John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 30:13

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt." — Ezekiel 30:13 (ASV)

Thus says the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols With which Egypt abounded, making an idol of all sorts of creatures, rational and irrational, animate and inanimate, and in which they trusted; therefore, these being destroyed, they had nothing to put their confidence in: I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; called Moph, (Hosea 9:6) and which we there rightly render Memphis, as many versions do here, and was very famous for idolatry: here stood the temple of Serapis, and the temple of other idols; here Isis and Osiris were worshipped; and it was in Jerom's time, as he says, the metropolis of the Egyptian superstition.

It was built by Menes^F19, the Mizraim of the Scriptures, the first king of Egypt; though Diodorus Siculus^F20 makes Uchoreus to be the founder of it. Some interpreters take this city to be the same with what is now called Alkair, or Grand Cairo; or, however, that this is built upon the same spot, or near the same place that was, in which I followed them on (Isaiah 19:13) (Jeremiah 2:16). Whereas Cairo stands right over against old Memphis, the Nile being between them, on the east side of it, and Memphis on the west; as is clear from Herodotus^F21, and from the charts of Dr. Shaw and Mr. Norden. They observe that some take the place of it to have been where a village now stands, which Dr. Shaw calls Geza, and Mr. Norden Gize:

and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt; that is, a native of that country, or one who would rule over the whole of it with the grandeur the kings of Egypt had before. Or, however, one who would not dwell in Memphis, which was the seat of the kings of Egypt, but now would be so no more: when Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, it was under the Babylonians; and then under the Persians; and then under the Greeks; and afterwards under the Romans; since under the Saracens and Mamluks, and now in the hands of the Turks. Therefore, it never recovered its former glory; indeed, after Nectanebus was driven out of it by Ochus, king of Persia, it never again had a king:

and I will put a fear in all the land of Egypt; a panic in all its inhabitants. As soon as they hear of the king of Babylon entering it, their courage, bravery, and fortitude will at once leave them. They will be dispirited and have no heart to defend themselves and oppose the enemy.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F19: Herodot, Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 99.
• F20: Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 46.
• F21: Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 99.