Ezekiel 29:17 - Meaning and Application

The date of this prophecy matters. It came in the twenty-seventh year of Ezekiel’s captivity, sixteen years after the earlier prophecy in this chapter, and nearly as long before the prophecies that follow in the next chapters. It is placed here to explain all that was said against Egypt. After Jerusalem was destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar spent two or three campaigns conquering the Ammonites and Moabites, and then thirteen years besieging Tyre.

During all that time, the Egyptians were fighting the Cyrenians and fighting among themselves. That weakened and drained them badly. Then, at the end of the siege of Tyre, God gave Ezekiel this prophecy. It showed that the full destruction of Egypt, which had been foretold fifteen or sixteen years earlier, would now be completed by Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy seems to continue through the twentieth verse of the next chapter. Dr. Lightfoot notes that it is likely Ezekiel’s last prophecy, though it appears here so all the prophecies against Egypt stand together.

The specific destruction of Pharaoh Hophrah, the Egyptian king, had already been foretold (Jeremiah 44:30). The wider devastation of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar had also been foretold (Jeremiah 43:10). Here we see what success God would give Nebuchadnezzar against Egypt. God gave him that land so he could take its spoil and plunder it (Ezekiel 29:19, Ezekiel 29:20). It would be an easy conquest, with little bloodshed and little cost. Yet it would also be a rich one, and he would carry away much of value.

Their civil divisions surely made them easier to conquer. When people spend their strength on fighting one another, a common enemy soon makes a prey of them all. What misery civil strife brings. Jeremiah had said Nebuchadnezzar would wrap the land of Egypt around himself like a shepherd puts on his coat, which shows how rich and easy that plunder would be.

God also had a reason for giving Nebuchadnezzar this victory. It would be his reward for the hard service he had done against Tyre (Ezekiel 29:18, Ezekiel 29:20). The siege of Tyre was long and costly. It lasted thirteen years, and the Chaldean army labored hard the whole time to gain control of it. They filled in part of the sea between Tyre and the mainland, and they faced many other obstacles that seemed impossible to overcome. A great prince, once he has started such a task, often feels bound by honor to finish it, whatever it costs. Many thousands of lives have been wasted for such ideas of honor.

In that siege, every head was made bald and every shoulder rubbed raw from carrying loads and working in the water. They had to fight both a strong tide and a strong city. Egypt, a large kingdom, was divided within itself, so it was easy to conquer. Tyre, a single city, was united, so it was hard to subdue. In the affairs of this world, some things move forward much more easily than others.

Yet even in that hard service, God said they were working for him (Ezekiel 29:20). He set them to that work to humble a proud city and its king, even though they did not mean to serve him. This shows that God uses even great and wicked men as tools. They are serving his purpose even while they chase their own greedy and ambitious plans. He rules over all things in a way that brings glory to himself.

Still, Nebuchadnezzar received no pay for the siege of Tyre. He spent heavily to take it, and when he finally got it, he was disappointed. Tyre sent its best goods away by ship, and threw the rest into the sea, so the conquerors found only bare walls. That is often what happens to the children of this world. Their highest hopes from the world are usually disappointed.

So God gave him the spoil of Egypt to make up for his service against Tyre. God never leaves anyone unpaid for any service done for him. In one way or another, he repays it. No one lights a fire on his altar for nothing. But the service done by worldly people with worldly aims is repaid with only a worldly reward. Faithful servants, who truly care about God’s will and glory, would not be satisfied with that.

This helps explain why wicked people often prosper in this life. God is paying them for some service in which he has used them. They truly have their reward. No one should envy it. The conquest of Egypt is spoken of as Nebuchadnezzar’s full reward, because it completed his rule over the known world in a broad sense. Egypt was the last kingdom he subdued, and when he became master of it, he stood as the head of gold.

There is also mercy here for the house of Israel, and it would come soon after. When the tide is highest, it begins to turn, and so it is when it is lowest. Nebuchadnezzar was at the height of his glory when he conquered Egypt, but within a year he went mad (Song 4), remained so for seven years, and within a year or two after his recovery he died. At the very time when he was highest, Israel was at the lowest, deep in captivity, like bones that were dead and dry. But then “the horn of the house of Israel shall bud forth” (Ezekiel 29:21).

Their deliverance would begin to dawn, and they would get some small relief in captivity through the honor given to their princes, the horns of the house of Israel, meaning the seat of their strength and dignity. This began to bud forth when Daniel and his friends were given high rank in Babylon. Daniel sat at the gate of the city, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were set over the province’s affairs (Daniel 2:49). They were all from the king’s family and among the princes (Daniel 1:3). This happened within a year after Egypt was conquered. Soon after, three of them were made even more famous by the honor God gave them in bringing them safely out of the burning furnace. That could truly be called the budding forth of the horn of the house of Israel. Some years later, the promise was further fulfilled when Jehoiachin, king of Judah, was released and lifted up again (Jeremiah 52:31, Jeremiah 52:32). Both were signs of God’s favor toward Israel, and both were happy omens.

God would also show mercy to their prophets, for he says, “I will give thee the opening of the mouth.”

Though none of Ezekiel’s later prophecies are recorded after this, we have good reason to think he kept on prophesying. He likely did so with more freedom and courage when Daniel and his companions were in power, since they would be ready to protect him, not only from the Babylonians, but also from the wicked people of his own nation.

This is a good sign for any people when God gives his ministers more freedom, and when those ministers are supported and encouraged in their work.