Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 30:1-19
The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is here very full and particular, as well as, in the general, very frightful. What can protect a provoking people when the righteous God comes forth to contend with them?
I. It shall be a very lamentable destruction, and such as shall occasion great sorrow (Eze 30:2, Eze 30:3): "Howl you; you may justly shriek now that it is coming, for you will be made to shriek and make hideous outcries when it comes. Cry out, Woe worth the day! or, Ah the day! alas because of the day! the terrible day! Woe and alas! For the day is near; the day we have so long dreaded, so long deserved. It is the day of the Lord, the day in which he will manifest himself as a God o…
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Howl ye, Wo worth the day! - My Old MS. Bible, - Soule gee, woo woo to the day! הילילו הה ליום heylilu, hah laiyom! "Howl ye, Alas for the day!" The reading in our present text is taken from Coverdale's Bible, 1536. The expressions signify that a most dreadful calamity was about to fall on Egypt and the neighboring countries, called here the "time of the heathen," or of the nations; the day of calamity to them. They are afterwards specified, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, and Chub, and the mingled people, probably persons from different nations, who had followed the ill fortune of Pharaoh-hophra or Pharaoh-apries, when he fled from Amasis, and settled in Upper Egypt.
John Gill on Ezekiel 30:2
Son of man, prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God,.... Prophesy against Egypt's king and inhabitants, and in the name of the Lord thus speak against them:
howl ye; ye Egyptians, and also ye Ethiopians, and all others after named, which should share in the destruction of Egypt; this is said to give them notice of it, and prepare them for it:
woe worth the day! or, "alas for the day!" (d) O the unhappy day! what a sad dismal day is this! O that we should ever live to see such wretched times!
(d) "bah diei", Munster, Vatablus; "heu diei", Cocceius, Starckius.
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 30:1-5
Announcement of the judgment upon Egypt and its allies. - Eze 30:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 30:2. Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Howl ye! Woe to the day! Eze 30:3. For the day is near, the day of Jehovah near, a day of cloud, the time of the heathen will it be. Eze 30:4. And the sword will come upon Egypt, and there will be pangs in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt, and they take her possessions, and her foundations are destroyed. Eze 30:5. Ethiopians and Libyans and Lydians, and all the rabble, and Chub, and the sons of the covenant land, will fall by the sword with them. - In the announcement of the judgment in Eze 30:2 and Eze 30:…
