will become a desert and a desert.” Today's Egypt is a desert compared to ancient times. - “He speaks” is the pharaoh, who again takes the place of the country, as its representative. – “My river” – art. 9. Ezek.29:10. then, behold, I am upon your rivers, and will make the land of Egypt a wilderness of deserts from Migdol to Syene, even to the very borders of Ethiopia. "Migdol" Greek. Μαγδωλος, a city on the northern border of Egypt with Palestine, mentioned already in Exodus 14.2; Numbers 33.7 (cf. Jer. 44.1, 46.14; Ezek.30.6), according to others - Egyptian Maktl, Copt. Meshtol; by Itin. Ant. 12 miles from Pelusium, must be the present Tel es Samut - (judging by the meaning of the name: tower) east of Kantara near Lake Menzale (Ebers, Durcn Gosen 522 etc.). Vulg. and turre, considered a common noun, is an application to Siena. Siena, glory to Siena, Greek. Συηνη, in Song, Copt. inscriptions. Suan, now Assouan, on the small Nile rapids, on the right bank; its ruins are somewhat southwest of Aswan; on the southern, Ethiopian border of Egypt, as according to Strabo (118): μεχοι Συηνης και των Αιθιοπικων αρων. Therefore, the further “to the very border of Ethiopia”, unambiguously with Siena, is its closest definition. Ezek.29:11. The foot of man shall not pass over it, nor the foot of any beast shall pass over it, neither shall they dwell in it for forty years. “No human foot will pass through it.” Complete and terrible devastation. Since Egypt was not subjected to such devastation, here either hyperbole is permissible according to the laws of rhetoric, or the decision of God’s judgment was subsequently softened, just as in relation to Nineveh such a decision, announced by the prophet Jonah, was completely canceled (Scaliger, Canon isagog. p. 312, which explains many of the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel). – “Forty years” is a symbolic number of the fullness of punishment and repentance. See explanation of Ezek.4.6. Since Judas will at the same time bear his own punishment of the same duration, the prophet Ezekiel perhaps considers the end of both to be simultaneous, and connects it with the world upheaval that will accompany the restoration of Israel; Wed Ezek.16.53; Jer 48:47, 49.6, 39; Wed Isa 23.15 et c. Ezek.29:12. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate among the desolate lands; and her cities among the desolate cities shall be desolate for forty years, and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and scatter them throughout the lands. “Among the devastated lands” are Edomites, Moab and other countries, against which Ezekiel (Blessed Jerome) prophesied and which would suffer devastation simultaneously with Egypt, as a result of which the picture of devastation would be even more terrible. - “I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations...” - either through being taken into captivity or through voluntary eviction from a devastated country due to the difficulty of living in it. Apparently, life was not sweet for Israel in a foreign land, if Egypt is not promised great punishment. Ezek.29:14. and I will restore the captivity of Egypt, and I will bring them back to the land of Paphros, to the land of their origin, and there they will be a weak kingdom. "Land of Paphros", slav. "land of Taphoros" Greek. γη Φαθωρης or Παθουρης, in Egyptian. “southern land,” i.e., upper Egypt; according to wedge shape inscriptions of Paturisi, in Pliny (5.9) nom Phaturitis, in Ptol. (4, 5, 69) κωμη Ταθυρις. Herodotus (II, 4, 15) and Diodorus (I, 50; III, 3) say that the first Egyptian king Menes was from the city of Thinis in Thebaid near Abydos, which served as the capital of the 1st and 2nd dynasties, when the rest of Egypt was still a swamp (only the 3rd dynasty founded Memphis). Hence the further: “to the land of their origin.” As if an indication that the future Egyptian kingdom will be limited to Upper Egypt, the homeland of this kingdom, due to which it will appear remote from the borders of St. the earth and will not harm it as before. - “And there they will be a weak kingdom.” Egypt will never again be a great world power. The more deceptive is the hope of Judea in him (Gen.) Ezek.29:16. And henceforth they will not be a support for the house of Israel, remembering their iniquity when they turned to him; and they will know that I am the Lord God. “Remembering their iniquity.” The union with Egypt of Israel, as it were, reminded God of the previous sins of Israel, fulfilling their measure and demanding punishment from God's justice for them. Wed. Ezek.21.24. “Jehovah, by the hope that Israel placed in Egypt, could measure all the godlessness of the people, who, relying on Egypt, thereby harmed the glory of His name. And to bring everyone to the recognition that God is the only strong one, who deserves all hope and glory, is, according to Ezekiel, the goal to which all history should lead. He is an enemy of politics, and in Israel’s hitherto friendly policy towards the pagans, he sees gangrene of the people” (Bert.). Ezek.29:17–21. Contains the 2nd speech against Egypt. It has the latest date in the book of Ezekiel, 2 years later than his last great vision of the new church (Ezekiel 40). The speech is caused by the unsuccessful or not entirely successful outcome of the siege of Tire by Nebuchadnezzar. As we have seen (see explanation of Ezekiel 26.10 and 14), the prophet Ezekiel did not predict that Tire would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but only predicted his siege, which would end (it is unknown when and by whom) with the complete destruction of Tire. Nevertheless, the prophecy could be understood (as it is now understood by rationalist exegetes) in the sense of predicting Tire's complete defeat by Nebuchadnezzar. This speech was caused, perhaps, by the rumors that took place or only by possible rumors about the non-fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy to Tire. The prophet predicts that Nebuchadnezzar, in exchange for incomplete success in the siege of Tyre, will have a completely successful campaign in Egypt. But rational criticism, in this case, finds fault with Ezekiel, arguing that Nebuchadnezzar did not undertake a campaign against Egypt and that, therefore, this prophecy of Ezekiel, as against Tyre, did not come true. About Nebuchadnezzar's campaign against Egypt they say: 1) Berosus in I. Flavius ​​(S. Arr. I, 19), that the Babylonians took possession of Egypt, as well as Syria, Phenicia and Arabia; 2) Megasthenes in Strabo (XV, 1, 6), in I. Flavius. (S. Arr. I, 20) and Abydenus in Eusebius (Praep. evang. IX, 41) talk about Nebuchadnezzar’s campaigns to Libya and Iberia and that he even reached the Pillars of Hercules; 3) Josephus (in Antiqu. 10:9, 7) says that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, killed Pharaoh Ophra, put another in his place, and sent the Jews who fled there to Babylon. 4) Sinkel (Chonogr. I, 453) says that the Chaldeans left Egypt only out of fear of an earthquake. Doubt about Nebuchadnezzar's campaign is inspired by: 1) the silence of Herodotus (II, 161 etc.) and Diodorus (I, 68); 2) the fact that Josephus, where he talks about the enslavement of Egypt, does not mention its enslavement by Nebuchadnezzar; 3) that I. Flavius ​​for his story about Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign in Antiqu. does not indicate a source, and such could be the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and that his testimony about the murder of Ofra by Nebuchadnezzar contradicts the Greek historians, according to which Ofra was killed by his successor Amasis. Not to mention the weakness of these arguments (Herodotus, for example, does not mention the battle of Carchemish; he drew from Egyptian sources, about which he himself says that the Egyptian priests often falsified history), Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Egypt is now more and more confirmed by Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions. The hieroglyphic Nes-Gorin inscription says that during the reign of Ofra, the army of Amu (Syrians), Asians and other northern peoples flooded Egypt and penetrated to the first thresholds, but from here they were repelled by the governor and the king himself. Babylonian chronicle fragments say that in the year 37 Nebuchadnezzar made a campaign against the country of Mitzir (cf. Mizraim, the Hebrew name for Egypt) for a war with the local king, from whose name only the end of the Azii could be read (Amasis? Schrader, Keilinschr Biblioth. III, 140 and d. Bertolet). Ezek.29:17. In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: March 571 14 years after the previous speech. Ezek.29:18. son of man! Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, tired his army with great work at Tire; all the heads were bald and all the shoulders were erased; and neither he nor his army receives reward from Tire for the work that he used against him. "Big works". Generally difficult siege work - digging ditches, constructing trenches and ramparts from stones and sand - during the siege of Tire reached an incredible degree, since Nebuchadnezzar, probably, like Alexander the Great, had to build a dam across the strait. - “All heads are bald, and all shoulders are worn out” from carrying these and other burdens. Slav: “everything is naked” - clothes exploded. - “No reward from Tyr.” It could not be plundered, because either it was not taken, or it surrendered on favorable terms, or, as the blessed one says. Jerome, the treasures were taken away on ships when the Tyrians saw the construction of a dam across the strait and the capture of the city began to be considered inevitable. Ezek.29:19. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, so that he may plunder its wealth and plunder it, and rob what it has plundered, and this will be the reward of his army. “Nebuchadnezzar” - of course, not to him personally, but to his monarchy, of which he was a representative. The conquest of Egypt followed, perhaps not under Nebuchadnezzar. - “Wealth”, glory. "multitude", Heb. Gamon also admits the idea of ​​population; from here onwards instead of “robbery” Slav. "captivity"; softening of the euro text. Ezek.29:20. As a reward for the work he did in him, I give him the land of Egypt, because they did it for Me, said the Lord God. “They did this for Me” unconsciously - as a punishment for Israel and to restore the glory of the name of God. In many codes: LXX, Pesh. Copt. and Arab. - No. Ezek.29:21. On that day I will restore the horn to the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them, and they will know that I am the Lord. The last words that came from the lips of the prophet Ezekiel, and therefore naturally contain a prediction about messianic times: the humiliation of Egypt, the symbol of the entire pagan world, will be the day of the triumph of the kingdom of God on earth - Israel. – “Horn” – power (1 Samuel 2.1; Jer 48.25; Lamentations 2.3). - “I will open my mouth to you.” The apparent failure to fulfill the prophecy about Tyre again lowered the authority of the prophet, like the once long failure to fulfill the prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezek. 24.27, 33.22; cf. Eze. 3.27). The conquest of Egypt, now predicted in such detail, will restore this authority, as the fall of Tyre had previously done. One can understand the general thing: with the dawn of the salvation of Israel, that is, in the church, the Christian prophetic word will sound especially abundantly - due to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. By blessed Theodoret, the prophet Ezekiel here is a representative of all the prophets. You might be interested in: