Ezekiel 32
A funeral song for Egypt
Egypt, a lion or a monster
1God sent me a message in the spring [1] of King Jehoiachin’s 12th year in Babylonian captivity. He said:2Human, sing this funeral song for Pharaoh, king of Egypt:
You think you’re a lion among the nations.
But you’re just a monster from the sea.
You make a splash in the water,
Kicking your feet and stirring up mud.
3Well, I the Lord God, tell you this.
I’m sending you a coalition of nations.
I’ll have them throw my net over you.
And I’ll show you what a dragnet can do.
4I’ll beach you in the field.
Birds will light on you and peck away.
Land animals will eat you to the bone.
5I’ll salt the mountains with your flesh
And pepper the valleys with your bones.
6I’ll dump a mountain of blood on the land
And I’ll add its rich flavor to the streams.
7When I snuff you out like a candle,
I’ll shield the sky from you,
Hiding the sun, moon, and stars behind clouds.
8Everything that shines in the sky
Will go dark.
So will your land.
9Nations will start to worry
When they see me send you away as captives
To nations you’ve never even heard of.
10When I take you down, nations will fear me.
When kings see what I can do with a sword,
They’ll tremble, hoping they’re not next.
They’ll fear for their lives.
Here comes Babylon’s elite forces
11I’m the Lord God and I’m telling youThe king of Babylon and his army will attack you.
12Babylon’s elite forces, the most terrifying of all,
will wipe out your army and kill your people.
You have a lot to brag about now.
You won’t have it for much longer.
13I’ll kill your livestock
Grazing by the river and streams.
Cattle won’t muddy the water anymore.
Neither will the people.
14I’ll clean the water so it runs clear again.
I’ll make it flow smoothly as olive oil.
15Then I’ll turn Egypt into a junkyard.
After I’ve taken all the good stuff,
I’ll kill the people.
16This is Egypt’s funeral song.
Mourners will sing it
And remember the dead people of Egypt.
I’m the Lord God, and this is what I said.
Mourn for Egypt’s lost pride
17Fifteen days after that message, the LORD gave me another message, on the 15th day of the month. He said:18Human, cry for the people of Egypt,
And for their lost pomp and pride.
Grieve alongside mourners of great nations
As you send Egypt to the grave
With others who have died.
19Egypt, you were beautiful, but now you’re dead.
Rest in peace with the unrighteous.
20Egypt’s people will fall, killed by swords. Survivors will become captives led to other lands. Egypt will belong to someone else. 21Below, in the land of the grave, dead soldiers and their generals will welcome Egyptians. They’ll say, “Here they come to rest with the other godless people killed at the wrong end of a sword.”
Egypt has company in the grave world
22Assyria is there in the grave land, with all their dead soldiers killed in battle. 23They’re in the deepest recesses [2] of this pit, where they belong. They terrorized the world with their swords. Then they died by the sword. And there they are, together.24The nation of Elam is there in the grave land with all its godless people killed by the sword. They have to carry their shame with them. 25They once terrorized the land with their swords. But now they are disgraced and dead, lying among the godless dead of the grave land.
26Meshech [3] and Tubal are there, too. They had also terrorized the world with their swords. But now they are dead, all of them godless victims of swords themselves. 27No one gave them a warrior’s burial. When a warrior died, mourners sent them to the grave with some of their weapons, usually a sword beside them and a shield over their body.
28Egypt, you’re going to break. When you do, you’re going to the grave of the godless people killed by the sword.
29Godless Edom is there, too, with their kings and princes and mighty warriors killed by the sword. 30Northlanders are there, too, with the Kingdom of Sidon. Their powerful armies once terrorized the land. But now here they are, dead and disgraced as godless losers killed in battle.
31When Pharaoh sees all these people in the grave, he'll feel a little bit better about being dead. Pharaoh and his army will die by the sword. I'm the Lord God and I have said this. 32This king of Egypt spread terror everywhere he went. Now he has to lie among the godless dead who has been killed by the sword. Pharaoh with all his people of Egypt will go to the grave.
Footnotes
132:1
Ezekiel got his message on the first day of the 12th month on the Jewish lunar calendar, Adar (February-March). This was in about 585 BC, half a year after Babylon leveled Jerusalem and deported the survivors in the summer of 586 BC.
232:23
Ezekiel describes the place of the dead, known as Sheol as a community of the dead, sequestered by nation and divided into a hierarchy. Assyria got the worst location, like a hotel room by the ice machine. In Ezekiel’s version of an afterlife, people have bones, and they lay their bones down on beds. They’re not sleeping all the time. They’re alert and know they’re dead.
332:26
Meshech and Tubal were far northeast of the Jewish homeland. Some place it near the Caspian Sea, in or near Russia or Turkey. Those are guesses.
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