Page 148 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

142 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that
he had served against it: therefore thus saith the Lord
.Jehovah, Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto
.Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her
multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it
shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the
land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against
it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
(Ver. 17—20.) It naturally follows the burden of Tyre,
for it represents Jehovah as balancing the vast expen­
diture of Nebuchadnezzar on that hardly won city whose
wealth in great part escaped his grasp with the conquest
•of Egypt, a rich booty to the conqueror and his greedy
and before this disappointed host. No wonder the land
of Egypt was to be long waste, though not for ever.
“ In that day will I cause the horn of the house of
Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of
the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know
that I am Jehovah.” (Ver. 21.) We have no account
that so it was. But we need none. So Jehovah spoke;
and so we are sure it was: Israel revived, and Ezekiel
delivered His message in their midst, and they then
knew who He is that would have them aware of
what was coming before it came.

CHAPTER XXX.

T h e first of the two prophetic strains of our chapter is
a good example of that which characterises the word of
prophecy, the binding up of present or impending disas­
ters with the great day when God will interfere in