The word of the Lord came again unto me saying: Son of man prophesy
and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Howl ye, alas for the day! For the
day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it
shall be the time of the heathen. And the sword shall come upon
Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall
fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her
foundations shall be broken down. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia,
and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that
is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. Thus saith the
Lord; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her
power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it
by the sword, saith the Lord God. And they shall be desolate in the
midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in
the midst of the cities that are wasted. And they shall know that I
am the Lord, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her
helpers shall be destroyed. In that day shall messengers go forth
from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great
pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it
cometh. Thus saith the Lord God: I will also make the multitude of
Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. He
and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be
brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords
against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. And I will make the
rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I
will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of
strangers: I the Lord have spoken it (verses 1-13).
The prophet's first utterance is concerning the day. "Howl ye! Alas for
the day! For the day is near,[24] even the day of the Lord is near, a
cloudy day; it shall be the time of the Gentiles." What day is this?
Other prophets mention the day of Jehovah as a day of judgment and wrath
when the Lord will deal in His righteousness with the nations of the
earth. See Isaiah ii; xiii:6, 9; Joel i:15; ii:1, 11; iii:14; Amos v:18,
20; Obad. 15; Zeph. i:7, 14; Zech. xiv:1, etc. This day in its final
meaning is the day on which the Lord Jesus Christ will be visibly
revealed from heaven. It is mentioned in the New Testament in 1 Thess.
v:2; 2 Thess. ii:2 (where "day of Christ" should be rendered "day of the
Lord") and 2 Peter iii:10. This day will bring "man's day" to a close
and usher in a new age, when righteousness shall reign as grace reigns
now. This day of coming judgment of all nations is seen also here in a
prophetic perspective. All previous judgments of nations as announced by
God's prophets, nations which sinned against Israel the chosen people,
foreshadow _the_ one great day, when the times of the Gentiles end in
the revealed manner (Dan. ii:34; vii:10-14). What came upon Egypt in the
past through divine judgment will happen to the Gentile nations in the
future at the close of our age, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (2 Thess. i:7-8). Ever since the times of the Gentiles began
with Nebuchadnezzar the divinely appointed head (Jeremiah xxvii:4-8)
this day of the Lord has been drawing near, till now with the stupendous
present day events, we can see this day rapidly approaching.
[24] This may also be rendered "the day draweth near, even the day of
the Lord draweth near."
The sword was to fall upon Egypt as well as upon Ethiopia, Libya and
Lydia (Hebrew: Phut and Lud, see xxvii:10), and all others who were in
league with them. Her foundations were to be broken down and the pride
of her power shall come down. All this has come to pass and for many
centuries the once powerful and proud Egypt has thus been broken down.
From Migdol to Syene (not from the tower of Syene) were they to fall by
the sword of the Lord. Verse 7 shows the wide sweep of the judgment,
covering the surrounding countries. "And they shall be desolate in the
midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the
midst of the cities that are wasted." Their desolation was to be a
desolation in the midst of desolations. It has come literally true. The
surrounding countries shared the desolation of the land itself. She has
been rightly called "the land of ruins," a vast burial place of the art,
architecture and glory of the past, and her present towns (except
Alexandria which cannot be reckoned among the ancient cities, as it was
unknown to the Pharaohs) are, as it were, dwellings among the tombs.
Another remarkable prophecy is found in verse 12: "And I will make the
rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked, and all that
is therein, by the hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken it." Isaiah
also predicted, "The waters shall fail from the sea and the river shall
be wasted and become dry" (Isaiah xix:5). The rivers are evidently the
many arms of the Nile forming the Delta. This is the case today, and has
been so in past centuries, and the arms of the Nile, instead of flowing
in their original courses have become ill-smelling pools and marshes.
And so was the land sold into the hand of the wicked. Untold sufferings,
slavery, outrages of many kinds has been the record of Egypt in its past
history.