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the day shall be darkened; when I break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters 19 shall go into captivity. Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

20 Now IT came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying:

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Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And, lo, it shall not be bound up, to apply medicines; a bandage shall not be put about it, to strengthen 22 it for holding the sword. Concerning this matter thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and I will break his arm, even the strong and the stretched out arm; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. And I will scatter the Egyptians among

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the staff: 2 MSS. Syr. See Isai. xiv. 5.

p,

-the yokes.σκήπτρα. σкηжтра. 6. "The yokes imposed by the Egyptians." See c. xxxiv. 27. as for her.- 1 MS. and ó. "and as for her."

20.

—on the seventh day of the month.-, 3 MSS. on the first day:" and so MS. Copt.

21. -I have broken.—I have determined to break, by Nebuchadnezzar. See v. 24. So Jer. xlviii. 20, 21, 25. 1. 2. Isai. xxi. 9, a future event is spoken of as past. Mr. Lowth.

-the arm.—See the same image, Jer. xlviii. 25. Moab is cut off; and his arm is broken, saith Jehovah."

-be bound up.—See Isai. i. 6. c. xxxiv. 4.

shall not be put.- Syr. Houbigant.

"The horn of

-to strengthen it.-The word before this, wan, to bind it, is omitted in 1 MS. and by 6. and greatly weakens the sentence.

22. —arm.—So V. But the other ancients and MSS. read plurally. the stretched out.—Thus 6. reading nibwn, or nuwan. Aq. renders inλov, w, and Theod. μéyav. The present corrupt text is rendered by Houbigant, "brachium sanum ut et vulneratum," and by Dathius, "dextrum et sinistrum."

the nations, and I will disperse them among the countries. 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and will put my sword in his hand. But I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the 25 groanings of a deadly wounded man. I will even strengthen the 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 shall stretch it out upon the 25 land of Egypt. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

CHAPTER XXXI.

1 Now IT came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of 2 Jehovah came unto me, saying: Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude,

Unto whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3 Lo, the Assyrian was as a cedar in Lebanon,

*Or, of one that is slain.

24.

25.

3.

before him.-Two MSS. read }, before me. Mr. Dimock. -I will even strengthen.—The vau may be merely conversive.

-the Assyrian.—Meibomius takes 1 to be a species of cedar. "Nec tamen facile possum concoquere Assyrium illum, qui nescio quomodo, valde certe incommode, ut mihi quidem videtur, huc se ingessit." Præl. Hebr. x. Secker observes, that this seems an admonitory comparison of Pharaoh to the late Assyrian empire, under the image of a cedar, applied v. 18 to Pharaoh. He adds that 'v. 2, 18, is much oftener who than what. The learned author of critical observations on books says:

* With beautiful branches, and with a shadowing shroud,

and † of an high stature;

And his top was among thick boughs.

4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high;

It brought its streams about his plantation,

And sent forth its little rivers

Unto all the trees of the field.

5 Therefore his height was exalted Above all the trees of the field;

And his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long,

Because of many waters, when he shot forth.

*H. beautiful of branch.

H. lofty of stature.

Or, channels, or, rivulets.

"This historic recital is expressly brought as an argumentative confirmation of the prophet's veracity in declaring that Egypt would soon after meet with like fate. This is particularly indicated by v. 18; which serves as a moral to the preceding funeral panegyric over Assyria." ii 186. "The destruction of the great kingdom of Assyria at Nineveh could not have happened sooner than about the beginning of Zedekiah's reign." Ib. 180.

thick boughs.—See c. xix. 11; where the sense of this word seems to be fixed by the parallel clause. But ó. give it the signification of nay clouds: which Bishop Lowth approves of: præl. Hebr. x. The top, or leader, is well supposed to represent the king of Assyria; and the thick boughs, his subordinate Kings and Rulers.

4.

-the deep.-The subterraneous waters. Houb. -It brought.—Read

, as ó. render йyaye, and bш follows;

or 7, eundo: "going with its streams."

.5 . קמתו v. 3, and צמרתו as ;מטען his plantation. Read

little rivers.—An allusion to the small artificial channels through which water was usually distributed in eastern gardens. See Bishop Lowth on Isai. i. 20.

5. -was exalted. MSS. 1 ed.

when he shot forth.-Houbigant considers bu as a verb neuter. Ἐν τῷ ἐκτεῖναι αὐτόν. "Αλλος, in Montfaucon.

6

In his boughs all the fowls of the heavens made their

nest;

And under his branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young:

And under his shadow dwelt an assembly of great nations. 7 Thus was he beautiful in his greatness, in the length of his branches :

For his root was by many waters.

8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him ; The fir-trees were not like his boughs,

9

10

And the plane-trees were not as his branches :
Not any tree in the garden of God

Was like unto him in his beauty.

I made him beautiful in the multitude of his branches;
So that all the trees of Eden,

Which were in the garden of God, envied him.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah :

Because he was high in stature,

And set his top among the thick boughs,
And his heart was lifted up in his height;

6.

8.

-an assembly.—p, cœtus, V. Houb. xxxii. 3.
-the fir-trees-the plane-trees.

In the garden of God must be

supplied.

.0 פארותיו .i. e פארתיו here, and כפארתיו-.as his branches

12, 13, MSS. and edd.

9.

10.

-So that &c.-The order of the clauses in the Hebrew is :

So that all the trees of Eden envied him,
Which were in the garden of God.

he was high.—721 V. Syr. Houb. Dathius.

-in stature.—Dip Syr. Houb. "in his stature."

—his heart was lifted up.-This allegory is boldly pursued; though here, and v. 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, its imagery is not supported with the scrupulous accuracy of polished writers. Est quidem genus parabolæ, cui unice proposita est rei subjectæ exornatio; qualis est insignis illa apud Ezekielem Cedrus Libani; qua nulla est, si ipsam imaginem spectemus,

11 Therefore I delivered him into the hand of a mighty one

of the nations,

That * dealt hardly with him; I drave him out for his

wickedness.

12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, cut him down, and left him:

Upon the mountains, and in all the valleys, his branches

fell;

And his boughs were broken by all the streams of the

land;

And all the people of the earth went down from his shadow, and left him.

* H. in dealing dealt.

aptior aut venustior; si lineamenta et colores, nulla elegantior, nulla ornatior; in qua tamen Vates [v. 11, 14, 15, 16, 17,] propria quædam admisit mediis translatis permista; an quod hujus Parabolæ ratio ita ferat, an ex ipsius fervido ingenio, styli accuratioris leges minus interdum attendente, vix ausim statuere. Præl. Hebr.

11.—a mighty one.-' MSS. edd. Either, a mighty king of the nations, or, a mighty nation.

-That dealt hardly with him.—Exacted severe punishment of him.

See y c. xx. 44. xxii. 14. and observe the force of the future, v. 13. If we render shall deal, the sense may be; Who shall punish his former arrogance and cruelty by dealing severely with him in his vanquished state.

for his wickedness.-y, according to his wickedness. V. Syr. MSS. edd.

12.

—cut him down.-Virgil has a like comparison with respect to the fall of Troy.

Ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum
Quum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant
Eruere agricolæ certatim; illa usque minatur,
Et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat;
Vulneribus donec paulatim evicta supremum
Congemuit, traxitque jugis avulsa ruinam.

Æn. ii. 626.

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