Ezekiel · chapter 29 of 48
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Ezekiel 29 opens the oracles against Egypt. The Lord calls Pharaoh a great monster who says the Nile is his own, will hook him like a fish and leave Egypt desolate for forty years. Egypt was a fragile reed to Israel, and afterward it will be a lowly kingdom. A later oracle declares that Nebuchadnezzar will receive Egypt as wages for his campaign against Tyre.
Egypt was the great power to the south, which Judah often turned to for help against Babylon, with disappointing results. Chapters 29 to 32 gather seven oracles against Egypt, dated from the tenth year of Jehoiachin's exile to the twelfth. The first portrays Pharaoh as a monster of the Nile, an image of a power that believes its strength is its own.
In the tenth year, the tenth month, on the twelfth day, the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy against Pharaoh and all Egypt. Pharaoh is like a great monster lying in the midst of his streams, saying that the Nile is his and that he made it himself. The Lord will put hooks in his jaws and drag him out of the river with the fish sticking to his scales, and throw him into the wilderness for no one to gather, food for beasts and birds.
Egypt will know that he is the Lord, because it was a staff of reed to the house of Israel: when Israel leaned on it, it splintered, cut their hands and made their backs shake. So the Lord will bring a sword on Egypt, and the land will be desolate from Migdol to Syene, up to the border of Cush. It will lie empty for forty years, with the Egyptians scattered among the nations, and afterward they will be gathered, but as a lowly kingdom, the lowliest of kingdoms, never again to rule over others.
The last oracle is dated to the twenty-seventh year, the first month, the first day, the latest date in the whole book. Nebuchadnezzar made his army labor hard against Tyre, yet received no wages for it. So the Lord gives him Egypt as pay for his army. The chapter closes with the promise to make a horn sprout for the house of Israel and to open Ezekiel's mouth among them.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord declares himself against Pharaoh, the great monster who says the Nile is his and that he made it. Pharaoh's sin is crediting himself with what God has given, the same pride seen in the prince of Tyre.
Egypt was a fragile reed for the house of Israel: when they leaned on it, it broke and cut their hand. The passage recalls a people who trusted a human alliance instead of trusting the Lord.
After the punishment Egypt will return, but as a lowly kingdom, the lowest among the kingdoms, no longer ruling other nations. God does not only bring down the proud; he also assigns them a new place under his authority.
On that day the Lord will make a horn sprout for the house of Israel and open Ezekiel's mouth among them. A horn is a sign of strength, and the verse leaves a note of hope in the middle of the oracles of judgment.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: A great monster lying in the midst of his streams. — Ezekiel 29:3
Answer: That it is his and that he made it himself. — Ezekiel 29:3
Answer: A staff of reed that broke when they leaned on it. — Ezekiel 29:6-7
Answer: Forty years. — Ezekiel 29:11-12
Answer: A lowly kingdom, the lowliest of kingdoms. — Ezekiel 29:14-15
Answer: The land of Egypt, with its wealth. — Ezekiel 29:19-20
Egypt was a reed for Judah to lean on, and it ended up wounding them. We all have our reeds: a job, a relationship, a savings plan, a charismatic leader. They are not bad in themselves, but they become dangerous when they take the place of trust in God. In a small group you can talk about what we lean on more than we should.
The chapter also shows that God is patient and brings his work to completion: the same Egypt that was judged will have a place, though a lowly one. God's promises to his people are not canceled by the fall of the powerful.
Ezekiel 29 opens the block of seven oracles against Egypt with the image of the Nile monster and leaves a note of hope. Chapter 30 announces the day of the Lord for Egypt and its allies.
The oracle of verses 17 to 21 is dated to the twenty-seventh year, around 571 BC, about sixteen years after the first. It was placed here because it concerns Egypt and completes the theme of Nebuchadnezzar and Tyre. It is the latest date in the whole book, and prophetic books often group material by theme rather than by chronology.
It is probably a symbolic number for a period of punishment, like Israel's forty years in the wilderness, rather than a figure to be measured exactly. It marks a time of humbling with an end set by God, after which Egypt will be restored, though in a lower place.