There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised unto the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit.
Ezekiel 32 ends a long run of judgments on the nations with a funeral song. Verse 24 names one more fallen power: Elam, lying among the graves of nations already destroyed. Why does a prophet speaking about Egypt name a kingdom far to the east?
Elam was a man's name first, and then a kingdom east of Babylon. Scripture remembers it from Abraham's day.
Son of Shem. He settled in a highland district east of Babylonia, which became the centre of a powerful kingdom. The district was also called ELAM. In the days of Abraham, Chedorlaomer king of Elam was able to make war as far off as the Dead Sea. It later became subject to the great power of the Chaldeans and Assyrians. When Assyria declined, Elam was conquered by its Persian neighbours... In Scripture Elam often means Persia.
The prophet looks past the battlefield. He opens the unseen world and shows what has become of the nations that once terrified the living.
Here we look into sheol. We see the nations gathered there, stripped of their glory, in the deepest humiliation and shame. Their bodies are in the pit, the grave, and their souls in sheol, the unseen regions. God's patience with them ran out, and the measure of their wickedness became full. Then judgments swept them off the earth, and they passed away and went down into sheol. And what irony there is connected with it! "Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid with the uncircumcised." And when the king came there with his multitudes, whom did they find? Asshur, that is Assyria, is mentioned first... She was a cruel, pitiless, destructive power. She once caused "terror in the land of the living." Now she is helpless, with all her power gone in the unseen world.
Circumcision was the outward mark that a people belonged to God. So "the uncircumcised" became the name for the nations outside that covenant.
The rite appointed by God to be a token of the covenant that He made with Abraham and his seed... It signified the separation of a people from the world to God... Circumcision became a synonym for Israel, so that they could be spoken of as "the circumcised," and the other nations as "the uncircumcised."
That is what makes this grave so bleak. Elam lies there with nothing to link her to God, and she is not alone.
There lie the finest of them, with no mark of belonging to God, "with the uncircumcised." There in utter weakness and humiliation lie Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal, Edom, Sidon and other nations north of Palestine. They are ashamed of the might they were once so proud of, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. The Lord's terror remains, and it rests most on those who inflicted the most terror here with the sword.
The same words fall over one nation after another. That repetition carries its own lesson.
As we see, this is a judgment not of separate people, but of nations... the circumcised lie with the uncircumcised. Egypt was a circumcised people on the outside, but circumcision meant nothing to them. Now all of them are made equal by the one thing that erases every distinction: the shared powerlessness and shadow of death. This dull funeral song, the same for all of them, is part of the lesson. It is meant to impress on us the shared emptiness and desolation where so many energies, and so many kinds of human character and activity, all end in one ruin where nothing can be told apart.
The pit is not the last word about Elam.
Yet the sure word of prophecy tells us more. Elam was ravaged in the past (Ezekiel 32:24-25, and Jeremiah 49:34-38). Even so, she will be brought back from captivity in the latter days, according to Jeremiah 49:39.
The reason given is simple. Elam's land was never part of Israel's land:
Egypt and Elam form no part of the land of Israel. God in His goodness will have compassion on those countries; they shall be inhabited and blessed under His government.
- Terror — Elam once filled the land of the living with fear. Now the Lord's terror rests most on those who used the sword to terrify others.
- Stripped — in sheol the nations stand with their glory gone, in the deepest humiliation and shame.
- Unmarked — to lie "with the uncircumcised" is to lie there with no mark of belonging to God.
- Levelled — the same funeral song repeats over every nation, because death erases every distinction and leaves one ruin.
- Restored — yet Elam, ravaged in the past, has a promise of return in the latter days, because her land was never part of Israel's.
They have set him a bed in the midst of the slain, with all his multitude their graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though their terror was caused in the land of the living; and they have borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit he is put in the midst of them that are slain.
Ezekiel's last lament looks past the battlefield into the unseen world, where nation after nation already lies buried. Elam, named in the verse just before, now lies there on a bed among the corpses, which raises hard questions: what does death do to greatness, and is the pit the end of the story?
The word "bed" is grim irony. Elam has a resting place, but it lies in the middle of the dead, with graves packed all around. One writer names the nations lying there and what they have lost:
There lie the most beautiful nations, without a single sign that they belonged to God, "with the uncircumcised." There lie Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal, Edom, Sidon and others north of Palestine, in utter weakness and humiliation. They are ashamed of the might they were once so proud of, and they carry their shame with those who go down to the pit. The Lord's terror remains, and most of all for those who inflicted the most terror here with the sword.
Circumcision was the outward sign that a people belonged to God, so to lie "uncircumcised" is to lie without that sign. But Egypt was circumcised, and one writer notes that it counted for nothing when judgment came.
This is a judgment, as we see, not of people but of nations. It is the judgment of the whole world, so far as the world had yet come into the light of revelation — the circumcised together with the uncircumcised. Egypt was outwardly a circumcised people, but for Egypt it meant nothing. Now all are made equal in the one thing that merges every distinction: the common lifelessness and shadow of death. This funeral song, the same for every one of them, is part of the lesson. It presses on us the common blank and desolation in which so many energies, and so many kinds of human character and activity, all come into one ruin where nothing can be told apart.
The verse gives the reason for the sentence: these nations spread terror while they lived. One writer traces the same reversal through Assyria, named just before Elam:
Assyria was a cruel, pitiless, destructive power. Now she, who once caused "terror in the land of the living," is helpless, with all her power gone in the unseen world.
The verse speaks of graves, and also of shame that is felt. One writer sets the two sides of the picture together:
Their bodies are in the pit, the grave, and their souls are in sheol, the unseen regions.
The same writer points to a scene in Isaiah where the dead speak, and draws a plain conclusion:
"Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth… All of them will answer and say to you: 'You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!'" (Isaiah 14:9-10). These are solemn words, and behind them stands the undeniable truth that the human race exists consciously and forever. But only the New Testament gives the full light on the future state.
The name Elam belongs first to a man, then to the land he settled:
Elam was a son of Shem. He settled in a highland district east of Babylonia, which became the home of a powerful kingdom… In Scripture, Elam often means Persia.
Yet this ruin is not Elam's permanent end. One writer ties the passage to a promise in Jeremiah:
Yet we know also from the assured word of prophecy, that however ravaged in the past (Ezekiel 32:24-25, and Jeremiah 49:34-38), Elam will have its captivity brought again in the latter days according to Jeremiah 49:39.
The lament is heavy on purpose, and one writer sets out the lesson in it:
Thank God, we are going to come out now into brighter things! But God's lessons must be learned, and in their own order. There is no escape from this. We have to carry the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we do not trust in ourselves but in Him who raises the dead. Resurrection is all of God. Here it is plain that man has no ability at all. He is left out of account, and so God is free to show Himself as He wants to. Then the grave itself is no hindrance to Him. Instead it becomes the means of a brighter display of His divine glory.
- Terror — the verse names Elam's crime: she spread terror among the living. The Lord's terror remains, most of all for those who spread the most.
- Bed — her only bed lies among corpses. Greatness is not honoured here; she carries her shame down into the pit.
- Uncircumcised — she lies with those who carry no sign of belonging to God. Egypt had the sign, and it counted for nothing when judgment came.
- Levelled — one funeral song covers nation after nation. Death merges every distinction into one ruin you cannot tell apart.
- Resurrection — the pit is not the last word. The dead are conscious there, Elam has a return promised in the latter days, and the grave is no hindrance to the God who raises the dead.