“Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers.
Ezekiel 32 opens with a date and a command to sing a funeral song over a king who is still alive and still powerful. It sets two pictures side by side: a lion on the prowl and a monster thrashing in the water. Why does God picture the world's proudest throne this way? And why does He mourn over it instead of striking it?
A Song of Mourning
The date is the twelfth year and twelfth month. What comes at that moment is not a war cry but grief. One writer weighs that mourning note, and what it shows of God's heart toward the creatures He made:
Numerical Bible NotesWe now come to the twelfth year and the twelfth month. This is a time that speaks of the full display of God's governmental ways. But with this, in which there should be only blessing, there comes instead a voice of mourning. It reminds us of the tears wept on earth by One who was God Himself shown in flesh. He wept over those who had despised His gracious invitations, and would not be gathered under the wings that would have covered them so safely. The creatures God has made must always be objects of interest to Him.
Lion and River Monster
The two images carry the message of the first half of the chapter. One commentator points out that "whale" in older English versions is not the best rendering here:
William KellyAt the close the Spirit of God adds a fresh message in two parts. The first, in the first half of this chapter, sets out the coming disaster of Pharaoh under the figures of a lion and a crocodile (or a river dragon, not "a whale"). He was once the terror of the nations. Now he is caught, killed and put on show before all, and this at the hand of the king of Babylon.
The Hebrew word behind the picture is broad. It covers sea monsters in general, so translations differ:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe word tannin in Genesis 1:21, Job 7:12 and Ezekiel 32:2, and the Greek word ketos in Matthew 12:40, refer to any sea monsters, without naming one in particular… The Hebrew word tannin is also translated in the older English version as "dragon," "sea monster," and "serpent."
Troubling His Own Waters
Why two creatures and not one? Pharaoh had changed. He no longer only lies in his rivers; he has come out of them. And all that ambition ends in muddy water:
Numerical Bible NotesThis prophecy shows Pharaoh in a double character. He is no longer only the crocodile lying in the waters. He has broken out as a young lion of the nations. For some time Egypt had been unusually active in this way. Pharaoh tried to copy what the kings before him had done, and to make himself an imperial power like Assyria, and now like Babylon. But in this, as we know, he was doomed to fail. Like the restless monster that pictures him, he could only trouble his own waters with his feet, and foul his streams.
The Sin Underneath the Symbol
The charge against Egypt is self-will. It reached for a place God had given to someone else:
J. N. DarbyIn the self-will of man, Egypt tried to take the place God had in fact given to Nebuchadnezzar. All must submit. The mighty empire of Asshur, that is Assyria, had already fallen. Whatever Pharaoh claimed for himself, and whatever his ambition, he was no better… What marked Egypt out was the pride of nature. It would follow its own will, and owned no God.
Why the River Matters
Egypt's whole life ran on water it never had to ask heaven for. That is what makes Egypt a picture of the world:
C KnappThey had the river Nile to water the country, and did not depend at all on the dew and rain of heaven… This is like the world. They have no need of God. Their springs are all down here. Christians can say, "All my springs are in You." God is the source of all their joys… Their resource is some "river." With some it is gold and stocks and houses and land.
Summary
- Grief first. The chapter opens with a lament. Even a proud and doomed king is still an object of God's interest — the same heart that wept over those who would not be gathered.
- Two beasts, one man. Pharaoh is both a young lion broken out among the nations and a monster in the water. Commentators read the second figure as a crocodile or river dragon, not a whale; the Hebrew word covers sea monsters of any kind.
- Muddy water. All his effort to match Assyria and Babylon only stirred up and fouled the streams he lived in.
- Pride of nature. The root of Egypt's ruin was self-will that recognised no God and grabbed at a place God had given to another.
- Our own river. Egypt did not need rain, and the world thinks it does not need God. Its springs are all down here — money and property, not Him.