Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He prophesies that Egypt, which was the instigator and helper of the Jews in rebelling against God and Nebuchadnezzar, will be handed over by God to Nebuchadnezzar as a reward — because Nebuchadnezzar labored for God in conquering and punishing Tyre. He therefore predicts the destruction of Egypt by the Chaldeans, and continues the same theme through the three following chapters, namely chapters 30, 31, and 32. Furthermore, in this chapter he recounts two visions concerning the destruction of Egypt: one that he had in the tenth year of Zedekiah, verse 1 and following; the other that he had 17 years later, verse 17.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 29:1-21
1. In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the eleventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy concerning him and concerning all Egypt: 3. Speak and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I come against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, great dragon, who lies in the midst of your rivers, and says: My river is mine, and I made myself. 4. And I will put a hook in your jaws, and I will fasten the fish of your rivers to your scales, and I will draw you out from the midst of your rivers, and all your fish shall cling to your scales. 5. And I will cast you into the desert, and all the fish of your river: you shall fall upon the face of the earth; you shall not be gathered nor collected: I have given you to the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven to devour. 6. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord: because you were a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 7. When they took hold of you with the hand, you broke, and you tore all their shoulder; and when they leaned upon you, you were shattered, and you made all their loins give way. 8. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will cut off from you man and beast. 9. And the land of Egypt shall become a desert and a wasteland: and they shall know that I am the Lord: because you said: The river is mine, and I made it. 10. Therefore behold, I come against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly desolate, wasted by the sword, from the tower of Syene even to the borders of Ethiopia. 11. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor shall the foot of beast walk in it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years. 12. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of desolate lands, and its cities in the midst of ruined cities shall be desolate for forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the lands. 13. For thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples among whom they were scattered. 14. And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and I will place them in the land of Pathros, in the land of their birth, and they shall be there a humble kingdom: 15. among the other kingdoms it shall be the most humble, and it shall no longer exalt itself above the nations, and I will diminish them so that they shall not rule over the nations. 16. And they shall no longer be for the house of Israel a source of confidence, teaching iniquity so that they flee and follow them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God. 17. And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 18. Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet no wages were paid to him or to his army by Tyre, for the service that he had performed against it for Me. 19. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the land of Egypt: and he shall take its multitude, and seize its spoils, and plunder its plunder: and it shall be wages for his army, 20. and for the work by which he served against it: I have given him the land of Egypt because he labored for Me, says the Lord God. 21. In that day a horn shall sprout for the house of Israel, and I will give you an open mouth in their midst: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Verse 1: In the tenth year
1. In the tenth year — of the captivity of Jehoiachin, which was likewise the 10th year of Zedekiah. Note: The preceding prophecies against Tyre were made later, namely in the 11th year of Zedekiah, as is clear from chapter 26:1; nevertheless they are placed before this one because the devastation of Tyre, which the Prophet threatens, occurred before that of Egypt. For Egypt was given as plunder to the Chaldeans on account of their overthrow of Tyre, as is said in verses 18 and 19. Maldonatus gives two other reasons. The first is that Tyre is closer to Jerusalem than Egypt; and so the Prophet preferred to follow the order of places rather than of times. The second is that Ezekiel received the other prophecy against Egypt and Pharaoh after the one about Tyre — namely, in the 27th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, as is clear from verse 17 — and he wished to join both together.
Egypt and its devastation are fittingly joined to Tyre, because it was similar to Tyre in customs and vices. Whence in Hebrew both names have a related, and virtually the same, name from the same root צור tsur, that is, he straitened, constrained. For from this comes Tor and Tyrus, and from this also comes מצרים mitsraim, that is, Egypt. Mitsraim therefore means the same as one who constrains and afflicts those who are subject to him, says St. Jerome.
In the tenth month — Adar, which corresponds to February: for the Jews began their year from the Passover and the Paschal month, namely from Nisan, that is, March, by God's decree, Exodus chapter 12:1. But correct this here and read "in the twelfth month," that is, in December. So the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Roman edition.
On the eleventh day. — The Hebrew has, on the twelfth day.
Pharaoh. — Pharaoh was not a proper name but a common title of the kings of Egypt. For Pharaoh in Egyptian signifies king, as I showed from Eusebius and Josephus at Exodus 1:10; and St. Jerome here affirms this, adding examples: "Thus," he says, "among the Romans, their kings are called Caesars and Augusti after the first Gaius Caesar and the second, his adopted son Octavian, who was afterwards named Augustus; and among the Syrians, Antiochuses; among the Persians, Arsacids; among the Philistines, Abimelech; and after Alexander in Egypt, the Ptolemies down to Cleopatra; who being conquered at Actium, Egypt became a Roman province." Symbolically, Pharaoh, if you consider the Hebrew etymology, is interpreted as one who scatters, that is, a slayer and destroyer, cutting and dividing all things with the sword. Such is the devil, who is the king of Egypt — that is, of the world — who afflicts those who are subject to him, separates and divides them from God and heaven, and sends them into Gehenna and eternal death. So St. Jerome.
Great dragon. — Note: He calls Pharaoh a dragon, namely a sea dragon, that is, a whale or sea monster; or rather a river dragon, namely a crocodile, which is in the rivers of Egypt — that is, in the Nile, which, divided into seven streams and as it were rivers, enters the Mediterranean Sea through seven mouths. For Egypt, when the Nile floods, is almost entirely covered as if by a sea, so that it is manured, as it were, and fertilized by its silt. Hence by an apt metaphor he calls the king of Egypt, as one reigning in the Nile, a whale or crocodile. Whence he says: "Who lies in the midst of your rivers," namely the streams of the Nile; the Syriac: who lies among the rivers; the Arabic: who lies in the belly (in the midst) of the rivers. The Psalmist does the same, Psalm 73:14: You crushed the heads of the dragon in the waters.
Verse 3: Behold, I come against you
3. Behold, I come against you — namely, I will come and send My fury and vengeance. So the Chaldean.
Of the dragon, that is, of Pharaoh. For the Pharaohs and Egyptians were proud of the Nile, as though they had no need of heaven or of Jove; for the Nile brought them such fertility that Egypt was called the granary of the world. Hear Lucan:
"A land content with its own goods, needing no merchandise Nor Jupiter: such is the trust placed in the Nile alone."
Hence it is that no farmer in Egypt looks up to heaven, says Seneca; and Claudian, epigram 6:
"Egypt, fertile without clouds, alone holds Serene showers, secure from the sky, needing no wind, Rejoices in the waters it carries, and overflows with the Nile."
Furthermore, the Nile in its retreat added and heaped up a greater part of land for Egypt, as Pliny teaches, book II, chapter 85: "This river alone of all exhales no breezes," the same author says, book V, chapter 9. Moreover, the Nile, dividing into seven streams, makes as many islands, as it were, and fertilizes them, and flows into the sea through as many mouths. Hence, according to the same author, in the time of the Romans the Egyptians were so proud that they said it was in their hands whether there would be abundance or famine for the victorious Roman people. From abundance arose luxury, arrogance, and wickedness. Whence Pliny in the Panegyric to Trajan:
"No land knows how to produce more vices."
That the Egyptians hold the middle place among the wicked, an old proverb teaches: "The Lydians are wicked, second the Egyptians, third the Carians," says Eustathius on Dionysius.
He therefore compares Pharaoh to a crocodile: first, because just as the crocodile rules over the fish in the Nile, so Pharaoh ruled over the Egyptians in Egypt. Second, because he was fierce and rapacious like the crocodile, of which Pliny says, book VIII, chapter 25: "The Nile has the crocodile, a four-footed evil, equally dangerous on land and in the river. This alone of terrestrial animals lacks the use of its tongue. It alone bites with its upper movable jaw, otherwise terrible, with its teeth packed together in a comb-like row. It lays eggs as large as those of geese, and always incubates them outside the place to which the Nile will rise at its highest flood that year, by a kind of premonition." Third, "nor does any other animal grow from a smaller beginning to a greater size; it usually exceeds eighteen cubits in length." Thus Pharaoh from a small beginning grew so much that he aspired to the monarchy of the world. Fourth, "it is armed with claws, with a hide impervious to all blows. It spends its days on land and its nights in water, for the warmth of both." Thus Pharaoh dominated both land and water, and was so surrounded by them that he seemed invincible, even inaccessible. Fifth, Pliny adds that the crocodile has three enemies: first, the ichneumon; second, the dolphin; third, the Tentyrites. "The crocodile," he says, "sated with fish and always with its mouth full of food, lies sleeping on the shore. A small bird called the trochilus there (the king of birds in Italy) invites it to gape for the sake of its own food, first cleaning its mouth by jumping in, then its teeth, and also its throat within, which gape as wide as possible for this pleasure of being cleaned. The ichneumon, spotting it overcome by sleep in this pleasure, launches itself through those same jaws like a missile and gnaws out its belly. But the crocodile was too great a pest for nature to be content with a single enemy. And so dolphins swimming into the Nile, on whose backs there is a fin sharpened as if for this very purpose, driving them from their prey and as it were ruling only in their own river — though otherwise no match for them in strength — destroy them by cunning. The belly of the crocodile has soft and thin skin; therefore the dolphins dive as if terrified, and passing under its belly, cut it with that fin. Indeed, there is also a race of men hostile to this beast in the Nile itself — the Tentyrites, named from the island they inhabit. They swim in the river and, mounting its back in the manner of horsemen, when it gapes and tilts its head back to bite, they thrust a club into its mouth, and holding its ends on both sides, right and left, as if with reins, they drive them captive to land." So Pharaoh had three enemies: the Ethiopians, the Syrians, and the Chaldeans.
These things are easily applied symbolically to the devil, who is moreover swift like the crocodile — which dogs, in order to flee, lap water from the Nile not by standing but by running while they are thirsty. Finally, the crocodile is so called because it flees from saffron and its scent.
I made myself — namely, a king. Whence the Chaldean translates: The kingdom is mine, and I have subjugated it. As if to say: You are proud like the king of Tyre, as if you had not received your kingdom from God, but arrogate it to your own prudence and strength, as though you were some kind of god.
Second, the Septuagint translates: I made them, namely the rivers; and Vatablus: I made for myself, namely the Nile, and the channels and dikes of the Nile, so that they partly enclose and fortify, partly irrigate and fertilize all Egypt. For thus he boasts in verse 9, as if to say: The kingdom of Egypt, so powerful, so fertile through its waterways — I made it. And thus this translation and explanation agrees with the former.
Moreover, this proud king of Egypt was Pharaoh surnamed Hophra, or Apries, of whom Herodotus writes, book II: "He persuaded himself that no one, whether man or god, could take his kingdom from him, because he had so firmly established it." See what was said at Jeremiah 44:30.
So Niobe, queen of Thebes, mother of seven sons and as many daughters, boasted that she was invincible and most fortunate; and therefore Latona, burning with anger against her, moved Apollo to strike her seven sons with as many arrows. Hear Ovid, Metamorphoses VI:
"Niobe would have been called the most fortunate of mothers, If she had not seemed so to herself."
For she said:
"I am fortunate — who would deny it? — and fortunate I shall remain. Who would doubt this too? Abundance has made me safe. I am greater than one whom fortune could harm."
But in truth, "abundance has made you destitute," felicity made her wretched, pride made her abject.
So Capaneus in Statius, Thebaid II, proudly says:
"My valor is my god, and the sword That I hold."
The same, book X:
"Come, O my right hand alone! You preside over wars, an inescapable divinity; I call on you, you alone, contemner of the gods above, I worship."
And Mezentius, Aeneid X:
"My right hand is my god, and the weapon I hurl as a missile."
And the consul Flaminius in Silius, Punic War V:
"A god great enough against the enemy, The omen for Latium is what the right hand provides in arms."
And Alcmena in Seneca's Hercules on Oeta claims that her son was as good as Jove to her:
"Whatever Jupiter might deny, Hercules would give."
And Caeneus, from whom comes the proverb, "the spear of Caeneus," because he himself regarded it as a god and compelled others to worship it. But God crushed the impious mouths of all these. For Jupiter struck down Capaneus with a thunderbolt, Aeneas slaughtered Mezentius, Flaminius was killed by the Carthaginians in that battle, Hercules fell slain by his unsuspecting wife through the treachery of Nessus, and Caeneus perished crushed by tree trunks hurled by the Centaurs. So too this Pharaoh was deprived by God, through the Chaldeans, of both kingdom and life.
Symbolically note: The world is the sea, men are like fish, and the fishermen are Christ and the devil. Christ fishes with a hook, because He catches few; the devil, because he catches many, uses a net, whose entrance is very wide but whose exit is narrow and difficult, like a fish trap. Here one man devours another, like one fish devours another. The bait of the devil is pleasure (for this is the bait of the wicked, says Plato), power, wealth, and luxuries. The bait of Christ is harsh: mortification, humility, abstinence, patience. So St. Bernard says: "Monasteries are fish ponds into which Christ casts the fish that He drew from the sea of the world;" so that there He may guard them in holiness and quiet, nourish them with His grace, and advance them to glory. When a fisherman has hooked a large fish, he does not immediately pull it in violently, lest the fish by its weight break the line, or slip away and escape; but he plays it and lets the line follow it, until the fish is fully caught on the hook so that it cannot escape: so too does the demon. Likewise, with even greater right, let the preacher do the same, and whoever strives to fish for souls and win them for God.
Verse 4: I will put a hook in your jaws
4. I will put a hook in your jaws — so that, like an unbridled horse, I may tame you with a bridle, that is, with calamity, and drive and turn you in the circle of reason and of My will.
Second, from the Hebrew the Chaldean and Vatablus translate: I will put a hook in your mouth, so that I may catch you — so that, like a whale or rather a crocodile, I may draw you out of the waters, that is, from Egypt your kingdom, and most grievously afflict you. He calls the Chaldeans the hook, through whom Egypt was captured and devastated.
And I will fasten the fish of your rivers to your scales — so that your Egyptian subjects, both princes and citizens and commoners, may be joined to you in the calamity and captivity that the Chaldeans will bring upon you. He alludes to schooling fish, which have their own king and follow him, and are caught together with him, as is the case with herring.
Verse 5: I will cast you into the desert
5. I will cast you into the desert — as if to say: Just as captured fish are thrown onto the land and die there (for the element and natural place of fish is water, outside of which they cannot live), so I will cast you down upon the earth and dash you, so that you die. Perhaps Pharaoh also joined battle with the Chaldeans in the desert, where he fell; or certainly, as Maldonatus says, Pharaoh was led to the dry land of Babylon, and there, having died, was cast out unburied to be devoured by beasts and birds. Vatablus translates: I will abandon you in the desert.
You shall not be gathered — you shall lie unburied and be the prey of wild beasts.
Verse 6: Because you were a staff of reed to the house
6. Because you were a staff of reed to the house of Israel — because you incited the Israelites to rebel against the Chaldeans, trusting in your help and strength, you were a "staff" to them, that is, a support in promise, but in fulfillment a "reed" — that is, weak, empty, hollow, and deceptive, because you did not keep your promises. Indeed, you were the cause that the Jews were more grievously afflicted by the Chaldeans, as your rivals, as is clear from Isaiah 36:6. He aptly compares the Egyptians to a reed: both because Egypt extends at length along the Nile and is like a long reed; because Egypt abounds in reeds, both papyrus-bearing and others, as Pliny teaches, book XIII, chapter 11; and because every reed — not only the ploea, which is weaker, but also the characia, which is more solid — is hollow, empty, fragile, and weak. So Delrio, adage 215.
Thus all the hopes and promises of the world are a reed staff, Jeremiah 17:3 and following. See what was said there: "The cause therefore of the Lord's anger against Egypt is this: that it deceived God's people with its help, so that they would not hope in Him, and so provoked God to anger," says St. Jerome.
Verse 7: They (namely the Jews) took hold of you (as a
7. They (namely the Jews) took hold of you (as a staff) with the hand — to support themselves and their kingdom.
You broke — defeated by the Chaldeans, or, fearing their forces, you returned to Egypt, Jeremiah chapter 37:7.
And you tore all their shoulder — that is, you broke all the strength of the Jews. As if to say: You were the cause that the other part of the Jews — those who, after Jehoiachin was led to Babylon, had remained in Jerusalem — as their other arm, from hand to shoulder, that is, from the least to the greatest, namely up to king Zedekiah, were either killed or led into captivity. So Maldonatus.
And you made all their loins give way. — "Loins" means strength. For those who have pain in their loins cannot stand without a staff, and when the staff is knocked away, they collapse. So the Jews, when the Egyptians withdrew, collapsed. For when the Jews saw the Egyptians, in whom they trusted, defeated by the Chaldeans, they lost their courage and strength. Instead of "you dissolved," the Hebrew and Chaldean have העמדת haamadta, that is, you will make them stand upon their own loins, so that, relying on themselves alone, they will no longer lean upon you (since you have deceived them). But our Translator, instead of עמד amad, that is, he stood, read by metathesis מעד maad, that is, he dissolved, changed, threatened ruin. Indeed, R. David thinks that here amad is put for maad by transposition of letters.
Verse 9: I made it
9. I made it — namely, the Nile, so that it would be the guardian and fertilizer of Egypt; because I channeled it through canals into all the regions of Egypt, as I said at verse 3.
Similarly, but more modestly, Vespasian, when he was touring Egypt after recently being elevated to power, is reported to have said to the Egyptians in a public address: "Draw from me as from the Nile." So Philostratus reports, book V of the Life of Apollonius, chapter 10. For the Nile, flooding over the fields, signifies that kings ought to pour themselves out for the public good. Such was Manuel Comnenus — indeed "a sea of magnificence, an abyss of mercy, easy of approach in the gentleness of his manners, but inimitable in royal virtue," says Nicetas in his Life.
Verse 10: From the tower of Syene
10. From the tower of Syene — that is, from beginning to end. For Syene was the beginning of Egypt between the Red Sea and the Nile, says Solinus, chapter 11. Ethiopia was the boundary of Egypt toward the West.
Verse 12: In the midst of lands
12. In the midst of lands — that is, I will make Egypt like other desolate lands. The same Hebraism is at verse 7 and Luke 22:27: "I," says Christ, "am in your midst" — that is, like you, "as one who serves." For one who is in the midst of a crowd of others is like them, says Maldonatus.
They shall be desolate (in Hebrew, They shall be desolation itself) for forty years. — Concerning these years — namely when, how, and by whom Egypt was restored — we read nothing either in Scripture, or in Josephus, or in other historians. It is plausible that Cyrus, when he conquered Babylon in the first year of his monarchy, released the captivity of both the Egyptians and the Jews. For shortly after, Cyrus's son Cambyses invaded and subjugated Egypt, which by then had again become powerful and flourishing, as St. Jerome, Justin, and others generally report. This is confirmed: for Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar in the 35th year of his reign, as I shall show at verse 17. Count from this 35th year 43 years, and you arrive precisely at the first year of Cyrus, in which he released from Babylon the Jews, Egyptians, and other peoples held captive there. Moreover, Ezekiel says 40 years when there were precisely 43, because writers are accustomed to pass over fractions of numbers and record only round, whole numbers.
Verse 14: I will bring back the captivity
14. I will bring back the captivity — that is, the captives of Egypt.
Verse 15: And Egypt shall no longer exalt itself above the nations.
15. And Egypt shall no longer exalt itself above the nations. — "No longer," namely, for a long and unmemorable time. For after two hundred years, Egypt returned to its former power and glory under the Ptolemies, who contended with the Antiochene kings of Asia for dominion.
Verse 16: And they shall no longer be for the house of
16. And they shall no longer be for the house of Israel a source of confidence — as if to say: I will break the strength of the Egyptians, who teach the Jews idolatry and other iniquities, so that the Israelites may no longer trust in them or flee to them.
Verse 17: And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year
17. And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year — not from the overthrow of Tyre, as Hector Pintus would have it, but from the deportation of Jehoiachin, or from the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah.
Twelve; for Ezekiel has dated his years from the deportation of Jehoiachin up to this point. Note here that Nebuchadnezzar began to reign in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim; then after 8 years he killed Jehoiakim, and shortly after led his son Jehoiachin away to Babylon. This is the deportation of Jehoiachin, from which Ezekiel counts his years. Therefore this 27th year of the deportation of Jehoiachin is the 35th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, in which, shortly after this prophecy, he conquered Egypt. For in the 18th year of his reign he conquered Jerusalem; then, according to Josephus, in the 5th year after that he attacked Ammon and Moab, and besieged and conquered Tyre for 13 years; then, namely in the 35th year of his reign, he invaded Egypt, and having subdued it, became monarch. Two years into his monarchy, the same Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a tree to be cut down, which signified that he was to be cast out of his kingdom and relegated to the beasts; then 12 months later he was actually cast out of his kingdom; then for seven years he lived with the beasts like a wild animal. Afterward, restored to his mind and kingdom, he died shortly after, namely in the 45th year of his reign, which was the 10th year of his monarchy, that is, from the subjugation of Egypt. See more at Daniel 4.
I say therefore that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Tyre and shortly afterward Egypt not in the 20th or 25th year of his reign, as some claim from Josephus, but in the 35th. This is proved, first, because this 35th year of Nebuchadnezzar is the 27th year of the deportation of Jehoiachin, in which Ezekiel here predicts that Egypt will be devastated by the Chaldeans; therefore at that time it had not yet been devastated, but was to be devastated shortly after. That Tyre was destroyed shortly before Egypt is clear from this very passage. For God here, in the same year just mentioned, promises the Chaldeans the spoils of Egypt in place of wages for the labors they had recently expended in conquering Tyre; therefore He soon conferred those spoils upon them, for God customarily fulfills His promises immediately. That the conquest of Egypt could not be delayed further is clear from the fact that afterward — namely, after two years — Nebuchadnezzar, growing proud because of his monarchy, was cast out to the beasts for seven years, and after being restored, died in the 45th year of his reign. Now from these 45 years, subtract the 7 years of expulsion and the 2 years before it, and you arrive at the 35th year already mentioned. Second, if Tyre had been captured in the 20th or 25th year of Nebuchadnezzar, the siege would have to have begun in his 7th or 12th year, and thus it would have been before the siege and conquest of Jerusalem, which took place in his 18th year. But this is evidently false both from Josephus and from Ezekiel, chapter 26, verses 2 and 7, where he threatens Tyre with the arrival and siege of the Chaldeans because it exulted in the destruction of Jerusalem; therefore the destruction of Jerusalem preceded the siege of Tyre. Therefore in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, Tyre was not yet besieged; and since after Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Ammon, Moab, and other neighboring peoples over 5 years, it appears that around the 6th year after that, which was the 35th of his reign, he began the siege of Tyre, and after 13 years conquered it in the 35th year of his reign. This is what Josephus says, book I Against Apion, from Berosus: namely, that Nebuchadnezzar began to besiege Tyre and its king Thobatus in the 7th year of his reign (beginning) — that is, counting the years of his reign from the conquest of Jerusalem. For that he could not have besieged Tyre before that is clear from what has been said. And nearly all agree that in the 7th year of his reign, properly taken, he did not besiege Tyre. Hence it follows that the 70 years during which Isaiah, chapter 23, verse 15, predicts that Tyre will be desolate, are not the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, as some think. For those begin in the 11th year of Jehoiakim, which was the 4th year of the deportation of Jehoiachin and the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and end in the 1st year of Cyrus's monarchy — for in that year Cyrus freed the Jews from Babylon. But the 70 years of the desolation of Tyre begin in the 27th year of the deportation of Jehoiachin, which was the 35th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar; consequently they end 27 years after the first year of Cyrus's monarchy. That this is so is clear again from the fact that shortly before, at verse 12, Ezekiel said of the captivity and devastation of Egypt (which, as I have shown, began shortly after the captivity of Tyre and was ended by Cyrus in his 1st year, when he released the captivity of the Jews) that it would last not 70 but only 40 years. Therefore from the devastation of Tyre to Cyrus there are not 70 but 40, or precisely 43 years, as I have shown; and consequently the 70 years of the desolation of Tyre end 27 years after Cyrus.
Note again that the order of time is not maintained here in the prophecy: for in the following chapter, verse 20, and chapter 31, verse 1, he presents prophecies received in the 11th year from the captivity of Jehoiachin, whereas this one was received in the 27th year. Therefore these prophecies seem to have been scattered on separate sheets and collected from them without always preserving order, as I said at the beginning of Jeremiah and in Canon 50. This is therefore the second prophecy against Egypt, which Ezekiel received 17 years after the first, say St. Jerome and Maldonatus. Scaliger responds differently, namely, that this 27th year is a jubilee year; for they counted 50 years from one jubilee to the next. But since Ezekiel always uses the same era — namely, counting years from the deportation of Jehoiachin — why would they place only here a different jubilee reckoning?
In the first month, on the first day of the month — that is, on the first day of the month. So "the first of the sabbath" is called the first day of the week, Luke 24:1.
Verse 18: Every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled
18. Every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled — namely, from the continuous wearing of helmets and bearing of burdens throughout the thirteen years of the siege of Tyre, the heads of the Chaldean soldiers were made bald, and their shoulders were peeled and worn from carrying stones, timber, and earth, to fill up the channel of the sea, so that when it was filled and dried, they could approach on dry foot and attack Tyre, situated in the sea.
And no wages were paid to him — because the Tyrians, foreseeing the destruction, had secretly loaded their goods and merchandise onto ships and carried them away; and the city was so utterly destroyed that from its ancient splendor and population
nothing was left except the most clear rock. Whence St. Jerome, commenting on Ezekiel 23, says that the Tyrians, when they saw no path to safety remained, boarded ships and departed for Carthage and to other islands in the Ionian and Aegean seas, and that he read this in the ancient histories of the Assyrians.
By which he served Me. — Hence it seems that by God's impulse, and perhaps by the admonition of Jeremiah and the Prophets, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Tyre in a just war. Whence God, for this morally good service, gives a reward to the faithless and otherwise impious Nebuchadnezzar — not from strict merit, but from fittingness — namely, the spoils of Egypt. So Hector Pintus and Emmanuel Sa. Let soldiers who faithfully serve their king in a just war note that they serve God, even if they do not expressly think of it; for God is the president of all justice. Whence St. Jerome gathers from this passage that God rewards even the good works of unbelievers. But it seems more truly that Nebuchadnezzar unknowingly served God's providence and just vengeance in devastating Tyre only materially; formally, however, and by intention, he followed his own pride and ambition for power. Therefore the reward is said to have been given to him by God not properly but materially — that is, God willed and ordained that he, because he had fulfilled His will in punishing Tyre, should be adorned and honored with the kingdom of Egypt. See Canons 35 and 36.
God wished here to show how holy, and how dear to Him, is the punishment of crimes and criminals; since He rewarded this vengeance, even though only material, in the Chaldeans with such ample wages — namely, the spoils of Egypt and monarchy. For the Chaldeans had fulfilled God's vengeance and will only materially, because materially they did what God willed and desired — namely, that Tyre be punished and devastated — while formally they did not intend to fulfill God's will but their own desire for dominion. Just as therefore their merit was improper, and the fulfillment of the divine will improper, so too their reward was improper: for properly it was a gift of God, not wages. By a similar sort of encouragement, God urges the Chaldeans to the destruction of Moab, saying in Jeremiah 48:10: "Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully;" the work of the Lord He calls the vengeance and destruction of Moab. Whence, explaining, He adds: "Cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood" — from killing the Moabites. See what was said there.
Therefore some in St. Jerome's time wrongly refer these things to Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, "who devastated Egypt even to Ethiopia, so that he killed the Apis bull and destroyed all their idols. For which reason they think he was driven to madness from a fall from his horse and was pierced by his own dagger," as Herodotus narrates, says St. Jerome. "For expressly, it is not of Cambyses but of Nebuchadnezzar that the Prophet says God will give him Egypt as a reward for the labor of the siege of Tyre."
Verse 19: He shall take its multitude
19. He shall take its multitude — he shall reduce the people to slavery.
For the work. — The Septuagint: for the service.
Verse 21: In that day
21. In that day — that is, after Egypt is devastated, I will cause the horn, that is, the kingdom of Israel, to bloom again. Namely, in the tenth year after the devastation of Egypt, Evil-merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, elevated the throne of king Jehoiachin above other kings, 2 Kings, last chapter. And shortly after, Cyrus restored the Jews to their homeland. For the horn is a symbol of strength, glory, power, and kingdom.
I will give you an open mouth — that is, freedom to speak. For when they see that all the things you predicted have come to pass, they will believe you, and you will be able to speak to them openly and freely, not through parables as you have done until now. For God promised him this, chapter 24, verse 27. The Apostle alludes to this, Ephesians 6:19, when he asks that prayer be offered for him: "That speech may be given to me," he says, "in the opening of my mouth with confidence, to make known the mystery of the Gospel."
Allegorically, when Egypt is conquered — that is, when the idolatry of the world is overthrown — the strength of believers will sprout, and the kingdom of Christ will flourish with faith, hope, charity, miracles, and virtues; and then the mouth of Christ and the evangelizing Apostles will be opened. Or, as if to say: Then this prophecy of mine about Christ will be opened and manifest to all, so that they may know it has been fulfilled in Him. Whence St. Jerome says: "It is God's mercy that the abundance of this world should perish, and the streams of Egypt dry up; indeed, that their land should become a wilderness, and the Lord's sentence be extended from the tower of Syene (which is interpreted as 'circuit,' having nothing straight in itself) to the land of the Ethiopians, who are called humble — so that all pride that raised itself against the knowledge of God may be destroyed and humbled for its own salvation, and may dwell in the land of Pathros, which is interpreted as 'trampled breadth,' so that they may no longer be lifted up in pride, but be a humble kingdom, knowing against Whom they have sinned."