But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
But he rebelled. God permitted this because of His wrath against Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:20).
That they might give him horses - in which Egypt abounded, and which were forbidden to Israel to seek from Egypt, or indeed to "multiply" at all (Deuteronomy 17:16; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 31:3; cf. Isaiah 36:9). Diodorus Siculus (1: 45) says that the whole region from Thebes to Memphis was filled with royal stalls, so that 20,000 chariots, with two horses in each, could be furnished for war.
Shall he prosper? The third time this question is asked, with an indignant denial understood (Ezekiel 17:9-10).
Shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered? Even the pagan believed that breakers of an oath would not "escape" punishment.