←Ezekiel 29→BSB

• The climactic seventh oracle against the nations is against Egypt, Israel’s old enemy and ally. This is the longest of the oracles, and like the oracle against Tyre it addresses both the land of Egypt and its ruler.
• Egypt played a central role through the centuries in tempting Israel and Judah away from their allegiance to the Lord. Israel had no sooner departed from Egypt than Egypt’s idolatry became a snare for them. Egypt caused Judah to trust in chariots and horses instead of in the Lord, but Egypt proved unreliable when the moment of truth arrived. The Lord judged Egypt for tempting his people (cp. Luke 17:1–2).

The opening section of the oracle is a word of judgment against Pharaoh, who is addressed as a great sea monster. These creatures were a familiar part of ancient Near Eastern mythology as a manifestation of chaos that had to be tamed by the gods. Strikingly, these same sea monsters appear in demythologized form as part of God’s good creation (Gen 1:21). In this chapter, however, the mythical image blends with the image of Pharaoh as a great crocodile, resting comfortably in the streams that laced the delta of the Nile.

The picture of the mighty crocodile anticipates the arrival of the Lord as a great hunter. As with Tyre, a watery fortress would once again prove vulnerable to assault. The outwardly fearsome king of Egypt would be captured like any ordinary crocodile and brought out into the wilderness, the place of judgment, along with his allies, the fish. There he would die, and his body would be left dishonorably exposed for the wild animals and birds to eat.

Egypt’s sin is once again associated with Israel. Egypt was a staff made of reeds that repeatedly pretended to support Israel, while lacking the will and the substance to deliver the promised aid. Egypt constantly incited rebellion in Israel against Assyria and Babylonia without ever really providing help (cp. 2 Kgs 18:21). Although trusting in this cracked staff was Israel’s sin, Egypt was also guilty and would face God’s wrath for raising false hopes.

God’s solution was to devastate the land of Egypt, making it into a desolate wasteland. The threatened destruction would stretch from Migdol in the northeast down to Aswan in the south, leaving the whole of Egypt uninhabited for an entire generation of forty years (cp. 4:6). Egypt’s fate would be like Judah’s, as God would first scatter the Egyptians to distant lands and then bring the Egyptians home. The Babylonians seem to have invaded Egypt successfully in 568 or 567 BC and carried off Egyptian prisoners of war who remained in exile until the time of Cyrus, a generation later.

Judah would ultimately be fully restored, but Egypt would remain an unimportant … kingdom. Israel would never again be tempted to call on Egypt for help instead of calling on the Lord. Egypt’s restored but reduced position would make it a constant reminder of Israel’s past folly in trusting it.

This message, delivered in the twenty-seventh year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, has the latest recorded date of any of Ezekiel’s messages, later even than his vision of the Temple in chs 40–48.

Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Tyre (chs 26–28) had required a great deal of effort on the Babylonians’ part for very little return in plunder. But the Lord considers his workers worthy of their hire, so to compensate them for all their work, he would reward them with the land of Egypt.