Ezekiel · Chapter 32

V. 1. Twelfth year-Of the captivity of Jeconiah.

Verse 1. In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month] On Wednesday, March 22, the twelfth year of the captivity of Jeconiah, A.M. 3417.

Instead of the twelfth year, five of Kennicott’s MSS., and eight of Deuteronomy Rossi’s, read hrv[ בעשתי in the eleventh year. This reading is supported by the Syriac; and is confirmed by an excellent MS. of my own, about four hundred years old.

Verses 1, 2. In the twelfth year — Namely, of Jehoiachin’s captivity, about which time Amasis began to set up himself against the king of Egypt, concerning whom this prophecy is. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh — “To the preceding funeral panegyric over Assyria, the fate of which was past, Ezekiel prophetically subjoins a similar panegyric over Egypt, though its fate was still future; making plainly here a happy variation in the oratorical figure, by which past events are brought down and represented as now present before our eyes; whereas, on the contrary, by this prophetic figure future events are anticipated, and represented as already past.” — Obs. on Books, 2:188. Thou art like a young lion of the nations — Thou art like a beast of prey, devouring far and near. Thou art as a whale in the seas — By the word tannim we may fitly understand a crocodile, as has been observed upon Ezekiel 29:3, and the description that follows agrees very well to a crocodile, but cannot be applied to a whale. And thou camest forth with thy rivers, &c. — Or rather, Thou rushedst forth through thy streams, and didst trouble the waters, &c.; that is, thou wentest beyond the bounds of thine own kingdom, and didst trouble and tread down, or subdue, the neighbouring cities and nations.

1. Twelfth year — This is March, 584 B.C., a little more than a year and a half after Jerusalem’s ruin had been accomplished. The fall of the holy city has caused him to hear the sound of the falling empires which were her destruction.

V. 2. Like a young lion-Spoiling all thou canst. Crocodile-The crocodiles lay in the rivers, though sometimes they went down the river to the sea. With thy rivers-Raisedst mighty armies, and didst lead them out against thy neighbours. The waters-The people, and kings near thee. Thy feet-With thy soldiers. Fouledst-Didst spoil all the conveniences of thy neighbours.

Verse 2. Thou art like a young lion—and thou art as a whale in the seas] Thou mayest be likened to two of the fiercest animals in the creation; to a lion, the fiercest on the land; to a crocodile, תנים tannin, (see Ezekiel 29:3,) the fiercest in the waters. It may, however, point out the hippopotamus, as there seems to be a reference to his mode of feeding. He walks deliberately into the water over head, and pursues his way in the same manner; still keeping on his feet, and feeding on the plants, &c., that grow at the bottom. Thus he fouls the water with his feet.

Verses 1, 2. In the twelfth year — Namely, of Jehoiachin’s captivity, about which time Amasis began to set up himself against the king of Egypt, concerning whom this prophecy is. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh — “To the preceding funeral panegyric over Assyria, the fate of which was past, Ezekiel prophetically subjoins a similar panegyric over Egypt, though its fate was still future; making plainly here a happy variation in the oratorical figure, by which past events are brought down and represented as now present before our eyes; whereas, on the contrary, by this prophetic figure future events are anticipated, and represented as already past.” — Obs. on Books, 2:188. Thou art like a young lion of the nations — Thou art like a beast of prey, devouring far and near. Thou art as a whale in the seas — By the word tannim we may fitly understand a crocodile, as has been observed upon Ezekiel 29:3, and the description that follows agrees very well to a crocodile, but cannot be applied to a whale. And thou camest forth with thy rivers, &c. — Or rather, Thou rushedst forth through thy streams, and didst trouble the waters, &c.; that is, thou wentest beyond the bounds of thine own kingdom, and didst trouble and tread down, or subdue, the neighbouring cities and nations.

2. R.V., “Thou wast likened unto a young lion… yet art thou as a dragon.” Pharaoh had thought himself to be the king of beasts, able to roam for prey in far-off countries; but he was in reality only a crocodile, confined to his own Nile stream. This was peculiarly cutting, since the Pharaoh loved to call himself “ruler of all lands,” and yet often in his inscriptions likened himself to a crocodile. (See also note Ezekiel 29:3.) Camest forth with thy rivers — R.V., “breakest forth.” The Hebrew can almost mean didst spurt out [spray] with thy nostrils (Job 41:19, 20). In either case the expression refers to the vain struggles of the monster, which can indeed foul his own stream, but which cannot harm those who are upon the shore.

V. 3. With a company-In the countries, where these creatures were hunted, they went in mighty companies.

Verses 3-6. I will spread out my net over thee, &c. — I will bring thine enemies upon thee, who shall encompass thee on every side, and master thee as a wild beast or monstrous fish is taken in a net. Then will I leave thee upon the land — That is, leave thee to certain destruction, or take away from thee all means of recovery. For Pharaoh being here spoken of as a water animal, leaving him upon the land, signified leaving him to certain death, without the means of escaping it; for a fish left upon the land must needs die, let it struggle as it will, water being absolutely necessary to its life. This was literally fulfilled when, making war upon the Cyrenians, he was vanquished, and his army cut in pieces, and left a prey to the fowls and beasts in the deserts of Libya and Cyrene: see note on Ezekiel 29:4, 5. And I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee — With the flesh of thy vast armies. Or rather, understanding the words figuratively, I will enrich all nations with thy spoils. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, &c. — Thy people shall be slain, both upon the mountains and in the valleys, and their carcasses lie unburied there. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest — The land of Egypt, wherein thou bearest rule; even to the mountains — The mountains shall be wet with it, as well as the lower grounds: compare Isaiah 34:3. And the rivers shall be full of thee — All places, both high and low, both land and water. All the expressions in these verses are hyperbolical, signifying the vast slaughter that should be made of the Egyptians, and the immense booty that should be obtained by their enemies.

3. They shall bring me up in my net — LXX., I will, etc. Jehovah will capture the great monster in a net as if he were a harmless bird. (Compare Ezekiel 29:4.) For people read, as usual, peoples.

V. 4. Leave thee-This was literally fulfilled in the deserts of Lybia, where the slain of Hophra’s army, were left to be devoured by fowls and beasts.

Verses 3-6. I will spread out my net over thee, &c. — I will bring thine enemies upon thee, who shall encompass thee on every side, and master thee as a wild beast or monstrous fish is taken in a net. Then will I leave thee upon the land — That is, leave thee to certain destruction, or take away from thee all means of recovery. For Pharaoh being here spoken of as a water animal, leaving him upon the land, signified leaving him to certain death, without the means of escaping it; for a fish left upon the land must needs die, let it struggle as it will, water being absolutely necessary to its life. This was literally fulfilled when, making war upon the Cyrenians, he was vanquished, and his army cut in pieces, and left a prey to the fowls and beasts in the deserts of Libya and Cyrene: see note on Ezekiel 29:4, 5. And I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee — With the flesh of thy vast armies. Or rather, understanding the words figuratively, I will enrich all nations with thy spoils. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, &c. — Thy people shall be slain, both upon the mountains and in the valleys, and their carcasses lie unburied there. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest — The land of Egypt, wherein thou bearest rule; even to the mountains — The mountains shall be wet with it, as well as the lower grounds: compare Isaiah 34:3. And the rivers shall be full of thee — All places, both high and low, both land and water. All the expressions in these verses are hyperbolical, signifying the vast slaughter that should be made of the Egyptians, and the immense booty that should be obtained by their enemies.

4, 5. Compare Ezekiel 29:5; 31:12, 13. The vultures and jackals feed on the carcass, the foulness of which fills the whole land. For A.V. height the Peshito reads “worms.”

V. 5. With thy height-With the carcasses of thy princes.

Verse 5. And fill the valleys with thy height.] Some translate, with the worms, which should proceed from the putrefaction of his flesh.

Verses 3-6. I will spread out my net over thee, &c. — I will bring thine enemies upon thee, who shall encompass thee on every side, and master thee as a wild beast or monstrous fish is taken in a net. Then will I leave thee upon the land — That is, leave thee to certain destruction, or take away from thee all means of recovery. For Pharaoh being here spoken of as a water animal, leaving him upon the land, signified leaving him to certain death, without the means of escaping it; for a fish left upon the land must needs die, let it struggle as it will, water being absolutely necessary to its life. This was literally fulfilled when, making war upon the Cyrenians, he was vanquished, and his army cut in pieces, and left a prey to the fowls and beasts in the deserts of Libya and Cyrene: see note on Ezekiel 29:4, 5. And I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee — With the flesh of thy vast armies. Or rather, understanding the words figuratively, I will enrich all nations with thy spoils. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, &c. — Thy people shall be slain, both upon the mountains and in the valleys, and their carcasses lie unburied there. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest — The land of Egypt, wherein thou bearest rule; even to the mountains — The mountains shall be wet with it, as well as the lower grounds: compare Isaiah 34:3. And the rivers shall be full of thee — All places, both high and low, both land and water. All the expressions in these verses are hyperbolical, signifying the vast slaughter that should be made of the Egyptians, and the immense booty that should be obtained by their enemies.

4, 5. Compare Ezekiel 29:5; 31:12, 13. The vultures and jackals feed on the carcass, the foulness of which fills the whole land. For A.V. height the Peshito reads “worms.”

V. 6. Even to the mountains-Blood shall be poured forth, as if it were to rise to the very mountains. Full of thee-O thy blood, and of thy carcasses cast into them.

Verse 6. The land wherein thou swimmest] Egypt; so called, because intersected with canals, and overflowed annually by the Nile.

Verses 3-6. I will spread out my net over thee, &c. — I will bring thine enemies upon thee, who shall encompass thee on every side, and master thee as a wild beast or monstrous fish is taken in a net. Then will I leave thee upon the land — That is, leave thee to certain destruction, or take away from thee all means of recovery. For Pharaoh being here spoken of as a water animal, leaving him upon the land, signified leaving him to certain death, without the means of escaping it; for a fish left upon the land must needs die, let it struggle as it will, water being absolutely necessary to its life. This was literally fulfilled when, making war upon the Cyrenians, he was vanquished, and his army cut in pieces, and left a prey to the fowls and beasts in the deserts of Libya and Cyrene: see note on Ezekiel 29:4, 5. And I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee — With the flesh of thy vast armies. Or rather, understanding the words figuratively, I will enrich all nations with thy spoils. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, &c. — Thy people shall be slain, both upon the mountains and in the valleys, and their carcasses lie unburied there. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest — The land of Egypt, wherein thou bearest rule; even to the mountains — The mountains shall be wet with it, as well as the lower grounds: compare Isaiah 34:3. And the rivers shall be full of thee — All places, both high and low, both land and water. All the expressions in these verses are hyperbolical, signifying the vast slaughter that should be made of the Egyptians, and the immense booty that should be obtained by their enemies.

6. Water with thy blood — Rashi and Qimchi explain, the Delta will be inundated, even as high as the hills, not with fertilizing waters, but with the blood of the inhabitants. There are certain hieroglyphic texts which speak of invaders deluging the land like the Nile at its overflow.

V. 7. Put thee out-As a torch is extinguished. Cover the sun-Probably some unusual darkness was seen in the heavens, and on the earth, about that time.

Verse 7. I will cover the heaven] Destroy the empire. Make the stars thereof dark] Overwhelm all the dependent states. I will cover the sun] The king himself.

And the moon shall not give her light.] The queen may be meant, or some state less than the kingdom.

Verses 7-10. And when I shall put thee out — When I shall cast thee down from thy power, and extinguish all thy glory. I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark — It is well known that the downfall of states and kingdoms, kings and princes, is often expressed in the Scriptures by these or such like metaphors: see notes on Isaiah 13:10; 24:23; 30:26. But here the expressions may mean, I will make every thing look sad and dismal, or will cause a universal sorrow; for to men amidst great calamities and afflictions every thing appears dark and gloomy, and even the light itself seems little different from darkness; and therefore it is usual to express a state of great sorrow by the heavens being covered, and the stars darkened. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee — I will involve thy whole land in trouble and distress, making every thing in it look dismal. I will vex the hearts, &c., when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations — When thy exiles shall be dispersed into foreign countries, (see Ezekiel 29:12,) and relate the miserable circumstances of thy destruction, it shall cause grief and consternation in all that hear it. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings, &c. — The kings and princes of Africa, who lay near to Egypt, seem here to be spoken of; for the destruction of Egypt could not but fill them with fear for themselves, lest the victor should make them suffer the same fate.

Ver. 7, 8. I will cover the heaven—and set darkness upon thy land. I will eclipse the sun, and all the stars of Egypt. This invasion of Nebuchadnezzar took place about four years after the fall of Jerusalem, and assuredly no scourge could be more severe. The conqueror said in his heart, “I will cut off nations not a few.”

7, 8. Instead of dark read “black.” Put thee out — That is, extinguish. This imagery of calamity and sorrow is very common among all oriental nations. (See especially Joel 2:10, 13; 3:15; Amos 8:9.)

Verse 8. And set darkness upon thy land] As I did when a former king refused to let my people go to the wilderness to worship me. I will involve thee, and thy house, and thy people, and the whole land, in desolation and wo.

Verses 7-10. And when I shall put thee out — When I shall cast thee down from thy power, and extinguish all thy glory. I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark — It is well known that the downfall of states and kingdoms, kings and princes, is often expressed in the Scriptures by these or such like metaphors: see notes on Isaiah 13:10; 24:23; 30:26. But here the expressions may mean, I will make every thing look sad and dismal, or will cause a universal sorrow; for to men amidst great calamities and afflictions every thing appears dark and gloomy, and even the light itself seems little different from darkness; and therefore it is usual to express a state of great sorrow by the heavens being covered, and the stars darkened. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee — I will involve thy whole land in trouble and distress, making every thing in it look dismal. I will vex the hearts, &c., when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations — When thy exiles shall be dispersed into foreign countries, (see Ezekiel 29:12,) and relate the miserable circumstances of thy destruction, it shall cause grief and consternation in all that hear it. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings, &c. — The kings and princes of Africa, who lay near to Egypt, seem here to be spoken of; for the destruction of Egypt could not but fill them with fear for themselves, lest the victor should make them suffer the same fate.

Ver. 7, 8. I will cover the heaven—and set darkness upon thy land. I will eclipse the sun, and all the stars of Egypt. This invasion of Nebuchadnezzar took place about four years after the fall of Jerusalem, and assuredly no scourge could be more severe. The conqueror said in his heart, “I will cut off nations not a few.”

7, 8. Instead of dark read “black.” Put thee out — That is, extinguish. This imagery of calamity and sorrow is very common among all oriental nations. (See especially Joel 2:10, 13; 3:15; Amos 8:9.)

V. 9. Thy destruction-The fame of it. Not known-Such as were strangers to Egypt, shall be troubled with apprehension of what mischief may come upon the world from so mighty a conqueror.

Verse 9. I will also vex the hearts] Even the remote nations, who had no connexion with thee, shall be amazed at the judgments which have fallen upon thee.

Verses 7-10. And when I shall put thee out — When I shall cast thee down from thy power, and extinguish all thy glory. I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark — It is well known that the downfall of states and kingdoms, kings and princes, is often expressed in the Scriptures by these or such like metaphors: see notes on Isaiah 13:10; 24:23; 30:26. But here the expressions may mean, I will make every thing look sad and dismal, or will cause a universal sorrow; for to men amidst great calamities and afflictions every thing appears dark and gloomy, and even the light itself seems little different from darkness; and therefore it is usual to express a state of great sorrow by the heavens being covered, and the stars darkened. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee — I will involve thy whole land in trouble and distress, making every thing in it look dismal. I will vex the hearts, &c., when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations — When thy exiles shall be dispersed into foreign countries, (see Ezekiel 29:12,) and relate the miserable circumstances of thy destruction, it shall cause grief and consternation in all that hear it. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings, &c. — The kings and princes of Africa, who lay near to Egypt, seem here to be spoken of; for the destruction of Egypt could not but fill them with fear for themselves, lest the victor should make them suffer the same fate.

9, 10. Compare Ezekiel 26:16; 27:35.

V. 10. Shall tremble-Be greatly afraid, lest Nebuchadnezzar, who is God’s sword, should smite them. Every man-Every one of the kings, whose kingdoms are near to Egypt.

Verses 7-10. And when I shall put thee out — When I shall cast thee down from thy power, and extinguish all thy glory. I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark — It is well known that the downfall of states and kingdoms, kings and princes, is often expressed in the Scriptures by these or such like metaphors: see notes on Isaiah 13:10; 24:23; 30:26. But here the expressions may mean, I will make every thing look sad and dismal, or will cause a universal sorrow; for to men amidst great calamities and afflictions every thing appears dark and gloomy, and even the light itself seems little different from darkness; and therefore it is usual to express a state of great sorrow by the heavens being covered, and the stars darkened. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee — I will involve thy whole land in trouble and distress, making every thing in it look dismal. I will vex the hearts, &c., when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations — When thy exiles shall be dispersed into foreign countries, (see Ezekiel 29:12,) and relate the miserable circumstances of thy destruction, it shall cause grief and consternation in all that hear it. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings, &c. — The kings and princes of Africa, who lay near to Egypt, seem here to be spoken of; for the destruction of Egypt could not but fill them with fear for themselves, lest the victor should make them suffer the same fate.

9, 10. Compare Ezekiel 26:16; 27:35.

11-15. It is now plainly stated that Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible Chaldeans shall work this destruction. (Compare Ezekiel 28:7; 29:11, 19.) The waters shall now be “clear” (R.V.), and smooth as oil, no longer fouled (R.V., “troubled”) by the struggling crocodile (verse 2), for all life shall be destroyed; then shall the Egyptians know who Jehovah is. (Compare Ezekiel 30:26.)

11-15. It is now plainly stated that Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible Chaldeans shall work this destruction. (Compare Ezekiel 28:7; 29:11, 19.) The waters shall now be “clear” (R.V.), and smooth as oil, no longer fouled (R.V., “troubled”) by the struggling crocodile (verse 2), for all life shall be destroyed; then shall the Egyptians know who Jehovah is. (Compare Ezekiel 30:26.)

V. 13. All the beasts-The sheep, and oxen devoured, or driven away: the horses taken up to mount the horsemen, whose own horses were tired, or spoiled. Great waters-The pasture lying along the river side. Trouble them-There shall be so few men left in Egypt, that they shall not as formerly, disturb the waters by digging, swimming, or rowing on them. Nor the hoofs-So few horses or cows, that they shall not at watering-times, or in the heat of the day, foul the waters.

Verses 13, 14. I will also destroy the beasts thereof — Their horses, in which they trusted so much, Isaiah 31:3, and other cattle, feeding in their rich pastures by the river sides. Neither shall the foot of man, nor the hoofs of beasts, &c. — The country shall be so deserted that the waters of the river shall not be fouled by man or beast. But we may understand the prophet here as speaking metaphorically, and by the beasts of Egypt, intending its armies, which had frequently troubled the neighbouring nations, but which, it is here said, should trouble them no more; for when Egypt should be made desolate, and the number both of men and beasts should be diminished by their wars and confusions, then they should neither have the will nor the power to give their neighbours any further molestation; but the nations around them should enjoy quietness, like that of a river which smoothly glides along, and never has its streams fouled or disturbed: see verse 2. Then will I make their waters deep, &c. — The nations which used to be harassed and troubled by the Egyptians, shall then enjoy great peace and quietness.

11-15. It is now plainly stated that Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible Chaldeans shall work this destruction. (Compare Ezekiel 28:7; 29:11, 19.) The waters shall now be “clear” (R.V.), and smooth as oil, no longer fouled (R.V., “troubled”) by the struggling crocodile (verse 2), for all life shall be destroyed; then shall the Egyptians know who Jehovah is. (Compare Ezekiel 30:26.)

V. 14. Like oil-A figurative expression, signifying, there shall be such an universal sadness and heaviness upon the whole nation, that the very rivers which used to flow briskly, shall grow deep, and slow, and heavy.

Verse 14. Cause their rivers to run like oil] Bring the whole state into quietness, there being no longer a political hippopotamus to foul the waters—to disturb the peace of the country.

Verses 13, 14. I will also destroy the beasts thereof — Their horses, in which they trusted so much, Isaiah 31:3, and other cattle, feeding in their rich pastures by the river sides. Neither shall the foot of man, nor the hoofs of beasts, &c. — The country shall be so deserted that the waters of the river shall not be fouled by man or beast. But we may understand the prophet here as speaking metaphorically, and by the beasts of Egypt, intending its armies, which had frequently troubled the neighbouring nations, but which, it is here said, should trouble them no more; for when Egypt should be made desolate, and the number both of men and beasts should be diminished by their wars and confusions, then they should neither have the will nor the power to give their neighbours any further molestation; but the nations around them should enjoy quietness, like that of a river which smoothly glides along, and never has its streams fouled or disturbed: see verse 2. Then will I make their waters deep, &c. — The nations which used to be harassed and troubled by the Egyptians, shall then enjoy great peace and quietness.

11-15. It is now plainly stated that Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible Chaldeans shall work this destruction. (Compare Ezekiel 28:7; 29:11, 19.) The waters shall now be “clear” (R.V.), and smooth as oil, no longer fouled (R.V., “troubled”) by the struggling crocodile (verse 2), for all life shall be destroyed; then shall the Egyptians know who Jehovah is. (Compare Ezekiel 30:26.)

V. 15. Of that-Men and women, cattle, wealth, and peace.

Verse 15. Shall be destitute of that whereof it was full] Of corn, and all other necessaries of life.

Verse 15. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, &c. — When I shall bring the fore-mentioned dreadful calamities upon it. Then shall they know that I am the Lord — The awful and destructive visitation shall be sanctified to those that survive: it shall yield them important instruction, and they shall give glory to my power and justice, while a sensible conviction of the vanity of the world, and of the fading and perishing nature of all things in it, shall draw their affections from it, and from all that it contains, and induce them to seek an acquaintance with me as their portion and happiness.

11-15. It is now plainly stated that Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible Chaldeans shall work this destruction. (Compare Ezekiel 28:7; 29:11, 19.) The waters shall now be “clear” (R.V.), and smooth as oil, no longer fouled (R.V., “troubled”) by the struggling crocodile (verse 2), for all life shall be destroyed; then shall the Egyptians know who Jehovah is. (Compare Ezekiel 30:26.)

V. 16. This is the lamentation-This mournful account, which the prophet has given of Egypt.

Verse 16. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her — This is the substance of the lamentation, which may be properly used to bewail the calamities which Egypt shall suffer: see note on verse 2. The daughters of the nations shall lament her — That is, the people of the neighbouring countries shall use such like words as these when they hear of Egypt’s calamities: thus the daughter of Zion and of Babylon signifies the inhabitants of those cities. This verse alludes to the mourning women, whose office it was to lament at funerals.

16. Davidson translates literally: It is a lamentation, and they shall chant it; the daughters of the nation shall chant it; over Egypt and over all her multitude shall they chant it. (Compare Jeremiah 9:17.)

Verse 17. In the twelfth year] Two of Kennicott’s MSS., one of Deuteronomy Rossi’s, and one of my own, (that mentioned Ezekiel 32:1,) have, in the ELEVENTH year; and so has the Syriac, as before. This prophecy concerns the people of Egypt.

Verses 17, 18. It came to pass, in the fifteenth day of the month — Namely, of the month before mentioned, which was a few days after the time of the preceding revelation. The word of the Lord came unto me — Giving me further directions how to improve the fall of Egypt. Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt — Prepare the funeral ceremonies at the burial of Egypt, and compose an elegy suitable to the sad occasion. Bishop Lowth observes, that “this prophetic ode is a master-piece in that species of writing which is appropriated to the exciting terror.” And cast them down, even her, &c. — Houbigant renders this clause, And thrust them down with the daughters of the nations; thrust them down to the lower parts of the earth, to those who are gone down to the lake. And he observes, that “the prophet is commanded to thrust the Egyptians down to the shades below; that is, to exhibit, by an hypotyposis, familiar with the prophets, the ruin of the Egyptians, similar to the ruin of the people who have been destroyed and gone down to the regions of the dead.” The reader will observe that this figure of speech is a representation of things painted in such strong and bright colours as may cause the imagination of the hearers to conceive of them rather as present to their view than described in words. Such is the representation which the prophet here gives of the calamities of the Egyptians. The expressions, Unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit, denote utter destruction, and are parallel to those elsewhere used, of being brought down to hell, to the grave, or into silence. The Egyptians affected to be buried in their pyramids, and their kings, princes, and nobles would be laid by themselves, but Ezekiel provides them their graves among common people, to lie just where they fell.

17. The prophet closed his last prophecy by bringing into vivid relief the funeral cortege of the dead Egyptian empire, in which the princesses, who represent the surrounding nations which yet live, appear chanting the funeral dirge. In his prophecy-poem, which seems to have been uttered a fortnight later, the prophet sees the entire procession, mourning women and all, engulfed in Sheol. (Compare Isaiah xiv, and for Sheol see Appendix to chapter.) Their sins have found them out and judgment has overtaken them.

V. 18. Wail-Prepare the funeral ceremonies at the burial of Egypt. The daughters-And celebrate the funerals of other cities and kingdoms that lie buried in their own ruins. The nether parts of the earth-A well known description of the state of the dead. The pit-The Egyptians affected to be buried in the Pyramids, and their kings, and great ones, would be laid by themselves; but Ezekiel provides them their grave among common people, being buried just where they fall.

Verse 18. Cast them down] Show them that they shall be cast down. Proclaim to them a casting down prophecy.

Verses 17, 18. It came to pass, in the fifteenth day of the month — Namely, of the month before mentioned, which was a few days after the time of the preceding revelation. The word of the Lord came unto me — Giving me further directions how to improve the fall of Egypt. Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt — Prepare the funeral ceremonies at the burial of Egypt, and compose an elegy suitable to the sad occasion. Bishop Lowth observes, that “this prophetic ode is a master-piece in that species of writing which is appropriated to the exciting terror.” And cast them down, even her, &c. — Houbigant renders this clause, And thrust them down with the daughters of the nations; thrust them down to the lower parts of the earth, to those who are gone down to the lake. And he observes, that “the prophet is commanded to thrust the Egyptians down to the shades below; that is, to exhibit, by an hypotyposis, familiar with the prophets, the ruin of the Egyptians, similar to the ruin of the people who have been destroyed and gone down to the regions of the dead.” The reader will observe that this figure of speech is a representation of things painted in such strong and bright colours as may cause the imagination of the hearers to conceive of them rather as present to their view than described in words. Such is the representation which the prophet here gives of the calamities of the Egyptians. The expressions, Unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit, denote utter destruction, and are parallel to those elsewhere used, of being brought down to hell, to the grave, or into silence. The Egyptians affected to be buried in their pyramids, and their kings, princes, and nobles would be laid by themselves, but Ezekiel provides them their graves among common people, to lie just where they fell.

18. The pit — A synonym for Sheol (Psalm 30:3; 88:3, 4, etc.).

V. 19. Whom-Art thou better than others that thou shouldest not die, and be laid in the dust, as well as they. Go-Go down like others. With the uncircumcised-Among profane and loathed carcasses, such the uncircumcised were in the opinion of the circumcised, as were the Egyptians.

Verse 19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?] How little does it signify, whether a mummy be well embalmed, wrapped round with rich stuff, and beautifully painted on the outside, or not. Go down into the tombs, examine the niches, and see whether one dead carcass be preferable to another.

Verses 19, 20. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? — What reason hast thou to prefer thyself before others? Art thou better than they, that thou shouldest not die and be laid in the dust as well as they? Go down — Namely, to the regions of the dead; and be laid with the uncircumcised — Among profane and loathed carcasses, such as the bodies of the uncircumcised were in the opinion of the circumcised: see notes on Ezekiel 28:8-10, and 31:18. The circumcised, in Scripture, being put for those for whom God had a peculiar regard, and this being one of the distinguishing characteristics of his peculiar people, therefore the term uncircumcised seems to be used for those whom God had rejected, that is, for the wicked and profane. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword — Thy people shall not die the common death of all men, but shall be cut off by an extraordinary judgment from the hand of God himself: they shall be slain by the sword. Draw her and all her multitude — Carry her and her people away to the grave, like so many carcasses, which are buried without any solemnity. The words seem to be spoken to the Babylonians, the executioners of God’s judgments upon Egypt.

19. Pass in — Surpass in (Kautzsch). Egypt, who has been brightest among the nations, must now fall to the level of the shadowy inhabitants of Sheol.

V. 20. They-The Egyptians. She-The whole Egyptian kingdom. Draw-And throw them together into the pit.

Verses 19, 20. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? — What reason hast thou to prefer thyself before others? Art thou better than they, that thou shouldest not die and be laid in the dust as well as they? Go down — Namely, to the regions of the dead; and be laid with the uncircumcised — Among profane and loathed carcasses, such as the bodies of the uncircumcised were in the opinion of the circumcised: see notes on Ezekiel 28:8-10, and 31:18. The circumcised, in Scripture, being put for those for whom God had a peculiar regard, and this being one of the distinguishing characteristics of his peculiar people, therefore the term uncircumcised seems to be used for those whom God had rejected, that is, for the wicked and profane. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword — Thy people shall not die the common death of all men, but shall be cut off by an extraordinary judgment from the hand of God himself: they shall be slain by the sword. Draw her and all her multitude — Carry her and her people away to the grave, like so many carcasses, which are buried without any solemnity. The words seem to be spoken to the Babylonians, the executioners of God’s judgments upon Egypt.

20. She is delivered to the sword — Rather, the sword is appointed. Draw her — R.V., “draw her away;” that is, into the pit.

V. 21. Him-The king of Egypt. The grave-Where they lie without strength, as dead mortals, tho’ while they lived, they bore themselves, as gods. That help-His helpers, dead before him, shall speak to him. Gone down-To the grave. They lie-Neglected, and forgotten.

Verse 21. Out of the midst of hell] lwav sheol, the catacombs, the place of burial. There is something here similar to Isaiah 14:9, where the descent of the king of Babylon to the state of the dead is described.

Verse 21. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him — Namely, to the king of Egypt; out of the midst of hell — Or, the pit, as Bishop Newcome renders the word: see verse 23. The passage is “a poetical description of the regions of the dead; where the ghosts of deceased tyrants, with their subjects, are represented as coming to meet the king of Egypt and his auxiliaries, upon their arrival at the same place. Hell signifies here the state of the dead.” — Lowth. See note on Isaiah 14:9. They are gone down — The warriors, famous in their time for their exploits, have undergone the same fate with other men of blood, and are gone down to the grave by violent deaths.

Ver. 21-23. The strong among the mighty. The gibborim, the giants, who were destroyed at the deluge. Job 26:4, 5. They shall speak to him out of hell—the wicked whose graves are in the sides of the pit. This is repeated from chap. 31:18. Without a doubt, the prophet here means the state of the dead in the world to come. And if the aspects of those men were so murderous on earth, what must their society be in hell. Send Lazarus that he may certify to my brothers that they come not to this place of torment.

21. The strong among the mighty — The strong mighty ones

(Davidson). The residents of Sheol greet these incoming nations — who in life considered themselves infinitely their superiors — with belittling comments. They have not entered Sheol with dignity, after the sacred rites of a religious burial, but have been hurried thither from the battlefield where their bones may yet be left uncovered. (Compare Ezekiel 31:18.) The entire passage compels a sharp distinction between those who were buried in state with their weapons about them (verse 27), and those who, like the uncircumcised barbarians, lay buried where they fell, without the funeral rites which prepared them for a favorable entrance into Sheol. (See Appendix.)

V. 22. Ashur-The famous, warlike, king of Assyria. Is there-In the state of the dead, in the land of darkness and oblivion. Her company-Princes, soldiers, subjects, and confederates. Are about him-They are about him, who were slain with him.

Verse 22. Asshur is there] The mightiest conquerors of the earth have gone down to the grave before thee; there they and their soldiers lie together, all slain by the sword.

Verses 22, 23. Asshur is there and all her company — The Assyrians, both king and people, whose destruction is represented in the foregoing chapter: though famous, warlike, and victorious, that mighty monarch fell. His graves are about him — The graves of his soldiers slain in the war. This expression, and that in the next verse, her company is round about her grave, seem to signify no more than a universal destruction of high and low, and that death had made them all equal. The masculine and feminine genders are promiscuously used in the following verses. The masculine referring to the prince, whose subjects the deceased were; the feminine to the nation or country to which they belonged. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit — Here is supposed a spacious vault, in the midst whereof the king of Asshur lies, and round the vault, in receptacles hewn about its sides, his famous captains and commanders. And her company is round about her grave — Like lesser graves placed round the monument of some person of great quality. All of them slain, which caused terror, &c. — Who were a terror while they were alive to their neighbours.

Ver. 21-23. The strong among the mighty. The gibborim, the giants, who were destroyed at the deluge. Job 26:4, 5. They shall speak to him out of hell—the wicked whose graves are in the sides of the pit. This is repeated from chap. 31:18. Without a doubt, the prophet here means the state of the dead in the world to come. And if the aspects of those men were so murderous on earth, what must their society be in hell. Send Lazarus that he may certify to my brothers that they come not to this place of torment.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 23. Whose graves-Here is supposed a spacious vault, in the midst whereof the king of Ashur lies, and round the vault, his familiar captains and commanders. Her company-The common subjects of the Assyrian empire, all buried undistinguished about her. Her grave-The ruins of an empire are its grave. In the land-While they were in the land of the living.

Verse 23. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit] Alluding to the niches in the sides of the subterranean caves or burying-places, where the bodies are laid. These are numerous in Egypt.

Verses 22, 23. Asshur is there and all her company — The Assyrians, both king and people, whose destruction is represented in the foregoing chapter: though famous, warlike, and victorious, that mighty monarch fell. His graves are about him — The graves of his soldiers slain in the war. This expression, and that in the next verse, her company is round about her grave, seem to signify no more than a universal destruction of high and low, and that death had made them all equal. The masculine and feminine genders are promiscuously used in the following verses. The masculine referring to the prince, whose subjects the deceased were; the feminine to the nation or country to which they belonged. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit — Here is supposed a spacious vault, in the midst whereof the king of Asshur lies, and round the vault, in receptacles hewn about its sides, his famous captains and commanders. And her company is round about her grave — Like lesser graves placed round the monument of some person of great quality. All of them slain, which caused terror, &c. — Who were a terror while they were alive to their neighbours.

Ver. 21-23. The strong among the mighty. The gibborim, the giants, who were destroyed at the deluge. Job 26:4, 5. They shall speak to him out of hell—the wicked whose graves are in the sides of the pit. This is repeated from chap. 31:18. Without a doubt, the prophet here means the state of the dead in the world to come. And if the aspects of those men were so murderous on earth, what must their society be in hell. Send Lazarus that he may certify to my brothers that they come not to this place of torment.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 24. Elam-The Persians, and their famous kings, who lived in former days. Their shame-God, and man poured contempt upon them, and turned their glory into shame.

Verse 24. There is Elam] The Elamites, not far from the Assyrians; others think that Persia is meant. It was invaded by the joint forces of Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar.

Verses 24, 25. There is Elam and all her multitude — Which was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar: see note on Jeremiah 49:36. The nations mentioned in this and the following verse were probably confederates with the Assyrians, and fell when they did. Which caused terror — yet have they borne their shame — They have been shamefully subdued, and have lost their lives and glory together, as Asshur did before them. They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain, &c. — Elam and her people have gone down to the state of the dead, among those who have fallen by the sword. The word bed is used for the grave, Isaiah 57:2, and may, in both places, allude to the costly monuments, or sepulchres, which used to be erected for persons of great quality. Her graves are round about him — The king and people are involved in the same common destruction.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 25. A bed-The Persians had their coffins, in which with balms and spices, the dead were kept, in the midst of places provided for them; in such is the king of Elam here placed with his slaughtered captains about him. All the honour he can now pretend to, is to be buried in the chief sepulchre.

Verses 24, 25. There is Elam and all her multitude — Which was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar: see note on Jeremiah 49:36. The nations mentioned in this and the following verse were probably confederates with the Assyrians, and fell when they did. Which caused terror — yet have they borne their shame — They have been shamefully subdued, and have lost their lives and glory together, as Asshur did before them. They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain, &c. — Elam and her people have gone down to the state of the dead, among those who have fallen by the sword. The word bed is used for the grave, Isaiah 57:2, and may, in both places, allude to the costly monuments, or sepulchres, which used to be erected for persons of great quality. Her graves are round about him — The king and people are involved in the same common destruction.

Ver. 25-27. All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Lowth quotes here a manuscript note in Sir John Chardin, an oriental traveller. En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leur epée sous leur tête. “In Mingrelia they all sleep with their swords under their heads, and their arms by their sides. They are buried in the same manner, with their arms put in the same position.” Herodotus says, that Egypt once had eleven hundred cities, and twenty thousand villages, densely populated; but after those wars, the slaughter being countless, Egypt never recovered the blow.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 26. Her multitude-With the Cappadocians and Albanians, the Scythians may be included, many of whom were next neighbors to them.

Verse 26. There is Meshech, Tubal] See on Ezekiel 27:13.

Verses 26-28. There is Meshech, Tubal, &c. — These are some other of the Assyrian allies; some think the Cappadocians, and other nations neighbouring to them, are here meant. The Scythians also, who anciently governed Asia, may be comprehended, and their expulsion from Media by Cyaxares may here be referred to: see Obs. on Books, 1:192. And they shall not lie with the mighty, &c. — They shall not lie among those heathen heroes, men of courage and fortitude, who were laid in distinct graves, with pomp and magnificence, but shall all be tumbled together into one common pit, as their actions have not made them worthy of any distinction. Which are gone down to hell — Or, the state of the dead, as the word which we translate hell ought often to be rendered. With their weapons of war — Brave men, who had gained signal victories, used, by way of honour, to have their arms buried with them, or hung upon their sepulchres. Thus was the grave of Misenus honoured by Æneas. “ — — — Ingenti mole sepulchrum

Imponit, suaque arma viro.”

ÆN. 6:232.

“It was usual,” says Kirchman, De Funer. Roman., 50. 3. c. 18, “in former times, in some places, to put swords, shields, and other armour in the graves of military men, as they did in the grave of Theseus, and on the bier of Alexander the Great.” But the meaning of the prophet here is, that those, of whom he speaks, should be without these usual martial solemnities, with which people formerly often honoured their dead. Instead of which he says their iniquities shall be upon their bones — Their death shall carry in it plain tokens of their sins, and of God’s vengeance pursuing them on account of them. Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised — Thou, O king of Egypt, shalt have no honorary distinctions paid thee at thy death, or be laid in a magnificent tomb, as those great conquerors have been, but shalt lie in a common pit, or grave, promiscuously with those who are overcome and slain in battle.

Ver. 25-27. All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Lowth quotes here a manuscript note in Sir John Chardin, an oriental traveller. En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leur epée sous leur tête. “In Mingrelia they all sleep with their swords under their heads, and their arms by their sides. They are buried in the same manner, with their arms put in the same position.” Herodotus says, that Egypt once had eleven hundred cities, and twenty thousand villages, densely populated; but after those wars, the slaughter being countless, Egypt never recovered the blow.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 27. They-The leaders of these Scythians were not buried with a pomp like that of Ashur, or Elan, but surprised by Halyattes and Cyaxares, were cut off with all their multitude, and tumbled into pits with the rabble. With their weapons-A ceremony observed in pompous funerals of great captains, to have their weapons, and their armour carried before the hearse. Laid their swords-In their graves, as if they could sleep the sweeter there, when they laid their heads on such a pillow: These barbarous Scythians were not so buried. Their iniquity-The exemplary punishment of their iniquity shall be seen upon their bones unburied.

Verse 27. Gone down to hell with their weapons of war] Are buried in their armour and with their weapons lying by their sides. It was a very ancient practice, in different nations, to bury a warrior’s weapons in the same grave with himself.

Verses 26-28. There is Meshech, Tubal, &c. — These are some other of the Assyrian allies; some think the Cappadocians, and other nations neighbouring to them, are here meant. The Scythians also, who anciently governed Asia, may be comprehended, and their expulsion from Media by Cyaxares may here be referred to: see Obs. on Books, 1:192. And they shall not lie with the mighty, &c. — They shall not lie among those heathen heroes, men of courage and fortitude, who were laid in distinct graves, with pomp and magnificence, but shall all be tumbled together into one common pit, as their actions have not made them worthy of any distinction. Which are gone down to hell — Or, the state of the dead, as the word which we translate hell ought often to be rendered. With their weapons of war — Brave men, who had gained signal victories, used, by way of honour, to have their arms buried with them, or hung upon their sepulchres. Thus was the grave of Misenus honoured by Æneas. “ — — — Ingenti mole sepulchrum

Imponit, suaque arma viro.”

ÆN. 6:232.

“It was usual,” says Kirchman, De Funer. Roman., 50. 3. c. 18, “in former times, in some places, to put swords, shields, and other armour in the graves of military men, as they did in the grave of Theseus, and on the bier of Alexander the Great.” But the meaning of the prophet here is, that those, of whom he speaks, should be without these usual martial solemnities, with which people formerly often honoured their dead. Instead of which he says their iniquities shall be upon their bones — Their death shall carry in it plain tokens of their sins, and of God’s vengeance pursuing them on account of them. Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised — Thou, O king of Egypt, shalt have no honorary distinctions paid thee at thy death, or be laid in a magnificent tomb, as those great conquerors have been, but shalt lie in a common pit, or grave, promiscuously with those who are overcome and slain in battle.

Ver. 25-27. All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Lowth quotes here a manuscript note in Sir John Chardin, an oriental traveller. En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leur epée sous leur tête. “In Mingrelia they all sleep with their swords under their heads, and their arms by their sides. They are buried in the same manner, with their arms put in the same position.” Herodotus says, that Egypt once had eleven hundred cities, and twenty thousand villages, densely populated; but after those wars, the slaughter being countless, Egypt never recovered the blow.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 28. Thou-Chief of Mesech, and Tubal. Shalt be broken-Shalt be killed with the rest of thy wicked followers. Shalt lie-Without regard, hurled into the pit with common soldiers.

Verses 26-28. There is Meshech, Tubal, &c. — These are some other of the Assyrian allies; some think the Cappadocians, and other nations neighbouring to them, are here meant. The Scythians also, who anciently governed Asia, may be comprehended, and their expulsion from Media by Cyaxares may here be referred to: see Obs. on Books, 1:192. And they shall not lie with the mighty, &c. — They shall not lie among those heathen heroes, men of courage and fortitude, who were laid in distinct graves, with pomp and magnificence, but shall all be tumbled together into one common pit, as their actions have not made them worthy of any distinction. Which are gone down to hell — Or, the state of the dead, as the word which we translate hell ought often to be rendered. With their weapons of war — Brave men, who had gained signal victories, used, by way of honour, to have their arms buried with them, or hung upon their sepulchres. Thus was the grave of Misenus honoured by Æneas. “ — — — Ingenti mole sepulchrum

Imponit, suaque arma viro.”

ÆN. 6:232.

“It was usual,” says Kirchman, De Funer. Roman., 50. 3. c. 18, “in former times, in some places, to put swords, shields, and other armour in the graves of military men, as they did in the grave of Theseus, and on the bier of Alexander the Great.” But the meaning of the prophet here is, that those, of whom he speaks, should be without these usual martial solemnities, with which people formerly often honoured their dead. Instead of which he says their iniquities shall be upon their bones — Their death shall carry in it plain tokens of their sins, and of God’s vengeance pursuing them on account of them. Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised — Thou, O king of Egypt, shalt have no honorary distinctions paid thee at thy death, or be laid in a magnificent tomb, as those great conquerors have been, but shalt lie in a common pit, or grave, promiscuously with those who are overcome and slain in battle.

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 29. With the uncircumcised-The Edomites retained circumcision, being of the seed of Abraham. But that shall stand them in no stead: they shall lie with the uncircumcised.

Verse 29. There is Edom] All the glory and pomp of the Idumean kings, who also helped to oppress the Israelites, are gone down into the grave. Their kings, princes, and all their mighty men lie mingled with the uncircumcised, not distinguished from the common dead: “Where they an equal honour share,

Who buried or unburied are.

Where Agamemnon knows no more

Than Irus, he condemned before.

Where fair Achilles and Thersites lie,

Equally naked, poor, and dry.”

Verses 29-32. There is Edom, her kings, &c. — Of whose destruction Ezekiel prophesied, Ezekiel 25:12; laid by them that were slain by the sword — Laid among the conquered. With them that go down to the pit — Among those of no renown, who are thrown into one common grave without any honour or distinction paid to them. There be the princes of the north — By these, it seems, are meant the Tyrians, who lay north of Judea, and were overcome in many battles by the Chaldeans. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted, &c. — Here, by a poetical figure, sense is given to Pharaoh among the dead, and he feels a consolation in that state to see so many other kings and nations brought into the same condition as himself and his people were in. Even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword — Herodotus affirms, that Apries, or Pharaoh-hophra, was strangled: oi de min apepnixan, 50. 2. p. 154. But the enemies of Apries may have used the sword against him before he expired. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living — In the Hebrew text it is, wtytj, his terror, that is, I have permitted the king of Egypt to be a vexation and terror to many while he was alive in the world. And he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised — That is, with the basest sort, or those of no distinction. Or, if we read with the Masorites, whom our translators follow, my terror, the meaning of the verse may be, As these kings and nations have been a terror to the world while they were in it, verse 24, &c, so will I be now a terror to them, and especially to Pharaoh and his people, in making them a remarkable example of my vengeance. Observe, reader, the calamitous state of human life! See what a dying world this is! The strong die, the mighty die; Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, the Zidonians, Pharaoh, and all his multitude! But here is likewise an allusion to the final and everlasting death of impenitent sinners. Those that are uncircumcised in heart are slain by the sword of divine justice. Their iniquity is upon them, and they bear their shame for ever!

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 30. Of the north-Tyrians, Assyrians, and Syrians, who lay northward from Judea, now swallowed up by the Babylonian. Of their might-When it appeared too weak to resist the enemy. Uncircumcised-Scorned, and cast out as profane and loathsome.

Verse 30. There be the princes of the north] The kings of Media and Assyria, and all the Zidonians-the kings of Tyre, Sidon, and Damascus. See Calmet.

Verses 29-32. There is Edom, her kings, &c. — Of whose destruction Ezekiel prophesied, Ezekiel 25:12; laid by them that were slain by the sword — Laid among the conquered. With them that go down to the pit — Among those of no renown, who are thrown into one common grave without any honour or distinction paid to them. There be the princes of the north — By these, it seems, are meant the Tyrians, who lay north of Judea, and were overcome in many battles by the Chaldeans. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted, &c. — Here, by a poetical figure, sense is given to Pharaoh among the dead, and he feels a consolation in that state to see so many other kings and nations brought into the same condition as himself and his people were in. Even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword — Herodotus affirms, that Apries, or Pharaoh-hophra, was strangled: oi de min apepnixan, 50. 2. p. 154. But the enemies of Apries may have used the sword against him before he expired. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living — In the Hebrew text it is, wtytj, his terror, that is, I have permitted the king of Egypt to be a vexation and terror to many while he was alive in the world. And he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised — That is, with the basest sort, or those of no distinction. Or, if we read with the Masorites, whom our translators follow, my terror, the meaning of the verse may be, As these kings and nations have been a terror to the world while they were in it, verse 24, &c, so will I be now a terror to them, and especially to Pharaoh and his people, in making them a remarkable example of my vengeance. Observe, reader, the calamitous state of human life! See what a dying world this is! The strong die, the mighty die; Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, the Zidonians, Pharaoh, and all his multitude! But here is likewise an allusion to the final and everlasting death of impenitent sinners. Those that are uncircumcised in heart are slain by the sword of divine justice. Their iniquity is upon them, and they bear their shame for ever!

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 31. Comforted-Poor comfort! Yet all that he will find!

Verse 31. Pharaoh shall see them] Pharaoh also, who said he was a god, shall be found among the vulgar dead.

And shalt be comforted] Shall console himself, on finding that all other proud boasters are in the same circumstances with himself. Here is a reference to a consciousness after death.

Verses 29-32. There is Edom, her kings, &c. — Of whose destruction Ezekiel prophesied, Ezekiel 25:12; laid by them that were slain by the sword — Laid among the conquered. With them that go down to the pit — Among those of no renown, who are thrown into one common grave without any honour or distinction paid to them. There be the princes of the north — By these, it seems, are meant the Tyrians, who lay north of Judea, and were overcome in many battles by the Chaldeans. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted, &c. — Here, by a poetical figure, sense is given to Pharaoh among the dead, and he feels a consolation in that state to see so many other kings and nations brought into the same condition as himself and his people were in. Even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword — Herodotus affirms, that Apries, or Pharaoh-hophra, was strangled: oi de min apepnixan, 50. 2. p. 154. But the enemies of Apries may have used the sword against him before he expired. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living — In the Hebrew text it is, wtytj, his terror, that is, I have permitted the king of Egypt to be a vexation and terror to many while he was alive in the world. And he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised — That is, with the basest sort, or those of no distinction. Or, if we read with the Masorites, whom our translators follow, my terror, the meaning of the verse may be, As these kings and nations have been a terror to the world while they were in it, verse 24, &c, so will I be now a terror to them, and especially to Pharaoh and his people, in making them a remarkable example of my vengeance. Observe, reader, the calamitous state of human life! See what a dying world this is! The strong die, the mighty die; Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, the Zidonians, Pharaoh, and all his multitude! But here is likewise an allusion to the final and everlasting death of impenitent sinners. Those that are uncircumcised in heart are slain by the sword of divine justice. Their iniquity is upon them, and they bear their shame for ever!

22-31. The prophet, in a style which Dante has imitated, now catalogues the nations whom he sees in the underworld. This has well been called “one of the most weird passages in literature.” He sees Assyria, whose graveyards Nebuchadnezzar had filled with dead. Once these strong warriors had “caused terrors,” but now they lie with their allies “in the uttermost parts of the pit” (verse 23). He sees Elam also, the nation which bordered on Assyria, Media, and Persia, the long-time enemy of Babylon (Isaiah 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; 49:34, 39), who in the most ancient texts is called the “hostile Elamite,” “the evil one,” now fallen by the stroke of Nebuchadnezzar and occupying a place of shame with the “uncircumcised” in some base part of Sheol (verses 24, 25). He sees Meshech and Tubal (see notes 27:13) with all their multitudes who fell upon the field of battle, but with their bones unburied and dishonored — their heads not lying upon their swords as the “mighty ones” loved to lie (compare verse 21; Vergil, AEneid, 6:233; Herodotus, 1:62, and other references in the Pulpit Commentary) — now gone down into hell (literally, Sheol), “because they caused terror” while in the land of the living (verses 26, 27). So also shall Pharaoh fall and lie dishonored with the half-civilized hordes of Meshech and Tubal, whom he despises (verse 28). There are the princes of Edom also (notes Ezekiel 25:12) who “for all their might” now lie helpless (verse 29); and also the underchiefs of the north (Damascus, Hamath, etc.), with the Sidonians, ashamed “for all the terror which they caused by their might” (R.V., margin, verse 30). The only comfort that can come to Pharaoh as he drops with all his army into the comfortless abode is the fact that his predecessors and rivals suffer a like calamity (verse 31; compare Ezekiel 31:16). Again it is emphasized that it was because “he put his terror in the land of the living [verse 32, LXX.] that Pharaoh is now dishonored in the land of the dead.” Such is the general meaning of this passage, the text of which is in considerable disorder, as may be seen by comparing the usual reading of verse 27 with that of the Polychrome text, “And they lie not down with the fallen warriors of old who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, with their swords under their heads, and their shields on their bones because the terror of their might was in the land of the living.” As the Expositor’s Bible justly says, it should not be overlooked that the picture is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as an exact statement of what the Hebrews believed about the state after death.

APPENDIX ON THE BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW UNDERWORLD.

The underworld of the Babylonians was pictured as a cold, dark, cheerless place — “the land whence none return, a land of corruption, a city of darkness and dust, a house of chaos, the hostile land.” The cemeteries and the underworld were very closely connected in ancient imagery and thought. There was indeed — at least some Assyriologists think so — one spot in the future world, “a field of the blessed,” where there was water and health-giving food and cure for disease, whose inhabitants were “bright as the heavens,” holding communion with the gods; but only great heroes or special divine favorites could ever hope to enter. Mankind in general must sink down into a shadowy, ghostlike, feeble existence, where “their nourishment is dust and their food clay.” For yet others, whose bodies had been mutilated or for whom the funeral rites had been omitted, there was prepared a yet deeper depth of horror and torture by the lord of the underworld, who is called “the Destroyer” (compare Revelation 9:11), “the Devourer,” “the Terrifier,” “the Pitiless One.” One inscription reads: —

He who was killed in battle,

Thou seest it, I have seen it;

His father and his mother hold his head,

His wife stands at his side —

Whose corpse, however, lies upon the field,

Thou seest it, I have seen it —

Whoso does not rest in the earth

His soul has no one to care for it.

* * * * * * * * *

What is thrown upon the streets he eats.

This explains the terrible threat of Ezekiel, that these Babylonians should die without being paid funeral honors. The heaviest curse upon an enemy that the cuneiform inscriptions reveal is this: —

That his body may be cast aside,

No grave be his lot.

(See notes Ezekiel 27:29-36.) This also explains why the Assyrian and Babylonian kings mutilated the bodies and scattered the pieces “like thorns and thistles,” beyond all hope of future recovery. So Assurbanipal, when the king of Lydia broke his oath, cried out, “May his corpse be thrown before his enemies; may he have no burial;” and Sennacherib dug up the bones of the ancestors of one of his most hated enemies and scattered them far and wide. But even if one escaped this future torture, the world of the dead was a hopeless, comfortless abode of gloom, full of monsters and presided over by cruel lion-headed deities.

The day is but a sigh, a stream of tears the night,

Crying fills the months, and bitter woe the year.

A very pathetic appeal found in one of these cuneiform funeral texts shows the anxiety of a deceased sister to be remembered by her brother in annual gifts and songs: —

My only brother, let me not perish.

On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli; Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.

Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female, play for me, That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings. The Old Testament writers also conceive of Sheol, the subterranean world of the dead, as a place of silence, dust, and darkness. The very word Sheol (Su-alu) means “hollow,” and zalmat, the Assyrian word for darkness, is exactly reproduced in the Hebrew zalmoth. (Compare Psalm 49:19; Job 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 33:18.) The Hebrews do not picture the future world as full of dangers, as do all other ancient nations, but nevertheless it is heavy with chill and painful negations. As Dr. Salmond has so well shown, the only important difference between the Hebrews’ thought of the future and the thought of other nations is found in their conception of the potentialities of God. The future world might be full of gloom and unknown foes, but God was there, still merciful and gracious, as truly Lord of Sheol as of earth. He was omnipotent, and his wings could shelter and his arm could as easily protect there as here. It was the Hebrew’s belief in a living omnipotent God that made him take it for granted that he would live on in the future and live on under the same divine protection which never failed him here. For this reason he cared nothing for charms and amulets or magical words to guard him from the perils of the long hard journey beyond the grave. For this reason he could confidentially write as the epitaph of his departed friend this hopeful word — so full of prophecy concerning his eternal well-being — “God took him” (Genesis 5:24 ). Jeremias, Die Babylonish-Assyrischen Vorstellung, vom Leben nach dem Tode, Leipzig, 1887; W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Sheol and other Essays; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895; Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Jastrow, 1898.

V. 32. My terror-These tyrants were a terror to the world by their cruelty; and God hath made them a terror by his just punishments; and so, saith God, will I do with Pharaoh. Come and see the calamitous state of human life! See what a dying world this is! The strong die, the mighty die; Pharaoh and all his multitude! But here is likewise an allusion to the final and everlasting death of impenitent sinners. Those that are uncircumcised in heart, are slain by the sword of Divine Justice. Their iniquity is upon them, and they bear their shame for ever.

Verse 32. I have caused my terror in the land of the living] I have spread dismay through Judea, the land of the living God, where the living oracles were delivered, and where the upright live by faith. When Pharaoh-necho came against Josiah, defeated, and slew him at Megiddo, fear and terror were spread through all the land of Judea; and the allusion here is probably to that circumstance. But even he is now laid with the uncircumcised, and is no more to be distinguished from the common dead. Much of the phraseology of this chapter may be illustrated by comparing it with Isaiah 14:1 &c., where see the notes, which the intelligent reader will do well to consult.

EZEKIEL

Verses 29-32. There is Edom, her kings, &c. — Of whose destruction Ezekiel prophesied, Ezekiel 25:12; laid by them that were slain by the sword — Laid among the conquered. With them that go down to the pit — Among those of no renown, who are thrown into one common grave without any honour or distinction paid to them. There be the princes of the north — By these, it seems, are meant the Tyrians, who lay north of Judea, and were overcome in many battles by the Chaldeans. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted, &c. — Here, by a poetical figure, sense is given to Pharaoh among the dead, and he feels a consolation in that state to see so many other kings and nations brought into the same condition as himself and his people were in. Even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword — Herodotus affirms, that Apries, or Pharaoh-hophra, was strangled: oi de min apepnixan, 50. 2. p. 154. But the enemies of Apries may have used the sword against him before he expired. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living — In the Hebrew text it is, wtytj, his terror, that is, I have permitted the king of Egypt to be a vexation and terror to many while he was alive in the world. And he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised — That is, with the basest sort, or those of no distinction. Or, if we read with the Masorites, whom our translators follow, my terror, the meaning of the verse may be, As these kings and nations have been a terror to the world while they were in it, verse 24, &c, so will I be now a terror to them, and especially to Pharaoh and his people, in making them a remarkable example of my vengeance. Observe, reader, the calamitous state of human life! See what a dying world this is! The strong die, the mighty die; Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, the Zidonians, Pharaoh, and all his multitude! But here is likewise an allusion to the final and everlasting death of impenitent sinners. Those that are uncircumcised in heart are slain by the sword of divine justice. Their iniquity is upon them, and they bear their shame for ever!