Commentary on Ezekiel 1 part 13/19

Then he recounts his former madness and his surpassing arrogance:

'But you said in your mind:

I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven; I will sit on a lofty mountain, upon the high mountains toward the north; I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' And he calls 'the mountains toward the north' the occasions of wickedness.

'For from the north,' according to the prophet, 'shall evils be kindled upon all who dwell on the earth.'

Thus, having stripped bare his conceit, he foretells also his overthrow:

'But now you shall go down to Hades, into the foundations of the earth.' This too the divine Ezekiel is taught by God to say.

'For from the mountain of God,' he says, 'the overshadowing Cherub brought you down out of the midst of the stones of fire.' At that time, then, the Cherub—being deemed worthy to bear the divine glory—separated him from the holy powers, which indeed are also called 'fiery';

But now those who are worthy of the divine ascent by reason of the soul's purity, in whose hearts are the ascensions unto God according to the divine prophet, have received authority to tread Him underfoot with their feet.

'Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.'

He says: Thou didst think great things upon beholding the good gifts bestowed upon thee by Me.

'Before kings I have set thee to be made a public example.' Having practised great wickedness, he says, thou didst fall from the rank above and wast cast down below, to be laughed at by those who guard the rank given them and know how to reign well over the passions within themselves.

Some object, saying: What sanctity did the impious king of Tyre possess?

But they would not be able to demonstrate it.

But this one, concerning whom the present discourse is, when he was one of the holy archangels, was in participation of all holiness.

But he himself profaned that holiness by engaging in evil traffic, and desiring more, he fell also from what had been given him.

And this same thing he contrived that man too should suffer.

For that one too, having been made after the image of God, being led on by his flattering words and desiring to become God, lost as well the being an image of God.

'And I will bring forth fire out of the midst of thee.' This fits both: both him who wrought the wickedness and him in whom it was wrought, the king of the Tyrians.

For both furnished the occasions of the punishment brought upon them.

Such is what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah to the Jews:

'Behold, all you kindle a fire and strengthen a flame;'

'walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.' Here too, therefore, He says:

'This shall devour thee.' That is: I shall use thy transgressions as fuel for the punishments against thee.

'And I will make thee ashes upon thy land, before all who behold thee.' This too fits both.

For indeed the man, having fallen in his own land, became dust; and the devil, seeming to rule over the inhabited world, having been overthrown by God and our Saviour, is trodden like ashes by the godly.

'And all who know thee among the nations shall be grieved over thee.'

For those who still remain in servitude to thee, seeing the ceasing of the idols and their sacred precincts utterly demolished, pass their time in dejection, disheartened, and continually in distress.

'Thou art become perdition, and thou shalt exist no more for ever.' By these words He signified his utter dissolution.

Having thus completed the lament over Tyre, He passes on to Sidon, which was also her neighbour, and concisely foretells what should befall her too.

'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, set thy face against Sidon, and prophesy against her.'

'Thus saith Adonai the Lord:'

'Behold, I am against thee, Sidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, when I execute judgments in thee and am sanctified in thee.'

'And I will send forth against thee death and blood in thy streets, and the slain shall fall in the midst of thee by the sword upon thee and round about thee, and they shall know that I am the Lord.'

Since, He says, being in prosperity thou didst ignore Me, O Sidon, I will surround thee with many and manifold evils, both with famine and with the slaughters of enemies, so that through these calamities thou mayest learn My lordship.

And He states also the causes of her destruction.

'And there shall no more be to the house of Israel a pricking briar and a thorn of pain, from all those round about them who dishonoured them, and they shall know that I am Adonai the Lord.'

These things, He says, I will bring upon Tyre also, and upon the foreigners, and upon all the neighbouring inhabitants, so that My people may neither have you as an archetype of impiety, nor as enemies continually assailing them and perpetually vexing them.

Having thus foretold the grievous things, He foretells to Israel the good things, thereby intensifying for those others the grievous things.

For being disposed with enmity, they made the prosperity of Israel an occasion of pain.

'Thus saith Adonai the Lord:'

'And I will gather the house of Israel out of the nations, where they were scattered thither, and I will be sanctified among them in the sight of the peoples and the nations, and they shall dwell upon their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.'

'And they shall dwell in it in hope, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell in hope, when I execute judgments upon all who dishonoured them among those round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and the God of their fathers.'

The God of the universe does not chastise all sinners in the same way, but some who are made His own He chastises in the manner of a physician, and others in the manner of a judge.

'O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thine anger.' This distinction may also be seen in the things recently interpreted.

For to the others meanwhile He promised nothing good;

but to Israel He promised recall, and adoption as His own, and the building of houses, and the tilling of the land, and the planting of vineyards, and the hope of good things, and—the sum of all good things—the divine knowledge.

For when these things come to pass, He says, they shall know that I am both their Lord and the God of their fathers. May it be granted to us also to possess this knowledge perpetually, that we may love Him with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole strength, and with our whole might, not dividing our affection, but dedicating it whole to Him there, that we may breathe Him and carry about an unquenchable remembrance of Him, both sitting down and rising up, and lying down, and walking by the way.

For thus shall we perpetually enjoy His providential care, and shall attain the good things which have been promised, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

'In the tenth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt speak.'

Having put an end to the predictions concerning Tyre, He transfers the discourse to Egypt.

'Thus saith Adonai the Lord:'

'Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, and that saith:'

'The rivers are mine, and I made them.'

Some of the translators rendered 'the river' in the singular, but the Seventy in the plural;

for the Nile is one, but its channels are very many, and each channel is called a river by the local inhabitants.

He therefore reproves the arrogance of Pharaoh, and shows him vaunting himself over the rivers as though they had been made by him.

For thus also does the divine Scripture designate the devil:

'For in that day, He says, God shall bring the holy and great and mighty sword upon the dragon, the serpent,' and what follows.

'And I will put a bridle in thy jaws, and I will cause the fishes of thy river to cling to thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy river, and all the fishes of thy river shall cling to thy scales.'

'And I will cast thee out into the wilderness, thee and all the fishes of thy river, and I will throw thee down speedily, thee and all the fishes of thy river;'

'thou shalt fall upon the face of the plain, and shalt not be gathered together, nor covered over;'

'to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of heaven have I given thee for food.'

'And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.'

Fearful are the things threatened, and full of dread;

for He threatened to deliver up to slaughter not only him, but also his subjects;

for by the fishes that cling He designated the subjects.

And just as in the case of Tyre He took the occasions of the allegory from the sea (for the city was on the seacoast), so here He has employed the figure from a river.

By his scales and wings He called the leadership and the authority, in which those who were ruled necessarily shared in the king's punishment.

And by the bridle He sufficiently intimated the leapings that preceded the bridle.

He threatened to send some away as spear-captives into a desert land, and to deliver others to slaughter, and to leave them as food for the wild beasts.

And He adds also the cause:

'Because thou wast become a staff of reed to the house of Israel.'

'every hand clapped over them, and when they leaned upon thee, thou wast broken, and didst shatter all their loins.'

To Tyre, then, and to the foreigners, concerning whom we have spoken above, He threatened to bring calamities, as having rejoiced over what had befallen Israel;

but of Egypt He does not blame this, but altogether the contrary, namely that, having caused the people to trust in the help coming from her, she stripped them of the divine providence, yet in no way profited them by her own assistance.

For this He signified through the reed staff, which is broken by weakness and shattered to pieces.

In this same way Sennacherim also, in Isaiah, described the help of the Egyptians, saying:

'For he trusts,' he says, 'upon the reed staff, the broken one, upon Egypt;

which, if a man lean upon it, it will enter into his hand;

such is the king of Egypt, and all who trust in him.' This too He said here:

'They took hold of you with their hand, you were crushed, and the whole hand clapped against them.' They became, He says, objects of derision and of malicious joy to their enemies, having been shattered and defeated after the manner of a reed staff crushed to pieces.

'Behold, I bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy men from you, and cattle.'

'And Egypt shall be given to destruction and desolation, and they shall know that I am the Lord.'

'Since you are high-minded, and undertake to help others also, you shall learn by experience that you will not be able even to fight for your own land, when I bring the punishment upon you;'

'but My people shall come to acknowledge My sovereign power.'

Then again, having recalled the words of their arrogance—'For you said,' He says, 'that The rivers are Mine, and I made them'—He threatens desolation to Egypt, not to the whole of it, but only from Magdolon and Syene as far as the borders of the Ethiopians; and not even to these cities a perpetual desolation, but for a certain time.

'No foot of man shall pass through it,' He says, 'and no foot of beast shall pass over it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years.'

'And I will give her land to destruction in the midst of a desolated land, and her cities shall be laid waste in the midst of desolated cities for forty years;'

'and I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and winnow them among the countries.'

Ineffable is the loving-kindness of God, which brings on punishments by a certain measure and weight, and again heals those that have been smitten;

'I will kill and make alive, I will smite and I will heal.' Here too, therefore, He threatens the Egyptians with captivity, dispersion, and desolation, but limits the desolation to a short time.

'For forty years,' He says, 'it shall be untrodden'—and not all Egypt, but from Magdolon and Syene as far as the borders of the Ethiopians—and immediately He promises the recall.

'For after forty years,' He says, 'I will gather the Egyptians from the nations, whither they were scattered.'

'And I will turn back the captivity of the Egyptians, and will settle them in the land of Pathoures, in the land whence they were taken.'

Having thus promised the release from captivity, He foretells also the smallness that would attend that kingdom.

'For it shall be,' He says, 'a lowly kingdom there, beyond all the kingdoms, and it shall be most lowly, so that it be no more exalted over the nations; and I will make them few in number, that they be not many among the nations.'

The events themselves bear witness to the truth of the prophecy.

For the kingdom of the Egyptians, having been overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar, flourished again under Cyrus the Persian, yet did not recover its former power.

For not much time having passed, Cambyses the son of Cyrus overthrew it again, made it subject, and compelled it to pay tribute;

and later it received even Macedonian kings, the kings of the Egyptians having wholly ceased.

'...to follow after them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.'

'For thus,' He says, 'I will diminish the kingdom of the Egyptians, so that My people may no longer take courage in their help, nor take occasions of impiety from them, but seek My providence;'

'for they shall learn My lordship.'

'And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon made his army serve a great servitude against Tyre.'

'Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was made bare, yet neither he nor his army had any wages from Tyre, for the servitude that he served against it.'

Those former things he had foretold in the tenth year of the captivity of Jechonias, or in the twelfth;

for so both the Hebrew and the Syriac say;

but these things in the twenty-seventh, after the capture of Tyre and the long siege, on account of which he says that every head became bald and every shoulder worn bare.

For life in the open air is wont to produce such effects, the scorching heat often stripping the bare parts of the body's members that are exposed to it.

He promises to give Egypt as wages to Nebuchadnezzar, in return for the labors incurred about the siege of Tyre;

not that he did this consciously serving the divine will (for using his own impulse he made war on all these nations), but through these things He indicates that nothing comes to pass against His will.

But some things He Himself directs, and others He permits to happen, now yielding to the free will of men, now permitting the deserving to be punished through others.

'Thus says Adonai the Lord:'

'Behold, I give to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the land of Egypt, and he shall take her multitude, and spoil her spoils, and plunder her plunder, and it shall be the wages for his army.'

'In return for his ministry, wherewith he served against Tyre, I have given him the land of Egypt, in requital for all that he did.'

Again He has said the same things, confirming the prediction by the resumption and repetition;

'Thus says Adonai the Lord:'

(chapter 21.) 'In that day a horn shall spring forth for all the house of Israel, and to you I will give an opened mouth in the midst of them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.'

By 'horn' the divine Scripture sometimes calls piety, sometimes power, sometimes kingship;

and He has set the phrase 'A horn shall spring forth' from the metaphor of calves, which are weak before the sprouting of their horns, but after their growth acquire much strength.

'When Egypt therefore is overthrown,' He says, 'My people shall flourish and gain piety, no longer having wickedness as its teacher;'

'and they shall lend an ear to the prophetic words, having learned My lordship.'

For this He indicated when He said:

'And to you I will give an opened mouth in the midst of them'; for through Ezekiel He signified the whole prophetic choir.

'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, prophesy and say:'

'Thus says Adonai the Lord:'

'For near is the day of the Lord, and the day of a cloud draws near, and it shall be a time of nations.'

By 'day' He calls the time of punishment;

and by 'cloud' the darkness that comes upon the souls from calamity;

'For not only,' He says, 'shall My people fall into these evils, but the nations also shall pay the penalties of their impiety.'

'And a sword shall come upon the Egyptians, and there shall be tumult in Ethiopia, and the wounded shall fall in Egypt, and her multitude shall be taken, and her foundations shall collapse together.'

'And the Persians, and Cretans, and Libyans, and Ethiopians, and Lydians, and all Arabia, and all the mingled peoples, and those of the sons of My covenant that are in her, shall fall by the sword together with her.'

'The things that shall befall Egypt,' He says, 'will bring turmoil to Ethiopia also;'

for being her neighbor she shall be in anguish lest she suffer the same.

Then He recounts the auxiliaries of the Egyptians being destroyed together with the Egyptians—Cretans, Libyans, Ethiopians, Lydians, and Arabs.

And the Greek histories too teach of the alliance of the Lydians and the Egyptians.

But by 'Persians' He does not mean those who came from Persis to their aid;

for how could it be that, while the Assyrians and Chaldeans were making war on them, they should have Persians as allies? Rather He means those who long ago were transplanted thence, and had become settlers in Egypt.

And they say that the Egyptian Babylon received its name, homonymous with the Persian, for this reason, since Persians had inhabited it.

'Sons of the covenant' He calls the Jews, who after the siege of Jerusalem went down into Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them.

And to these likewise He threatens punishment, since contrary to His purpose they left Judea and came into Egypt.

And these things were said also through Jeremiah the prophet:

'For all the remnant of Judah,' He says, 'that sojourn in the land of Egypt shall know whose word shall stand, Mine or theirs.'

'And this shall be the sign to you,' says the Lord:

'Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy, who sought his life.' The things foretold by the divine prophets are therefore in agreement with one another;

for they are the utterances of one and the same Spirit.

Thus again, having foretold the desolation of Egypt together with its dismemberment, and having called the Assyrian king a fire, he adds:

'On that day messengers shall go forth from before my face in Seim, hastening to destroy Ethiopia, the hope;'

'and there shall be confusion among them in the day of Egypt, for behold, it comes.'

He called Ethiopia 'the hope' because the Egyptians took courage in their aid;

and the word 'Seim' in the Greek tongue signifies 'in strength.'

'These things,' he says, 'while the Egyptians are enduring them, the Ethiopians their allies shall be thrown into confusion, not only on account of the evils that have come upon these, but also on account of the calamities that will overtake themselves through certain messengers sent by me and urged on to fulfil what has been commanded.'

'Thus says Adonai the Lord:'

'And I will destroy the multitude of the Egyptians by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,'

'him and his people with him:'

'plagues sent from among the nations to destroy the land;'

'and they shall all draw their swords against Egypt, and the land shall be filled with the slain.'

'And I will make their rivers desolate, and I will deliver up the land into the hands of wicked men, and I will destroy the land and its fullness by the hands of strangers.'

'To the Babylonians,' he says, 'the most savage of all the nations, I will hand over Egypt, so that all their land is filled with slaughter and their rivers become emptied of their inhabitants;'

and the phrase, 'I will deliver up the land into the hands of wicked men,' he has set down in the sense of 'I will hand it over.'

And this too fits with what was said before;

for he said that he would give to Nebuchadnezzar, as a wage, the enslavement of Egypt, in return for the toils that had befallen him in the siege of Tyre.

Then he foretells that their abominations — that is, the idols full of abomination — shall be destroyed by their enemies.

'And the princes of Memphis shall cease;'

and the most powerful city of Sais having fallen into the most grievous calamities;

and, in short, the enemy consuming all of Egypt like fire, so that even Syene, which lies in the innermost part, receives the tumult arising from these things.

And he made sufficiently plain the suddenness of the onslaught that would occur, when he said:

'There shall be wars in Memphis lasting but a single day;'

for together with the announcement the very battle shall come to pass.

'For the young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis also shall fall by the sword;'

'but the women too,' he says, 'shall go into captivity.' Then he adds:

'Because in Tahpanhes also the day shall be darkened;'

signifying the darkness that comes upon them out of their calamities.

And this very same thing he again signified, when he said:

'And a cloud shall cover her.' For those who fall into evils do not see the light in the same way, but they suppose the day to be gloomier than all darkness.

Then he made plain the aim of the things that were coming to pass:

'And I will execute judgments in Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.'

'For all these things,' he says, 'I will permit to happen, in order that the Egyptians too may learn not to think great things of themselves, but to acknowledge my sovereignty.'

'And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

This same kind of thing is found also in the prophet Jeremiah;

for he too sets down the dates in a scattered fashion, and, having first placed the events that took place under Zedekiah, who reigned last, he then again relates the matters concerning Jehoiakim, who had held the kingship before him.

The reason for this is that they were not simply composing a history, but prophecies that came into being at certain particular times.

And it was of necessity, and very fittingly, that he now made mention of this time.

For since he had threatened so great a cloud of calamities against Egypt in the twenty-seventh year,

he teaches us the justice of the punishment.

'For in the eleventh year,' he says, 'the Lord said to me:'

'(21) Son of man, I have broken the arms of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up to give him healing, to lay upon it a plaster, to be bound up, and to gain strength, and to take hold of a sword.'

'I brought upon him a moderate punishment,' he says, 'and he was unwilling to use the remedies of repentance, so that he might once more take hold of his former dominion.'

'Behold, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and I will break his arms, both the strong and the outstretched, and those already broken, and I will cast down the sword from his hand.'

'And I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and I will winnow them into the lands.'

'And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon.'

'For since he was unwilling to be brought to sober sense by moderate chastisements, I will subject him to the greatest punishments, and I will strip him of all his strength, so that he cannot even make use of the instruments of war; but the Babylonian I will fill with all strength and power;'

for by means of 'the arms,' both in the case of the Egyptian and in the case of the Babylonian, he indicated their power;

for since it is by the arms that acts of war too are naturally accomplished, 'And I will put,' he says, 'my broadsword into his hand;'

'and he shall bring it upon Egypt, and shall take its spoil, and shall plunder its plunder.' 'I,' he says, 'will place in his hand the punitive power, so that he may do to Egypt all that was foretold;'

and these things again he has added, confirming the earlier statements by the repetition.

'And it came to pass in the tenth year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his multitude:'

'To whom have you likened yourself in your loftiness?' Since he was unwilling to make proper use of the divine long-suffering, but persisted in his arrogance and boastfulness, God addresses these words to him in the form of a question.

'Say,' he means, 'O king of Egypt, to whom do you liken yourself? and to which of the kings do you think you resemble, that you make use of so great a pride?' Then he adds:

'Behold, Assur was a cypress in Lebanon, beautiful in its branches, and lofty in its height, and dense in its shade, and its top reached into the midst of the clouds.'

Once more he has used a figurative manner of speech, and says that the king of the Assyrians resembled the cypress growing in Lebanon, both in respect of the greatness of its height, and the density and abundance of its subjects, and the comeliness of its governors and generals;

for these he called 'branches.'

And the phrase, 'its top reached into the midst of the clouds,' he has set down not only hyperbolically, according to the human idiom (for many are accustomed to say that 'so-and-so was exalted up to the clouds'), but he has also disclosed the boastfulness of his thoughts;

'I will ascend above the clouds, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne' — and this can be learned from every side out of the divine Scripture.

For Sennacherib cried out, 'The Lord shall by no means deliver Jerusalem out of my hand;' while Nebuchadnezzar, having made a golden image, commanded all his subjects, both rulers and ruled, to worship it.

Here too, then, he has made plain, by means of enigmas, his arrogant disposition.

'Water nourished it, the abyss exalted it, it led its rivers round about its plants, and sent forth its streams to all the trees of the plain.'

By 'water' and 'abyss' he designated the countless nations that had been enslaved by him, which, offering their tribute and tax as a kind of irrigation to his army, he nourished like plants, and prepared its streams — that is, the military detachments — to be sent forth to all the trees of the plain; meaning that those not yet subdued or enslaved should likewise become his subjects.

'Because of this, its greatness was exalted above all the trees of the plain, and its boughs were spread wide from thence, and its branches were lifted up by reason of the abundance of water when he stretched himself out.'

'This,' he says, 'became for him the cause both of his boastfulness and of his pride;'

for receiving irrigation from countless nations, he grew great together with his branches.

'In its branches,' he says, 'all the birds of heaven made their nests.'

'And under his branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young.' By these words he signified the barbarous nations, that they were bestial and grovelling in soul.

And this he himself also made plain, when he said:

'In his shadow dwelt a multitude of nations.' And what above he had stated separately and figuratively, this he here adds in a general and clear manner.