Ezek. 29 The judgment upon Pharaoh for his treachery to Israel, Ezek. 29:1–7. The desolation of Egypt, and restoration of it after forty years, Ezek. 29:8–16. Egypt the reward of Nebuchadrezzar’s service against Tyre, Ezek. 29:17–20. Israel shall flourish again, Ezek. 29:21.

The tenth year of Jeconiah’s captivity. The tenth month, which answers to part of our December and part of January.

Set thy face: see Ezek. 20:46, Ezek. 21:2. Pharaoh; Hophra, as the Scripture styles him, Jer. 44:30; the Greek authors call him Apries, and Vaphres: most like he was grandson to Necho, who slew Josiah in fight, 2 Chron. 35:23–24.

Thus saith the Lord God; that God that drowned one of thy predecessors with his army, horsemen, and horses in the Red Sea, at whose name thou shouldst tremble, who ever fulfilled his word, and is the same, it is he foretells thee by my mouth what is to be. I am against thee: see Ezek. 28:22.

Thou art secure against all, but God will draw thee out of thy river to thy ruin. Hooks; the allegory is continued; fish are drawn out with hooks and lines, and God hath hooks for this proud dragon, first Areasis, and next the Babylonian king.

When thus brought out, as a fish out of the water, I will leave thee. God left this king. The wilderness; the deserts of Libya and Cyrene. All the fish; the whole army of Egyptians. Thou shalt fall upon the open fields; there was this king and his army ruined.

This mighty overthrow shall be known through all Egypt, and as it shall fill them with fears and troubles, so it should be a convincing argument to them that God had done this, and punished them, and their proud king, who used to say, as Herodotus reports, that God could not turn him out of his…

When they, the Jews, unable to stand on their own legs, as men ready to fall, took hold of thee by thy hand; caught thine hand to lean on, as when besieged by the Chaldeans. Thou didst break: it includes a designed and voluntary failure; Egypt would not support.

Therefore, for thy atheistical pride, and thy perfidious mischief to the house of Israel, and other thy sins, I will bring a sword upon thee; war, and the effects of it.

The land of Egypt; that part here intended, say some, and in the 10th verse, bounded from Syene to the borders of Ethiopia; nor is this inconsistent with that Ezek.

I am against thee: see Ezek. 28:22. Thy rivers: see Ezek. 29:4. Waste: see Ezek. 29:9. The tower; thus, as a common name, we, and the French, and others read it; but some account it a proper name of a town or city, called Magdalum, for aught I know the old Migdol, Ex. 14:2, Num.

No foot of man; not strictly to be taken, but in an accommodated sense, or comparatively to what once was, or so little traffic and passing to and fro, that no footsteps or tracks of men were found. It is a Scripture hyperbole, as Luke 19:44, Isa. 14:31, Ezek. 26:14, Ezek. 26:21.

This verse is a further repeated confirmation of what was said before, and needs no new explication, every thing in it being already spoken to in the former verses.

Forty years: see Ezek. 29:11. Gather, by some eminent acts of Providence toward them, perhaps inclining the generous mind of Cyrus to favour them, and proclaim liberty to them, and under the government of old Areasis, that reigned fifty-five years, saith Diodorus, some ten or twelve of which might…

The captivity; which Nebuchadnezzar led away into Babylon. The land of Pathros; one province or country of Egypt; it was a southern part of Egypt. in which was the famous city Thebae or Thebais, known for its hundred gates.

The basest; the most abject, debased, and most underling. It is likely the kings to whom Egypt was tributary kept them lowest, as knowing how dangerous that kingdom might be, as it recovered its ancient greatness; and the word seems to intimate this, for it is more than the kingdoms it shall be…

The confidence: on every occasion the Jews were wont, against express prohibition, to renew friendship with Egypt, and make leagues for defence by them, and here they sinfully rested, as Isa. 30:2, Isa. 31:1, Isa. 36:6, Isa. 36:9, Ezek. 29:7.

The seven and twentieth year of Jeconiah’s captivity, the year after the conquest of Tyre, and the thirty-fifth of Nebuchadnezzar. The first month; part of our March and April.

His army: the army, the inferior officers, and principal commanders, it is like, were weary of the siege, and might advise the raising it; but the authority, presence, and immovable resolution of the king kept them on still, and made them hold out.

I will give the land of Egypt: yet it is certain that the discontents of Egypt gave occasion, and the revolts of some of the subjects from Hophra, or Apries, and their inviting Nebuchadnezzar, gave him Egypt; but these were the irregularities of men, which God did wisely and justly manage to effect…

I have given him; it is as sure as in his possession; thought he must fight for it, and it will cost blood, yet he shall surely have success. Against it; Tyre.

In that day; about that time, when Egypt was spoiled, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon, his wars first, and soon after his life, ended, about four or five years after his return out of Egypt into Babylon; for about the thirty-seventh or thirty-eighth of his reign he finished his conquest of…