Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 29:8-16
This explains the foregoing prediction, which was figurative, and looks something further. Here is a prophecy,
I. Of the ruin of Egypt. The threatening of this is very full and particular; and the sin for which this ruin shall be brought upon them is their pride, Eze 29:9. They said, The river is mine and I have made it; therefore their land shall spue them out. 1. God is against them, both against the king and against the people, against thee and against thy rivers. Waters signify people and multitudes, Rev 17:15. 2. Multitudes of them shall be cut off by the sword of war, a sword which God will bring upon them to destroy both man and beast, the sword of civil war. 3. The country shall be d…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 29:9
I am the Lord--in antithesis to the blasphemous boast repeated here from Eze 29:3, "The river is mine, and I have made it."
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 29:6
They have been a staff of reed - An inefficient and faithless ally. The Israelites expected assistance from them when Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem; and they made a feint to help them, but retired when Nebuchadnezzar went against them. Thus were the Jews deceived and ultimately ruined, see Eze 29:7.
John Gill on Ezekiel 29:9
And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste,.... Men few or none being left in it, to till it, nor cattle found upon it:
and they shall know that I am the Lord; by these judgments executed upon them, now foretold; and which when come to pass, they will be obliged to acknowledge the omniscience and omnipotence of Jehovah:
because thou hast said, the river is mine, and I have made it; See Gill on Ezekiel 29:3; this insolent expression was highly resented by the Lord, as appears by the repetition of it. The Targum is here, as before,
"the kingdom is mine, and I have subdued it;''
but, notwithstanding this vaunt, he could not keep it.
Keil & Delitzsch
