Ezekiel 30:1 - Meaning and Application

The prophecy of Egypt’s destruction is here very full and specific, and it is deeply alarming. What can protect a people who keep provoking God when the righteous God comes to contend with them?

First, this will be a very sad destruction, one that brings great grief. God says, “Howl,” because the day of judgment is coming, and they will end up crying out in terror. It is near, and it is “the day of the Lord,” the day when he shows himself as a God who judges sin. They have had their day, when they seemed to rule over everything and everyone, but soon God will have his day, the day when his righteous judgment is revealed (Psalm 37:13).

It will be a cloudy day, dark and grim, with no comfort shining through. It will also threaten a storm of fire, burning sulfur, and a terrible tempest. It will be the time when God settles accounts with the nations for their heathen ways. This is the time David spoke of, when God would pour out his wrath on the nations (Psalm 79:6), and they would sink under it (Psalm 9:15).

Second, this destruction will fall on Egypt itself and on all the countries allied with her or living near her. Egypt will fall under the sword of the Chaldeans, that is, the Babylonians, and it will be a victorious sword, because many will fall by it and before it. If the land is crowded with people, her great numbers will be taken away. If it seems strong and firmly built, her foundations will be torn up, and then the whole structure will collapse.

Her neighbors and those living among her will fall with her. When so many are slain in Egypt, there will be great pain in Ethiopia, both the land in Africa near Egypt and the land in Asia near it on the other side. When a neighbor’s house is on fire, others cannot help fearing for their own, and here that fear is justified, because they too will fall by the sword (Ezekiel 30:5). Ethiopia and Libya, the descendants of Ham, and Lydia, known for their archers and allied with Egypt, along with Chub, that is, the Chaldeans in inner Libya, will fall with her. These were the mixed peoples, those from many nations who lived in Egypt. Even the people of the land in league with God, meaning some of the remaining people of Israel and Judah, will also fall with them. They had settled in Egypt against God’s command, and they will share Egypt’s ruin. Those who choose the company of God’s enemies will also share their fate, even if they are called the people of the covenant (Acts 3:25) or the children of promise (Galatians 4:28).

Third, everyone who seems to support Egypt’s fading power will fall with her. Their helpers will go down under her, and then Egypt must fall. This shows God’s justice. Egypt had once pretended to support Jerusalem when Jerusalem was weakening, but she was only a broken reed. Now the ones who pretend to support Egypt will prove just as false. Deceivers are often paid back in their own coin, and they themselves are deceived.

Does Egypt think she is held up by the absolute power of her king? That proud power will come down (Ezekiel 30:6). The king’s power was his pride, but God will break and humble it. Is her large population her support? They will fall by the sword, even from the tower of Syene, the farthest corner of the land, where the enemy will enter. The countryside and the cities, the farmers and the merchants, will all be ruined (Ezekiel 30:7), as had already been said before (Ezekiel 29:12). Egypt’s great numbers will be cut off (Ezekiel 30:10). That crowded land will be emptied, and it will be filled with the slain (Ezekiel 30:11).

Is the Nile her support, and are its many channels her defense? God says, “I will make the rivers dry up” (Ezekiel 30:12). The natural defenses people thought could not be crossed will be useless. Are her idols her support? They will be destroyed, and these supposed helpers will prove themselves powerless. Images are only images when they claim to save or protect (Ezekiel 30:13). God will make the idols disappear from Noph. Is her royal family her support? There will no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt. The royal line will be cut off after lasting so long.

Is her courage her support, her brave soldiers and their military strength? That too will fail, because God says, “I will put fear in the land of Egypt.” Is the rising generation her support, her children and future hopes? Then that hope will be cut down as well. The young men will fall by the sword (Ezekiel 30:17), and the daughters will go into captivity (Ezekiel 30:18). She will be stripped of all she counted on for the future.

Fourth, God himself will bring these ruinous judgments on Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord, greater than all gods, when I set a fire in Egypt (Ezekiel 30:8). The fire that consumes nations comes from God’s hand. When he sets a people on fire with judgment, all their helpers are destroyed too. Those who try to put out the fire will be burned by it, because who can stand before him when he is angry? When he pours out his fury on a place and sets it on fire (Ezekiel 30:15, Ezekiel 30:16), neither strength nor numbers will help.

Fifth, the king of Babylon and his army will be the tools God uses to carry out this destruction. Egypt’s many people will be cut off by the hand of the king of Babylon (Ezekiel 30:10). Those who once tried to protect Israel from Babylon will not be able to protect themselves. The Chaldeans who destroy Egypt are described in three ways. They are strangers (Ezekiel 30:12), so they will show no special kindness out of old friendship. They are the most terrifying of the nations (Ezekiel 30:11), both because of their strength and because of their cruelty, and they will do terrible damage. They are also wicked, not ruled by reason, conscience, or the laws of right among nations. God says, “I will sell the land into the hand of the wicked.”

They act unjustly, because they are wicked. Yet when they are used as tools in God’s hand to carry out his judgment, his part is still just. God often makes one wicked person a punishment for another. Even wicked people can gain a right to plunder in war, as if by the laws of war, because God has given the spoil into their hands.

No part of Egypt will be safe from the attack of the Chaldean army, not the strongest places and not the farthest away. The sword will move through the whole land. Several places are named here, Pathros, Zoan, and No (Ezekiel 30:14), Sin and Noph (Ezekiel 30:15, Ezekiel 30:16), Aven and Pi-beseth (Ezekiel 30:17), and Tehaphnehes (Ezekiel 30:18). These cities will be made empty, set on fire, and brought under God’s judgment as his fury is poured out on them.

Their power and numbers will be cut down. They will suffer great pain, be torn apart by fear, and live in constant trouble. Their day will grow dark, meaning their honor, comfort, and hope will be taken away. Their yokes will be broken, so they will no longer oppress and rule harshly as they have done. The pride of their strength will end, and a cloud will cover them, so thick that they will see no hope through it, and their glory will no longer be seen or shine.

The Ethiopians, who live at a distance from them, as well as those who are mixed in among them, will also share in their pain and fear. God will use his providence to spread the news, and the careless Ethiopians will be made afraid (Ezekiel 30:9). God can strike fear into people who feel safest, and terror can surprise even the most proud and self-confident hypocrites when he chooses.

This prophecy ends with two results. First, Egypt will be humbled: “Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt” (Ezekiel 30:19). Egypt’s destruction is called the carrying out of judgments, which means it is not only deserved because of its sins, but also carried out in an orderly and legal way, like a judge’s sentence. Everything God does in judgment is according to his righteous decisions.

Second, the God of Israel will be glorified by it: “They shall know that I am the Lord.” The Egyptians will be made to know this, and God’s people will know it more clearly too. The Lord is known by the judgments he carries out.