“There is Meshech, Tubal and all her multitude, her graves are round about her, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. For they caused their terror in the land of the living. And they will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones, for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. ‘But you will be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and will lie with those who are slain by the sword'.”
Meshech and Tubal were Anatolian nations who had harried the Assyrians on their northern frontier. They were fierce fighters who deliberately engaged in slave-trading (Ezekiel 27:13) and had also spread terror, sufficiently to be worthy of mention here.
It would seem that they were not to lie with the mighty because they had themselves been the terror of the mighty. Their iniquities were on their bones, that is, they were separated because they had been at enmity with all, including the mighty Assyrian empire, and were seen as particularly evil. They were fiercely independent nations. This assumes that ‘the mighty' were Assyria and their allies, which is quite probable. The Assyrians were mentioned first here, and were overlords of the other nations. The mighty are described in terms of burial practises. They have their weapons with them and their swords were laid under their heads.
The mention of Meshech and Tubal here confirms that we are to see these nations as within the same general area as the others, and not distant peoples in far off lands.
‘But you will be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and will lie with those who are slain by the sword.' The change of person suggests that this was spoken to Egypt. Egypt had allied itself with Assyria to face up to the Babylonians. They thus joined them in the grave.