John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 32:2

"Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations: yet art thou as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers." — Ezekiel 32:2 (ASV)

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.''

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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