Ezekiel 32:1-32

Two Lamentations for Pharaoh and Egypt

This chapter consists of two prophecies, both dated more than a year and a half after the capture of Jerusalem, and separated from each other by a fortnight. In the first Pharaoh is likened, no longer to a young lion, but to a foul river monster, which will be caught, cast on the mountains, and devoured by birds and beasts of prey. At the monster's end the lights of heaven will be darkened, and the nations will be dismayed (Ezekiel 32:1). The allegory is explained to mean the desolation of Egypt by the king of Babylon (Ezekiel 32:11).

The second prophecy is a burial song over Pharaoh and his people (Ezekiel 32:17). They go down to the under-world, which is weirdly conceived as a vast land of graves, the occupants of which, however, retain their consciousness and their speech. Two regions are distinguished in it. Sheol or 'hell' (Ezekiel 32:21; Ezekiel 32:27) is the abode of the ancient heroes who have received honourable burial, while 'the pit' is a remoter region, reserved for the nations which have filled the earth with violence and terror, and whose people have died ingloriously in battle. Each of these nations has its own portion of 'the pit,' where the graves of its people are grouped around a central grave, occupied by the king or the personified genius of the nation. Pharaoh and his people will have a place among these dishonoured nations, and will be comforted to find that they are not alone in their humiliation.