“On his ruin all the birds of the air will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on his branches, to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their height, nor set their top among the interweaving branches, nor that their mighty ones stand up in their height, even all who drink water. For they are all delivered to death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.”
The humiliation of Egypt has to be seen in the light of what it was and what it claimed to be. It claimed to be ruled by a god on earth, the Pharaoh, so that they were all the chosen of that god. It therefore claimed divine authority over its neighbours and looked down on them as inferior. And yet its behaviour came far short of its claims, and it overexalted itself and impoverished others. Thus it had to be brought low so that the falsehood of its claims would be obvious to all, and it was to be laid low because it deserved to be.
Those who once depended on it will instead be over it, and instead of sheltering under its branches will tread on them. This will be a lesson to all nations not to exalt themselves as Egypt had done. Indeed the humanness of Pharaoh and the Egyptians is stressed. They are of those who ‘drink water', as are all others. They descend into the grave ‘in the midst of the children of men'. This is a direct denial of the divine destiny that Egypt claimed for Pharaoh. For all, including Pharaoh, have the same destiny, the world of the dead. For all die.