Ezekiel 32:21

The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Speak to him.—The pronoun oscillates between the masculine and the feminine, because the thought is partly of the king and partly of the kingdom. The pronoun is determined by whichever is for the moment uppermost in the prophet’s mind. On Hell, see Note on Ezekiel 31:16-17. It occurs also at Ezekiel 32:27.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 32:21. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him — Namely, to the king of Egypt; out of the midst of hell — Or, the pit, as Bishop Newcome renders the word: see Ezekiel 32:23. The passage is “a poetical description of the regions of the dead; where the ghosts of deceased tyrants, with their subjects, are represented as coming to meet the king of Egypt and his auxiliaries, upon their arrival at the same place. Hell signifies here the state of the dead.” — Lowth. See note on Isaiah 14:9. They are gone down — The warriors, famous in their time for their exploits, have undergone the same fate with other men of blood, and are gone down to the grave by violent deaths.

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

The uncircumcised - throughout this dirge is equivalent to pagan viewed as impure (Ezekiel 31:18 note).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. (Eze 31:16). Ezekiel has before his eyes Isa 14:9, &c.

shall speak to him—with "him" join "with them that help him"; shall speak to him and his helpers with a taunting welcome, as now one of themselves.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The prophet seems in this verse to introduce the next speakers in this parley, and bringing them in, gives their character.

The strong; the powerful, the valiant, whose natural strength of body was great, and their courage greater, those that were strongest.

Among the mighty; for feats they did, by which it appeared they might compared with others, pass for giants, mighty warriors. conquerors, and riders.

Shall speak to him, the king of Egypt.

Hell; or rather, the grave, where they lie without strength, as dead mortals, though while they lived they bore themselves as if gods and immortal.

Them that help him; either these great ones shall speak to Hophra’s helpers, or else these his friends, slain in his quarrel and dead before him, shall speak to him.

Gone down to the grave: see Ezekiel 32:18. Uncircumcised; neglected and forgotten, or remembered with contempt: see Ezekiel 32:19.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The strong among the mighty shall speak to him,.... The strongest of them, such who have excelled others in strength and courage, famous for military exploits, who have been generals of armies, great warriors, and conquerors; and yet with all their might and strength could not withstand death, but were subdued by it, and brought down to the grave; these are, by a poetical figure, represented as meeting Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he came to his grave, saluting and welcoming him to the state of the dead in which they were; taking a sort of comfort in it, and insulting him as being as weak as they; see Isaiah 14:9, which they should do

out of the midst of hell, or the grave, "Hades", the state of the dead:

with them that help him; the associates, allies, and friends of Pharaoh, his auxiliaries that fell with him, and were brought to the grave at the same time with him; these should be greeted, saluted, and welcomed in like manner:

they are gone down; to the grave; those mighty ones that are represented as speaking, and the Egyptians and their helpers who are spoken to:

they lie uncircumcised; among them that are so, Ezekiel 32:19,

slain by the sword; of their enemies, who got the victory over them.

Geneva Study Bible

The strong among the mighty shall speak to {n} him out of the midst of the grave with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

(n) To make the matter more sensible, he brings in Pharaoh whom the dead will meet and marvel at him, read Isa 14:9.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. The Pharaoh and his multitude are supposed here to have descended into Sheòl, and the “mighty ones” already there address them (Isaiah 14:8; Isaiah 14:10) or speak of them.

The strong among the mighty] lit. the strong of the mighty, where “strong” is not a class among the mighty, but identical with them—the strong mighty ones (gen. of appos.). In LXX. “strong” is wanting as in Ezekiel 32:27. The word “strong” is that rendered mighty one of the nations, Ezekiel 31:11. It is probably entirely different (though the same in spelling) from the word God, Ezekiel 28:2, and from the phrase “mighty God,” Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 10:21.

speak to him] Or, of him. The words that follow seem spoken in regard to Pharaoh—though such a meaning is rather flat.

that help him] his helpers, auxiliary nations. The meaning must be that the mighty speak to (of) Pharaoh and his helpers, hardly that Pharaoh’s helpers already gone down join the mighty in mocking Pharaoh.

In LXX. these three verses stand in a different order, viz. Ezekiel 32:20 a, 20 b (read differently), 21 a, 19, and the first three words of Ezekiel 32:20 again, “They shall fall with him in the midst of them that are slain with the sword, and all his multitude (strength) shall lie down. And the mighty (lit. giants, Ezekiel 32:27) shall say unto thee: Be thou in the depth of the pit; to whom art thou superior? go down, and lie with the uncircumcised, in the midst of them that are slain with the sword.” Probably neither text presents the original, though the general meaning of both is the same. It is in favour of Heb. that it begins with the interrogation, and rather against the LXX. that it makes the address rather prolix. The “mighty” who speak are in any case those already in Sheòl, and not persons upon the earth such as the Babylonians (Hitz.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - The strong among the mighty. Those already in Sheol watch the new arrival, and make their scornful comments (comp. Isaiah 14:9, 18), at once classing them with the uncircumcised. Had they heard, we ask, of the downfall of Egypt? Ezekiel 32:21

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.