John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 32

And it came to pass in the twelfth year
Of Jeconiah's captivity, above a year and a half after the taking of Jerusalem; the Syriac version reads in the eleventh year: in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month ;
the month Adar, which answers to part of our February, and part of March; the Septuagint version reads it the tenth month: according to Bishop Usher ^F20 , this was on the twenty second of March, on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday), 3417 A.M.or 587 years before Christ: that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying ;
as follows:

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3417.

Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt , &c.] Pharaohhophra, or Apries; say a funeral dirge for him; this is ordered, not out of honour and respect to him, or in compassion for his misery and ruin, but to assure him of it:

and say unto him, you are like a young lion of the nations ; for strength and fierceness, for cruelty and tyranny, which he exercised, not in one nation only, but in many; a lively emblem of the beast of Rome, spiritually called Egypt and Sodom, compared to a leopard, bear, and lion, (Revelation 11:8) (13:2) :

and you are as a whale in the seas ; or rather "like a crocodile" ^F21 , which was common in the rivers of Egypt, but not the whale; which also has not scales, nor does it go upon land, nor is it taken in a net; all which is said of this creature here, and in (Ezekiel 29:3Ezekiel 29:4) and to the crocodile there is an allusion in the name of Pharaoh, in the Arabic language, as Noldius from Camius observes ^F23 ; see (Ezekiel 29:3) :

and you came forth with your rivers ; or, "by your rivers" ^F24 ; as the crocodile in the river Nile, by the arms of it, or canals made out of it, sometimes went out from there to other parts: or, "out of your rivers" ^F25 upon the land, as the crocodile does; so the king of Egypt went forth with his armies out of his own land, into other countries, to disturb them, as follows: or rather, "came forth in your rivers" ^F26 ; as the crocodile puts forth its head out of the water for respiration:

and you trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers ; just as the feet of men or beasts, in shallow waters, raise up the mud or clay at the bottom, and so foul them; this best agrees with the crocodile, which has feet; Grotius thinks, for this reason, the sea horse is intended; the meaning is, that Pharaoh with his soldiers entered other nations, made war upon them, and disturbed their peace and tranquillity. The Targum is,

``you have been strong among the people, as a whale in the seas, you have fought with your army; and you have moved the people with your auxiliaries, and you have wasted their provinces.''

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: (Myntk) "similis es crocodile", Noldius, Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 375.
• F23: Ibid. No. 1306.
• F24: (Kytwrhnb) "per flumina tua", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus.
• F25: "Ex fluminibus tuis", Starckius.
• F26: "In fluviis tuis", V. L. Piscator; "in fluminibus tuis", Cocceius

Thus says the Lord God The Lord God Almighty, who is able to manage this fierce and turbulent creature, this mighty monarch and disturber of the nations: I will therefore spread out my net over you with a company of many people; meaning the Chaldean army, which the Lord would instigate, and by his providence bring against the king of Egypt, and surround him as fishes in a net, and take him and his people; see (Ezekiel 12:13) (17:20): and they shall bring you up in my net; out of his rivers, out of his fortresses, out of his own land, and carry him captive, or destroy him.

Then will I leave thee upon the land Like a fish that is drawn out of the waters with a net or hook, and laid on dry land, and left gasping and expiring, where it cannot long live.

I will cast thee forth on the open field; the same in different words, signifying that his army should fall in battle by the sword of the Cyreneans, or Chaldeans, or both, and be left on the surface of the earth unburied.

and will cause all the fowls of the heavens to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee; which may be understood either literally of the fowls of the air, that should light upon the slain carcasses, and rest on them till they had satisfied themselves with their flesh; and of the beasts of the field that should gather about them from all parts, and fill themselves with them; see (Revelation 19:17Revelation 19:18) or figuratively of the soldiers of the enemy's army, that should plunder them, and enrich themselves with the spoil.

And I will lay your flesh upon the mountains

The remainder of it, left by the birds and beasts of prey, and who might carry it thither; or it intends such of the Egyptians who should flee to the mountains for safety, but should fall by the hands of the enemy there.

So the Targum, "and I will give the flesh of your slain upon the mountains."

And fill the valleys with your height

his huge army, and with which he prided and lifted up himself, and thought himself safe in; which should fall in such great numbers as to cover the plains and valleys where the battle was fought.

Jarchi observes, that the word for "height" has with some the signification of "worms"; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and the valleys shall be filled with your worms"; bred in the carcasses of the slain: and so the Vulgate Latin version, "with corrupt matter"; such as issues out of putrefied wounds. The Targum very rightly paraphrases it, "the valleys shall be filled with the carcasses of your army."