32:1 And it came to pass in the {a} twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

(a) Which was the first year of the general captivity under Zedekiah.

32:2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, Thou art like a young {b} lion of the nations, and thou [art] as a whale in the seas: and thou didst come forth with thy rivers, and didst {c} trouble the waters with thy feet, and didst foul their rivers.

(b) Thus the scriptures compare tyrants to cruel and huge beasts which devour all that are weaker than they and such as they may overcome.

(c) You prepared great armies.

32:5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys {d} with thy height.

(d) With heaps of the carcass of your army.

32:6 I will also water with thy blood the land in which thou {e} swimmest, [even] to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.

(e) As the Nile overflows in Egypt, so will I make the blood of your host overflow it.

32:7 And when I shall {f} put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

(f) The word signifies to be put out as a candle is put out.

32:8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set {g} darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.

(g) By this manner of speech is meant the great sorrow that will be for the slaughter of the king and his people.

32:12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall lay waste the {h} pomp of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed.

(h) This came to pass in less than four years after this prophecy.

32:14 Then will I make {i} their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.

(i) That is, of the Chaldeans your enemies, who will quietly enjoy all your conveniences.

32:18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and {k} cast them down, [even] her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

(k) That is, prophecy that they will be cast down: thus the Lord gives his prophets power both to plant and to destroy by his word, read Jer 1:10.

32:19 Whom dost thou pass {l} in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

(l) Have not other kingdoms more beautiful than you perished?

32:20 They shall fall in the midst of [them that are] slain by the sword: {m} she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.

(m) That is, Egypt.

32:21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to {n} him out of the midst of the grave with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

(n) To make the matter more sensible, he brings in Pharaoh whom the dead will meet and marvel at him, read Isa 14:9.

32:24 There [is] {o} Elam and all her multitude around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the {p} living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

(o) Meaning the Persians.

(p) Whom in his life all the world feared.

32:26 There [is] {q} Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves [are] around him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

(q) That is, the Capadocians and Italians or Spaniards, as Josephus writes.

32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty [that are] fallen {r} of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to the grave with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

(r) Who died not by cruel death but by the course of nature, and are honourably buried with their coat of armour and signs of honour.

32:30 There [are] the princes of the {s} north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, who are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with [them that are] slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.

(s) The kings of Babylon.

32:31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be {t} comforted over all his multitude, [even] Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.

(t) As the wicked rejoice when they see others partakers of their miseries.

32:32 For I have caused my {u} terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with [them that are] slain with the sword, [even] Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

(u) I will make the Egyptians afraid of me, as they caused others to fear them.