Page 153 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XXXI. 147
arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh
shall fall down; and they shall know that I am
Jehovah, when I shall put my sword into the hand of
the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon
the land of Egypt. And I will scatter the Egyptians
among the nations, and disperse them among the
countries; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.” (Ver.
22—26.) It was not only foreign mercenaries that should
be scattered among the nations, but the Egyptians them­
selves : so thorough the rent and complete the demora­
lisation and overwhelming the ruin caused by the king
of Babylon. If it was Nebuchadnezzar, no less was it
Jehovah’s sword stretched by him over the kingdom of
the south. Painfully did the men of Egypt learn in
their dispersion, and know that it was Jehovah’s doing.

CHAPTER XXXI.

T h e prophet next gives u s in striking figures the ruin
of Egypt. The awful warning of the downfall of the
Assyrian, the greatest of earth’s monarchs in that day,
is applied to Pharaoh’s kingdom, illustrating the
principle of which scripture makes such frequent use
with individuals: that the Lord abases the proud as He
exalts the lowly.
“ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the
third month, in the first day of the month, that the
word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man,
6peak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his mul­
titude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness ? Behold,
the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches,