Lament and Descent

Ezekiel 32 contains the last two oracles against Egypt, dated in the twelfth year, after Jerusalem had fallen. The first is a lament, a funeral song sung in advance for a ruler still alive. Pharaoh is compared to a young lion and then to a monster in the seas, stirring the waters and fouling the rivers. God says he will spread out his net and haul the monster onto dry land.

The judgment is described in cosmic terms: God would make all the bright lights of the sky dark, as though creation itself mourned. Such language is common in prophetic writing for the fall of a great power. The sword of the king of Babylon would come, and the pride of Egypt would be brought to nothing. Yet the oracle ends with an unexpected image of stillness. God says: Then I will make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil.

The second oracle pictures Egypt descending to Sheol, the realm of the dead, to lie among other once-terrifying nations: Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, and the Sidonians. Each had caused terror in the land of the living, and each now lay humbled. The section on the nations ends here; from chapter 33, Ezekiel's message turns toward restoration. In the New Testament, Luke 1:52 says: He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly.