For I have caused my terror— For I will cast my terror upon the land of the living, that he may lie down in the midst, &c. Houbigant.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Though Egypt was an idolatrous nation, and Pharaoh a wicked prince, the prophet must take up a lamentation over them. For the ministers of God, when they can do no more, must weep over those who, hardened in sin, refuse to shed a tear for themselves.
1. The king of Egypt is compared to a lion, fierce, devouring, ravenous; to a whale, or crocodile with his rivers, a multitude of people, or from his rivers, sallying forth in quest of prey; and as this animal with his feet troubles the waters, so did he with his armies disturb the tranquillity of his neighbours. Note; Ambitious princes are the troublers of the earth, and the scourges of mankind.
2. His destruction is foretold. The same similitude is continued; God, the author of his punishment, shall take him as a great fish in his net, with all his numerous forces, and drag him to land; where, as a fish out of his element, he must perish, and, being cast forth into the open field, become a prey for every fowl and every beast. Yea, so immense will be the carnage, such a torrent of blood be shed, that the valleys shall be filled with the corpses of the slain, and the rivers swelled with human gore, hyperbolically speaking, as high as the mountains. The sword is God's, the executioners of vengeance the Chaldeans, mighty men, the terrible nations, who shall spoil the pomp, plunder the wealth, and slay the multitude of the Egyptians. Yea, the very cattle shall be destroyed, and the foot of man or beast shall no more disturb the waters, so few should remain. The land throughout shall be desolate, and all its plenty be at an end. Even the luminaries of heaven, as if shocked to behold these ravages, shall be darkened, and clothed in sackcloth; and the once rapid rivers, as if congealed with grief, shall with difficulty roll slowly on their heavy flood.
3. The tidings of Pharaoh's fall, with his multitudes, will alarm, amaze, and bitterly affect the nations. Not only the neighbours and allies would be vexed at their overthrow, lament them, and tremble at the judgments which they beheld; but even the remotest countries, who had no connection with the Egyptians, shall hear with astonishment the report, and dread every moment, lest that sword of the Lord, brandished before them by the king of Babylon, should fall at last upon their heads. Note. (1.) When the sword of judgment is brandished before us, and we see others smitten, it is high time to tremble for ourselves. (2.) Instead of being humbled by the visitations of God before them, hardened sinners murmur and fret against God.
4. The Lord will make himself awfully known by these strokes of vengeance: the folly of pride and creature-confidence will then appear, and God be found the only true abiding support, and satisfying portion.
2nd, About a fortnight after the former prophesy, according to our version, another was delivered. It brings Pharaoh, with his multitude, to their graves; and the prophet must lament over them, or rather compose a funeral dirge to be sung on this melancholy occasion.
1. Egypt is brought to the grave, and received among the dead. The prophet is ordered to cast them down, because divine power accompanied his prophetic word. Like other famous nations, she must lie low, nor be exempted from the common fate of those, whom in beauty she rivalled. She is delivered to the sword, and dragged, as the corpses of malefactors, in ignominy to the pit. The mighty among the dead, are poetically represented as rising to congratulate Pharaoh on his arrival, Isaiah 14:9 and admit him free of their dreary mansions.
2. A variety of nations are mentioned who had gone down before him to the grave, and waited, in derision, to pay him mock honour, now become like one of them.
[1.] The Assyrian monarch with his subjects, a vast congregation, once the terror of the living, now slain by the sword, and their graves in rows placed round the sepulchre of their king. Note; They who have been a terror to others, must themselves fall before the king of terrors.
[2.] The Persians with their king next appear; they too had raised a mighty noise in the world, but are now gone down uncircumcised, unholy and profane, into the nether parts of the earth, slain by the sword, and hid in an ignominious grave.
[3.] Meshech and Tubal lie there, supposed to be the Scythian nations, not buried in state as the mighty, but with their swords under their heads, as warriors; and their iniquities shall be upon their bones, dug out of their graves, and ignominiously exposed, though once the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
[4.] There lies Edom with her kings and princes; their might unable to protect them, and forced to stoop to the devouring sword. Though the circumcised descendants of Abraham, yet, being unlike him in their spirit and temper, they fall among the uncircumcised. No outward privileges can protect those whose hearts are apostatized from God.
[5.] The princes of the north, with the Zidonians, notwithstanding their maritime forces, and strong fortifications, are fallen, and their pride confounded in the dust.
3rdly, Pharaoh, with his multitude slain by the sword, shall make his grave with these, and share that consolation, if such a wretched reflection can be supposed to administer comfort, that he looks round and beholds other mighty monarchs as low and wretched as himself.
In all this description of Egypt's fall, perhaps something typical may be intended, respecting the ruin of the anti-christian foe, Revelation 11:8 which may engage the prophet to dwell the longer upon it. And we may in general read and tremble, while we see sinners so many and mighty cast down into the pit of destruction; and learn how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God.