Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 30:13

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 30:13 - 30:13

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 30:13 - 30:13

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Further Description of the Judgment

Eze 30:13. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will exterminate the idols and cut off the deities from Noph, and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt; and I put terror upon the land of Egypt. Eze 30:14. And I lay Pathros waste, and bring fire into Zoan, and execute judgments upon No; Eze 30:15. And I pour out my fury upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of No; Eze 30:16. And I put fire in Egypt; Sin will writhe in pain, and No will be broken open, and Noph - enemies by day. Eze 30:17. The men of On and Bubastus will fall by the sword, and they themselves will go into captivity. Eze 30:18. At Tachpanches the day will be darkened when I shatter the yokes of Egypt there, and an end will be put to its proud haughtiness; cloud will cover it, and its daughters till go into captivity. Eze 30:19. And thus I execute judgments upon Egypt, that they may know that I am Jehovah. - Egypt will lose its idols and its princes (cf. Jer 46:25). גִּלּוּלִים and אֱלִילִים are synonymous, signifying not the images, but the deities; the former being the ordinary epithet applied to false deities by Ezekiel (see the comm. on Eze 6:4), the latter traceable to the reading of Isa 19:1. נֹף, contracted from מְֹנף, Manoph or Menoph = מֹף in Hos 9:6, is Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, with the celebrated temple of Ptah, one of the principal seats of Egyptian idolatry (see the comm. on Hos 9:6 and Isa 19:13). In Eze 30:13 מֵאֶרֶץ מצר' belongs to נָשִׂיא, there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt, i.e., a native prince. נָתַן יִרְאָה, to put fear upon (cf. Eze 26:17). From Lower Egypt Ezekiel passes in Eze 30:14 to Upper Egypt (Pathros, see the comm. on Eze 29:14), which is also to be laid waste, and then names several more of the principal cities of Lower Egypt along with the chief city of Upper Egypt. צֹעַן, Egypt. Zane, Copt. Jane, is the Τανίς, Tanis, of the Greeks and Romans, on the Tanitic arm of the Nile, an ancient city of Lower Egypt; see the comm. on Num 13:22 and Isa 19:11. נֹא = נֹא אָמֹון in Nah 3:8, probably “abode of Amon,” Egypt. P-amen, i.e., house of Amon, the sacred name of Thebes, the celebrated royal city of Upper Egypt, the Διὸς πόλις ἡ μεγάλη of the Greeks (see the comm. on Nah 3:8). סִין (literally, mire; compare the Aram. סְיַן) is Πηλούσιον, Pelusium, which derives its name from πηλός (ὠνόμασται ἀπὸ τοῦ πηλοῦ πηλός, Strab. xvii. p. 802), because there were swamps all round. It was situated on the eastern arm of the Nile, to which it gave its name, at a distance of twenty stadia from the sea. The Egyptian name Pehromi also signifies dirty, or muddy. From this the Arabs have made Elfarama; and in the vicinity of the few ruins of the ancient Pelusium there is still a castle called Arab. t{i=nh, Tineh (compare the Chaldee טִינָא, clay, in Dan 2:41). Ezekiel calls it the “fortress or bulwark of Egypt,” because, as Strabo (l.c.) observes, “Egypt is difficult of access here from places in the East;” for which reason Hirtius (de bell. Al. c. 27) calls it “the key of Egypt,” and Suidas (s.v.) “the key both of the entrance and exit of Egypt.” On the history of this city, see Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia. In הֲמֹון נֹא many of the commentators find a play upon the name of the god אָמֹון (Jer 46:25), the chief deity of Thebes, which is possible, but not very probable, as we should not expect to find a god mentioned again here after Eze 30:13; and הִכְרַתִּי would be inappropriate. - In Eze 30:16 Sin (= Pelusium) is mentioned again as the border fortress, No (= Memphis) as the capital of Upper Egypt, as all falling within the range of the judgment. The expression נֹף צָרֵי יֹומָם has caused some difficulty and given occasion to various conjectures, none of which, however, commend themselves as either simple or natural explanations.

(Note: Ewald proposes to alter צָרֵי into צְדִי (after the Aramaean), “rust,” and renders it: “Memphis will be eternal rust.” But to this Hitzig has very properly objected that in Eze 24:6, Eze 24:11, rust is called חֶלְאָה; and that even in Psa 6:3 יֹומָם does not mean perpetual or eternal. Hävernick proposes to explain צָרִים, from the Aramaean zerâ', to rend or tear in pieces, “Memphis shall become perpetual rents.” To this also it may be objected, that צָרִים in Hebrew has the standing meaning of oppressors; and that יֹומָם, interdiu, is not equivalent to perpetual; and still further, that the preposition לְ could not be omitted before צָרֵי.)

As Hitzig has correctly observed, צָרֵי יֹומָם is the same as שֹׁדֵד בַּצָּֽהֳרַיִם in Jer 15:8, and is the opposite of שֹׁדְדֵי לַיְלָה in Oba 1:5. The enemy who comes by day, not in the night, is the enemy who does not shun open attack. The connection with נֹף is to be explained by the same rule as Jer 24:2, “the one basket - very good figs.” Memphis will have enemies in broad daylight, i.e., will be filled with them. אָוןֶ = אֹון, אֹן, in Gen 41:45, Gen 41:50 (Egyptian An, or Anu), is the popular name of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt (see the comm. on Gen 41:45); and the form אָוןֶ (a vain thing, or idol) is probably selected intentionally in the sense of an idol-city (see the comm. on Hos 4:15), because On-Heliopolis (בֵּית־שֶׁמֶשׁ in Jer 43:13) was from time immemorial one of the principal seats of the Egyptian worship of the sun, and possessed a celebrated temple of the sun, with a numerous and learned priesthood (see the comm. on Gen 41:45, ed. 2). פִּי־בֶסֶת, i.e., βουβαστός (lxx), or βουβαστίν (Herod. ii. 59), Egyptian Pi-Pasht, i.e., the place of Pasht, so called from the cat-headed Bubastis or Pasht, the Egyptian Diana, which was worshipped there in a splendid temple. It was situated on the royal canal leading to Suez, which was begun by Necho and finished under Ptolemy II, not far from its junction with the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. It was the chief seat of the Nomos Bubastites, was destroyed by the Persians, who demolished its walls (Diod. Sic. xvi. 51), and has entirely disappeared, with the exception of some heaps of ruins which still bear the name of Tel Bastah, about seven hours' journey from the Nile (compare Ges. Thes. pp. 1101ff., and Leyrer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia, s.v.). The Nomos of Bubastis, according to Herod. ii. 166, was assigned to the warrior-caste of Calasirians. The בַּחוּרִים, the young military men, will fall by the sword; and הֵנָּה, not αἱ γυναῖκες (lxx and others), but the cities themselves, i.e., their civil population as distinguished from the military garrison, shall go into exile. This explanation of הֵנָּה is commended by בְּנֹותֶיהָ in Eze 30:18. תְּחַפְנְחֵס or תַּחְפַּנְחַס (Jer 43:7., Eze 44:1; Eze 46:14), and תַּחְפְנֵס in Jer 2:16 (Chetib), is Τάφναι, Τάφνη (lxx), or Δάφναι (Herod. ii. 30. 107), a frontier city of Egypt in the vicinity of Pelusium, after the time of Psammetichus a fortification with a strong garrison, where a palace of Pharaoh was also to be found, according to Jer 43:9. After the destruction of Jerusalem, a portion of the Jews took refuge there, and to them Jeremiah predicted the punishment of God on the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 43:7., Eze 44:1.). In the case of השך the reading varies; the printed Masora at Gen 39:3 giving חָשַׂךְ as the reading to be found in all the codices examined by the author of the Masora; whereas many of the codices and printed editions have חָשַׁךְ, and this is adopted in all the ancient versions. This is evidently the correct reading, as חשׂךְ does not furnish an appropriate meaning, and the parallel passages, Eze 32:8; Isa 13:10; Joe 3:4; Amo 8:9, all favour חשׁךְ. The darkening of the day is the phenomenal prognostic of the dawning of the great day of judgment upon the nations (cf. Joe 2:10; Joe 3:4, Joe 3:15; Isa 13:10, etc.). This day is to dawn upon Egypt at Tachpanches, the border fortress of the land towards Syria and Palestine, when the Lord will break the yokes of Egypt. These words point back to Lev 26:13, where the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt is called the breaking in pieces of its yokes (see also Eze 34:27). That which took place then is to be repeated here. The yokes which Egypt put upon the nations are to be broken; and all the proud might of that kingdom is to be brought to an end (גְּאֹון עֻזָּהּ, as in Eze 30:6). In Eze 30:18, הִיא, which stands at the head in an absolute form, points back to בִּתְּחַפְנְחֵס. The city (Daphne) will be covered with cloud, i.e., will be overthrown by the judgment; and her daughters, i.e., the smaller cities and hamlets dependent upon her (cf. Eze 16:46 and Eze 26:6), will go into captivity in the persons of their inhabitants. It follows from this that Daphne was the chief city of a Nomos in Lower Egypt; and this is confirmed by the circumstance that there was a royal palace there. If we compare the threat in this verse, that in Tachpanches an end is to be put to the proud might of Pharaoh, with the threatening words of Jer 43:9., to the effect that Nebuchadnezzar would set up his throne at Tachpanches and smite Egypt, it is evident that the situation of Daphne must at that time have been such that the war between Egypt and Babylonia would necessarily be decided in or near this city. These prophetic utterances cannot be explained, as Kliefoth supposes, from the fact that many Jews had settled in Daphne; nor do the contents of this verse furnish any proof that Ezekiel did not utter this prophecy of his till after the Jews had settled there (Jer 43:1-13 and 44). Eze 30:19 serves to round off the prophecy.