Ezekiel 30:8

And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:1-19 The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is very full. Those who take their lot with God's enemies, shall be with them in punishment. The king of Babylon and his army shall be instruments of this destruction. God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another. No place in the land of Egypt shall escape the fury of the Chaldeans. The Lord is known by the judgments he executes. Yet these are only present effects of the Divine displeasure, not worthy of our fear, compared with the wrath to come, from which Jesus delivers his people.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal reference note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. in the midst of … countries … desolate—Egypt shall fare no better than they (Eze 29:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They shall know; all that act, and all that suffer, in this tragedy, shall by the evidence of the things be enforced to own God’s hand, and ascribe justice, and truth, and glory to him.

A fire; that war, which like increasing fire consumeth all.

Shall be destroyed; the destruction of so many and powerful aids shall prove that it was God’s hand did it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they shall know that I am the Lord,.... The Egyptians shall know the Lord to be the true God, and acknowledge him to be omniscient and omnipotent, that should so exactly foretell their destruction, and accomplish it:

when I have set a fire in Egypt: a war there; the heat of battle, very devouring and consuming, as well as very grievous and terrible, as fire is. The Targum is,

"when I shall give (or set) people that are strong as fire against Egypt;''

the army of the Chaldeans:

and when all her helpers shall be destroyed; her auxiliaries, the neighbouring nations in alliance with them, before mentioned.

Geneva Study Bible

And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. “Fire” is a frequent figure for war and its desolations, Ezekiel 30:14; Ezekiel 30:16, ch. Ezekiel 15:5, Ezekiel 20:47, Ezekiel 39:6.

Ezekiel 30:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

All the supports and helpers of Egypt will fall, and the whole land with its cities will be laid waste. - Ezekiel 30:6. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Those who support Egypt will fall, and its proud might will sink; from Migdol to Syene will they fall by the sword therein, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 30:7. And they will lie waste in the midst of waste lands, and its cities be in the midst of desolate cities. Ezekiel 30:8. They shall learn that I am Jehovah, when I bring fire into Egypt, and all its helpers are shattered. Ezekiel 30:9. In that day will messengers go forth from me in ships to terrify the confident Ethiopia, and there will be writing among them as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it cometh. - "Those who support Egypt" are not the auxiliary tribes and allies, for they are included in the term עזריה in Ezekiel 30:8, but the idols and princes (Ezekiel 30:13), the fortified cities (Ezekiel 30:15), and the warriors (Ezekiel 30:17), who formed the foundation of the might of the kingdom. גּאון , "the pride of its might," which is an expression applied in Ezekiel 24:21 to the temple at Jerusalem, is to be taken here in a general sense, and understood not merely of the temples and idols of Egypt, but as the sum total of all the things on which the Egyptians rested the might of their kingdom, and on the ground of which they regarded it as indestructible. For 'ממּגדּל וגו, see the comm. on Ezekiel 29:10. The subject to יפּלוּ בהּ is the 'סמכי מצר. Ezekiel 30:7 is almost a literal repetition of Ezekiel 29:12; and the subject to נשׁמּוּ is מצרים regarded as a country, though the number and gender of the verb have both been regulated by the form of the noun. The fire which God will bring into Egypt (Ezekiel 30:8) is the fire of war. Ezekiel 30:9. The tidings of this judgment of God will be carried by messengers to Ethiopia, and there awaken the most terrible dread of a similar fate. In the first hemistich, the prophet has Isaiah 18:2 floating before his mind. The messengers, who carry the tidings thither, are not the warlike forces of Chaldea, who are sent thither by God; for they would not be content with performing the service of messengers alone. We have rather to think of Egyptians, who flee by ship to Ethiopia. The messengers go, מלפני, from before Jehovah, who is regarded as being present in Egypt, while executing judgment there (cf. Isaiah 19:1). צים, as in Numbers 24:24 equals ציּים (Daniel 11:30), ships, trieres, according to the Rabbins, in Hieron. Symm. on Isaiah 33:21, and the Targum on Num. (cf. Ges. Thes. p. 1156). בּטח is attached to כּוּשׁ, Cush secure or confident, equivalent to the confident Cush (Ewald, 287c). 'והיתה חלח, repeated from Ezekiel 30:4. בּהם, among the Ethiopians. 'כּיום מצר, as in the day of Egypt, i.e., not the present day of Egypt's punishment, for the Ethiopians have only just heard of this from the messengers; but the ancient, well-known day of judgment upon Egypt (Exodus 15:12.). Ewald and Hitzig follow the lxx in taking כּיום for בּיום; but this is both incorrect and unsuitable, and reduces 'בּיום מצר into a tame repetition of בּיּום החוּא. The subject to הנּה באה is to be taken from the context, viz., that which is predicted in the preceding verses (Ezekiel 30:6-8).