Ezekiel 32:19

Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) With the uncircumcised.—See Note on Ezekiel 28:10. All question as to the use of circumcision among the Egyptians is out of place; the word is simply used as the ordinary phrase for the heathen.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 32:19-20. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? — What reason hast thou to prefer thyself before others? Art thou better than they, that thou shouldest not die and be laid in the dust as well as they? Go down — Namely, to the regions of the dead; and be laid with the uncircumcised — Among profane and loathed carcasses, such as the bodies of the uncircumcised were in the opinion of the circumcised: see notes on Ezekiel 28:8-10; Ezekiel 31:18. The circumcised, in Scripture, being put for those for whom God had a peculiar regard, and this being one of the distinguishing characteristics of his peculiar people, therefore the term uncircumcised seems to be used for those whom God had rejected, that is, for the wicked and profane. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword — Thy people shall not die the common death of all men, but shall be cut off by an extraordinary judgment from the hand of God himself: they shall be slain by the sword. Draw her and all her multitude — Carry her and her people away to the grave, like so many carcasses, which are buried without any solemnity. The words seem to be spoken to the Babylonians, the executioners of God’s judgments upon Egypt.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:17-32 Divers nations are mentioned as gone down to the grave before Egypt, who are ready to give her a scornful reception; these nations had been lately ruined and wasted. But though Judah and Jerusalem were about this time ruined and laid waste, yet they are not mentioned here. Though they suffered the same affliction, and by the same hand, yet the kind design for which they were afflicted, and the mercy God reserved for them, altered its nature. It was not to them a going down to the pit, as it was to the heathen. Pharaoh shall see, and be comforted; but the comfort wicked ones have after death, is poor comfort, not real, but only in fancy. The view this prophecy gives of ruined states shows something of this present world, and the empire of death in it. Come and see the calamitous state of human life. As if men did not die fast enough, they are ingenious at finding out ways to destroy one another. Also of the other world; though the destruction of nations as such, seems chiefly intended, here is plain allusion to the everlasting ruin of impenitent sinners. How are men deceived by Satan! What are the objects they pursue through scenes of bloodshed, and their many sins? Surely man disquiets himself in vain, whether he pursues wealth, fame, power, or pleasure. The hour cometh, when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of Christ, and shall come forth; those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

whom dost thou pass in beauty? - Thou art not more beautiful than other nations: thou shalt not escape their fate.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?—Beautiful as thou art, thou art not more so than other nations, which nevertheless have perished.

go down, &c.—to the nether world, where all "beauty" is speedily marred.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The whole, from this verse, is a most elegant personating of the dead, as if sensible, and acquainted, and discoursing with, and rejoicing at the fall of proud tyrants, who took not warning by their fall. Such a prosopopoeia you have Isaiah 14. In this chapter the actors are the prophet, the king of Egypt and his people, and their auxiliaries.

Whom dost thou pass in beauty? the prophet begins with this question dialogue-wise, Art thou better than others, that thou shouldst not die and be laid in dust, as well as all others? speak, Hophra, if thou hast any privilege to plead, what hast thou to say why thou shouldst not go down to the pit as a despised mortal?

Go down: the prophet, hearing no plea of privilege, adjudgeth him to the grave, or lays him own with somewhat a sarcasm, Go down like others.

Be thou laid; take up thy lodging, thy long, dark, and dismal recess, where thy dust and bones shall never be known by any royal figure.

With the uncircumcised; among profane and loathed carcasses; such the uncircumcised were in the opinion of the circumcised, and Herodotus in Euterpe saith the Egyptians were circumcised. However, in Scripture, a burial with the uncircumcised is a note of dishonour and contempt; thus for the king and princes.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Whom dost thou pass in beauty?.... This question the prophet is bid to put to Egypt; what nation is there, or has been, that thou excellest in wisdom, in riches, or in strength, in the multitude of subjects, or extent of dominions, that thou thinkest thyself secure from destruction? look over other kingdoms and states mightier than thou, or at least equal to thee, and see how they are brought to ruin, and expect that this will quickly be thy case:

go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised; go down to the grave, and take thy place, and lie there among the wicked and most profligate of mankind, and such as might be most despised by the Egyptians, since they used circumcision. The Targum is,

"go down and sleep with sinners.''

Geneva Study Bible

Whom dost thou pass {l} in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

(l) Have not other kingdoms more beautiful than you perished?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. Whom … pass in beauty] i.e. surpass; Ew., pass in fortune. Probably the meaning is very much, To whom art (wast) thou superior? The multitude of Egypt or the Pharaoh as the genius of the nation is addressed, hardly his dead body (Sm.).

go down] i.e. to the grave, or pit. “Uncircumcised” has in all the passage the sense of dishonoured, profaned in death, and differs little from slain with the sword, Ezekiel 32:21; Ezekiel 32:24. The pass. imper. “be thou laid” is very rare, Jeremiah 49:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Whom dost thou pass in beauty? The lamentation, as might be expected from Ezekiel's standpoint, is an illustration of irony and triumph rather than of sorrow. The question implies a negative answer. Glorious as Egypt had been, other nations had equaled her. They had passed away, and so should she. With the uncircumcised. The words, as in Ezekiel 31:18, suggest the thought that Israel, so far as it was faithful to its calling, circumcised in heart as well as flesh (Jeremiah 9:26), had a higher and happier dwelling in Hades than the uncircumcised heathen. As the Egyptians practiced circumcision, the language of the prophet had a special significance. Their place in Hades was among the heathen to whom that hereto was unknown. Ezekiel 32:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Introduction and first strophe. - Ezekiel 32:18. Son of man, lament over the tumult of Egypt, and hurl it down, her, like the daughters of glorious nations, into the nether world, to those who go into the pit! Ezekiel 32:19. Whom dost thou surpass in loveliness? Go down and lay thyself with the uncircumcised. Ezekiel 32:20. Among those slain with the sword will they fall; the sword is handed, draw her down and all her tumult. Ezekiel 32:21. The strong ones of the heroes say of it out of the midst of hell with its helpers: they are gone down, they lie there, the uncircumcised, slain with the sword. - נהה, utter a lamentation, and והורדהוּ, thrust it (the tumult of Egypt) down, are co-ordinate. With the lamentation, or by means thereof, is Ezekiel to thrust down the tumult of Egypt into hell. The lamentation is God's word; and as such it has the power to accomplish what it utters. אותהּ is not intended as a repetition of the suffix ־הוּ, but resumes the principal idea contained in the object already named, viz., מצרים, Egypt, i.e., its population. אותהּ and the daughters of glorious nations are co-ordinate. בּנות, as in the expression, daughter of Tyre, daughter Babel, denotes the population of powerful heathen nations. The גּוים אדּרם can only be the nations enumerated in Ezekiel 32:22, Ezekiel 32:24., which, according to these verses, are already in Sheol, not about to be thrust down, but thrust down already. Consequently the copula ו before בּנות is to be taken in the sense of a comparison, as in 1 Samuel 12:15 (cf. Ewald, 340b). All these glorious nations have also been hurled down by the word of God; and Egypt is to be associated with them. By thus placing Egypt on a level with all the fallen nations, the enumeration of which fills the middle strophes of the ode, the lamentation over Egypt is extended into a funeral-dirge on the fall of all the heathen powers of the world. For ארץ תּחתּיּות and יורדי , compare Ezekiel 276:20. The ode itself commences in Ezekiel 32:19, by giving prominence to the glory of the falling kingdom. But this prominence consists in the brief inquiry ממּי נעמתּ, before whom art thou lovely? i.e., art thou more lovely than any one else? The words are addressed either to המון מצרים (Ezekiel 32:18), or what is more probable, to Pharaoh with all his tumult (cf. Ezekiel 32:32), i.e., to the world-power, Egypt, as embodied in the person of Pharaoh; and the meaning of the question is the following: - Thou, Egypt, art indeed lovely; but thou art not better or more lovely than other mighty heathen nations; therefore thou canst not expect any better fate than to go down into Sheol, and there lie with the uncircumcised. ערלים, as in Ezekiel 31:18. This is carried out still further in Ezekiel 32:20, and the ground thereof assigned. The subject to יפּלוּ is the Egyptians, or Pharaoh and his tumult. They fall in the midst of those pierced with the sword. The sword is already handed to the executor of the judgment, the king of Babel (Ezekiel 31:11). Their destruction is so certain, that the words are addressed to the bearers of the sword: "Draw Egypt and all its tumult down into Sheol" (משׁכוּ is imperative for משׁכוּ in Exodus 12:21), and, according to Ezekiel 32:21, the heathen already in Sheol are speaking of his destruction. ידבּרוּ לו is rendered by many, "there speak to him, address him, greet him," with an allusion to Isaiah 14:9., where the king of Babel, when descending into Sheol, is greeted with malicious pleasure by the kings already there. But however obvious the fact may be that Ezekiel has this passage in mind, there is no address in the verse before us as in Isaiah 14:10, but simply a statement concerning the Egyptians, made in the third person. Moreover, את־עזריו could hardly be made to harmonize with ידבּרוּ לו, if לו signified ad eum. For it is not allowable to connect עת־עזריו (taken in the sense of along with their helpers) with אלי גבּורים as a noun in apposition, for the simple reason that the two are separated by מתּוך שׁאול. Consequently את־עזריו can only belong to ידבּרוּ: they talk (of him) with his helpers. עזריו, his (Pharaoh's) helpers are his allies, who have already gone down before him into hell (cf. Ezekiel 30:8). The singular suffix, which has offended Hitzig, is quite in order as corresponding to לו. The words, "they have gone down, lie there," etc., point once more to the fact that the same fate has happened to the Egyptians as to all the rest of the rulers and nations of the world whom God has judged. For אלי גבּורים, strong ones of the heroes, compare the comm. on Ezekiel 31:11. שׁאול, hell equals the nether world, the gathering-place of the dead; not the place of punishment for the damned. חללי without the article is a predicate, and not in apposition to הערלים. On the application of this epithet to the Egyptians, Kliefoth has correctly observed that "the question whether the Egyptians received circumcision is one that has no bearing upon this passage; for in the sense in which Ezekiel understands circumcision, the Egyptians were uncircumcised, even if they were accustomed to circumcise their flesh."

In the four following strophes (Ezekiel 32:22-30) a series of heathen nations is enumerated, whom the Egyptian finds already in hell, and with whom he will share the same fate. There are six of these - namely, Asshur, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, and Sidon. The six are divisible into two classes - three great and remote world-powers, and three smaller neighbouring nations. In this no regard is paid to the time of destruction. With the empire of Asshur, which had already fallen, there are associated Elam and Meshech-Tubal, two nations, which only rose to the rank of world-powers in the more immediate and more remote future; and among the neighbouring nations, the Sidonians and princes of the north, i.e., The Syrian kings, are grouped with Edom, although the Sidonians had long ago given up their supremacy to Tyre, and the Aramean kings, who had once so grievously oppressed the kingdom of Israel, had already been swallowed up in the Assyrian and Chaldean empire. It may, indeed, be said that "in any case, at the time when Ezekiel prophesied, princes enough had already descended into Sheol both of the Assyrians and Elamites, etc., to welcome the Egyptians as soon as they came" (Kliefoth); but with the same justice may it also be said that many of the rulers and countrymen of Egypt had also descended into Sheol already, at the time when Pharaoh, reigning in Ezekiel's day, was to share the same fate. It is evident, therefore, that "any such reflection upon chronological relations is out of place in connection with our text, the intention of which is merely to furnish an exemplification" (Kliefoth), and that Ezekiel looks upon Egypt more in the light of a world-power, discerning in its fall the overthrow of all the heathen power of the world, and predicting it under the prophetic picture, that Pharaoh and his tumult are expected and welcomed by the princes and nations that have already descended into Sheol, as coming to share their fate with them.