Ezekiel 30:21

Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) I have broken.—This is in the perfect tense, and refers to the breaking of the power of Egypt by the former conquests of Assyria, and perhaps especially to the great battle of Carchemish (about twenty years before), in which Egypt received a blow from which she never recovered. The word “roller” would be better understood now if translated bandage.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:20-26 Egypt shall grow weaker and weaker. If lesser judgments do not prevail to humble and reform sinners, God will send greater. God justly breaks that power which is abused, either to put wrongs upon people, or to put cheats upon them. Babylon shall grow stronger. In vain do men endeavour to bind up the arm the Lord is pleased to break, and to strengthen those whom he will bring down. Those who disregard the discoveries of his truth and mercy, shall know his power and justice, in the punishment for their sins.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have broken - Especially by the defeat at Carchemish.

A roller - Or, a bandage.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. broken … arm of Pharaoh—(Ps 37:17; Jer 48:25). Referring to the defeat which Pharaoh-hophra sustained from the Chaldeans, when trying to raise the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 37:5, 7); and previous to the deprivation of Pharaoh-necho of all his conquests from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (2Ki 24:7; Jer 46:2); also to the Egyptian disaster in Cyrene.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have often told thee I would break, now I tell thee

I have broken, partly by the victory of the Chaldean over Pharaoh-necho, partly by the victory the Cyreneaus got over Pharaoh-hophra to raise the siege, from which attempt he fell with shame and loss, but more by civil wars.

Pharaoh; Hophra or Apries.

It shall not be bound up to be healed; and this wound is incurable,

it shall never be bound up to be healed, his arm shall never be strong and fit to encounter a potent enemy, as once it was.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt,.... Not Pharaohnecho, king of Egypt, whose army was overthrown at Carchemish by the king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; when the latter took from the former all that belonged to him between the river of Egypt and the river Euphrates; by which he was so weakened and dispirited, that he could not stir any more out of his own land, Jeremiah 46:2 and of him Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; but Pharaohhophra, or Apries, who was defeated by the Cyreneans, and saved himself by flight; See Gill on Ezekiel 29:4,

and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it; a metaphor taken from chirurgeons, who, having set broken bones, put on a bandage or rollers of linen, or such like stuff, to keep them tight; but nothing of this kind should be done; hereby suggesting that Egypt should receive such a blow or wound as would be incurable; see Jeremiah 46:11,

to make it strong to hold the sword; which it should not be able to do, or to make war any more, at least with success, or to defend itself.

Geneva Study Bible

Son of man, {f} I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a bandage to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.

(f) For Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Pharaoh Nebo at Carchemish, Jer 46:26.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. broken the arm] While the Chaldeans were besieging Jerusalem the army of Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) advanced and compelled them to raise the siege, Jeremiah 37:5; cf. Jeremiah 34:21. The Egyptians were repulsed and the siege renewed. It is possible that breaking the arm of Pharaoh refers to this circumstance. At all events the distinction between the two arms, and the threat that both the sound and the fractured one shall be altogether broken, suggest that an actual past occurrence is referred to in the figure of Ezekiel 30:21.

a roller to bind it] i.e. a bandage. For the word cf. Ezekiel 16:4, Job 38:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - I have broken the arm. The metaphor was in itself one of the most familiar (Ezekiel 17:9; Ezekiel 22:6; 1 Samuel 2:31; Jeremiah 48:25). What is characteristic in Ezekiel is the way in which he follows the figure, so to speak, into its surgical details. A man with a broken arm might be cured and fight again; but it was not to be so with Pharaoh. His arm was not to be bound with a roller (the equivalent of the modern process of putting it in "splints"). The Hebrew word for "roller" is not found elsewhere, and Ezekiel's use of it is one of the instances of his knowledge of surgery. The corresponding verb is used by him of the bandages or swaddling-clothes of infancy (Ezekiel 16:4). Ezekiel 30:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Ezekiel 30:21. son of man, the arm of Pharaoh the king of Egypt have I broken; and, behold, it will no more be bound up, to apply remedies, to put on a bandage to bind it up, that it may grow strong to grasp the sword. Ezekiel 30:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deal with Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and will break both his arms, the strong one and the broken one, and will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. Ezekiel 30:23. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them in the lands, Ezekiel 30:24. And will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and give my sword into his hand, and will break the arms of Pharaoh, so that he shall groan the groanings of a pierced one before him. Ezekiel 30:25. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I give my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may stretch it against the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 30:26. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them in the lands; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. - The perfect שׁברתּי in Ezekiel 30:21 is not a prophetic utterance of the certainty of the future, but a pure preterite. This may be seen "both from the allusion in Ezekiel 30:21 to the condition resulting from the shbr שׁבר, and also to the obviously antithetical relation of Ezekiel 30:22, in which future events are predicted" (Hitzig). The arm is a figurative expression for power, here for military power, as it wields the sword. God broke the arm of Pharaoh by the defeat which the Chaldeans inflicted upon Pharaoh Hophra, when he was marching to the relief of besieged Jerusalem. חבּשׁה is a present, as is apparent from the infinitive clauses ('לתת וגו) which follow, altogether apart from הנּה; and חבשׁ signifies to bind up, for the purpose of healing a broken limb, that remedies may be applied and a bandage put on. לחזקהּ, that it may become strong or sound, is subordinate to the preceding clause, and governs the infinitive which follows. The fact that the further judgment which is to fall upon Pharaoh is introduced with לכן (therefore) here (Ezekiel 30:22), notwithstanding the fact that it has not been preceded by any enumeration of the guilt which occasioned it, may be accounted for on the ground that the causal לכן forms a link with the concluding clause of Ezekiel 30:21 : the arm shall not be healed, so as to be able to grasp or hold the sword. Because Pharaoh is not to attain any more to victorious power, therefore God will shatter both of his arms, the strong, i.e., the sound one and the broken one, that is to say, will smite it so completely, that the sword will fall from his hand. The Egyptians are to be scattered among the nations, as is repeated in Ezekiel 30:23 verbatim from Ezekiel 29:12. God will give the sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and equip and strengthen him to destroy the might of Pharaoh, that the latter may groan before him like one who is pierced with the sword. This thought is repeated in Ezekiel 30:25 and Ezekiel 30:26 with an intimation of the purpose of this divine procedure. That purpose it: that men may come to recognise Jehovah as God the Lord. The subject to וידעוּ is indefinite; and the rendering of the lxx is a very good one, καὶ γνώσονται πάντες.