And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD: because he hath said, The river [is] mine, and I have made [it].
Ver. 9. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.] With this proud speech he is twice twitted. see Eze 29:3 The Egyptians so trusted in their river Nile, as if they needed no help from heaven.
“ Aegyptus sine nube ferax, ”
saith Claudian. a And Lucan to like purpose:
“ Terra suis contenta bonis, non indiga mercis
Aut Iovis; in solo tanta est fiducia Nile. ”
How much better might God have said to these Egyptians, than Vespasian did, Haurite a me tanquam a Nile, Come ye to me, "the fountain of living waters," and "hew not out thus to yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water!" But they used in mockery to tell the Grecians, that if God should forget to rain, they might chance to starve for it; they thought the rain was of God, but not the river:
“ Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres:
Arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Iovi. ”
- Tibul. de Nilo.
God therefore threateneth here to dry it up, and so he did; ingratitude forfeiteth all. In the reign of Cleopatra, Nile overflowed not the banks for two years together, saith Seneca. He brings in Callimachus, telling of a time wherein it had not done so for nine years' time. Hence Ovid: b
“ Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva
Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem. ”
Thus their gold flowing c and fruit giving d river failed them, because they attributed too much to it. In Joseph's time they had seven years' famine.
a Epigram. 6.
b Art., lib. i.
c χρυσοροας. - Athenaeus.
d καρπ ωδοτης. - Nazianz.