Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 29:3

"speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, that hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself." — Ezekiel 29:3 (ASV)

The great dragon. This word is usually translated dragon in the English version, but sometimes whale (Ezekiel 32:2), and (in a slightly modified form) serpent (Exodus 7:9–10; Exodus 7:12). It unquestionably means crocodile, the characteristic animal of Egypt—in some parts hated and destroyed, in others worshipped as a deity, but in all parts alike feared, and regarded as the most powerful and destructive creature of their country.

Lieth in the midst of his rivers. Egypt, a creation of the Nile and dependent entirely upon it for its productiveness, is personified by the crocodile, its characteristic animal, basking upon the sandbanks of its waters. The expression his rivers, used in reference to the branches of the Nile near its mouth, is peculiarly appropriate to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, to which Pharaoh-Hophra belonged, whose capital was Sais, in the midst of the Delta.

My river is mine own. This is characteristic of the pride of Hophra, who, according to Herodotus, was accustomed to say that “not even a god could dispossess him of power.” The whole dynasty to which he belonged, beginning with Psammeticus, improved the river and encouraged commerce with foreign nations, thereby acquiring great wealth.