when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake.
Israel reached for Egypt and grasped a hollow marsh reed that snapped under the weight. God's word against Pharaoh names the injury and answers a question we all face: what does God do when our support gives way?
Two charges behind the judgment
God's judgment on Egypt has stated reasons. Commentators reading the whole chapter find two. The second is the one this verse spells out.
Numerical Bible NotesWe have, first, the causes of the judgment. They are mainly two. First, the pride and self-sufficiency we have already spoken of. Second, that Egypt has been a breaking staff to Israel. It was a staff of reed. It offered much, but it never kept its promises, and it brought only ruin to all who trusted it.
What a reed does to the hand that grips it
The picture is physical. A reed looks like a walking staff until your full weight goes onto it. Then it snaps and drives into the palm.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinEgypt gave no help to Israel. It only wounded them badly, like a staff that breaks under the weight of the man leaning on it and pierces his hand. Whenever God's people turn to Egypt — the picture of the world — for help, and make godless alliances, they do so to their own hurt and shame.
The alliance wounded the one who made it
Israel's repeated move was to send to Egypt when danger came. The result was never neutral — the partnership itself did the damage.
William KellyThe chosen people had gone to Egypt for help before now: what had been the outcome? The alliance of Israel with a nation who openly trusted in themselves, and not in the Lord, was useless — except that it badly wounded Israel when Egypt broke.
A pagan officer had already said it
Long before Ezekiel, an Assyrian commander taunted Jerusalem with this very image, telling Hezekiah that Egypt was a splintered reed that pierces the hand of anyone leaning on it. God through Ezekiel confirms the taunt — and one commentator notes both the accuracy and the blindness in it.
William KellyThere is a great deal of truth in the world's talk. So far Rabshakeh was quite right. The king of Egypt was only a reed. The Assyrian could see very well how empty it was to trust Egypt. But he could not see the wisdom of trusting in the LORD. "But if you say to me, We trust in the LORD our God" — now you see how the world's wisdom becomes folly the moment it comes near God. Wise enough about Egypt; that was plain. But the moment he thinks of God — foolishness.
God takes up His people's cause
The striking thing in the chapter is who is offended. Israel sinned by going down to Egypt, yet God turns and prosecutes the staff that failed them.
Numerical Bible NotesWe come now to the second cause of the judgment, and we see how God takes up the cause of His people, foolish and perverse as they may have been. Had God not warned them enough that they must not trust in Egypt? … So this Pharaoh invited a confidence in himself that he could not justify. When Israel leaned on him, he gave way under them. He tore all their shoulder and lamed all their loins. God must put him in the place where he belongs. God Himself must break the staff that has broken to His people's hurt.
The same reed today
The warning does not stop with Israel. One writer turns it on every believer.
J. N. DarbyThis was Israel's folly: they turned from God and His Spirit to trust in Egypt and in human strength, because they lived as mere men. … Nothing is more certain than this. Every bit of confidence a believer places in man, or in himself, is that much trust taken away from "the living God."
Summary
- The reed. Egypt looked like a staff. It offered much, delivered nothing, and ruined everyone who trusted it.
- The grip. A reed does its harm at the moment of need: it splinters under weight and pierces the hand that takes hold.
- The habit. God had rescued Israel out of Egypt, yet they went back to it for help again and again.
- The break. God Himself snaps the staff that broke under His people. He takes up their cause, even though the leaning was their own folly.
- The transfer. Every bit of confidence placed in man is trust taken away from the living God. Lean where nothing splinters.