“The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
Ezekiel's last lament over Egypt looks into the world of the dead and names the empires already lying there. Verse 30 adds the rulers of the north and the Sidonians to that list, and asks what becomes of power once God's patience with it runs out.
A roll call in the unseen world
This verse is one line in a list of nations already gone from history into the place of the dead. Naming them shows what is left of them.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWe look here into sheol and 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 are in sheol, the unseen world. God's patience with them ran out, and their wickedness reached its full measure. Then His judgments swept them off the earth, and they passed away and went down into sheol… Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the North, and the Sidonians are all named as existing there. Once great powers, but now cut off, they lie with the uncircumcised in weakness and disgrace.
Why the Sidonians are named
Sidon gets only a brief mention here. Its name, and what it did to Israel, explain why God did not pass it over.
F. W. GrantSidon does not mean "the fisher" in particular, as some say — there is no word for that — but "the taker of prey." Sidon was a great trading power before anyone had heard of Tyre… But she has been a sharp brier and a painful thorn in Israel's side. She was not very dangerous, perhaps, because she lacked power — but that was not her fault. It is the enmity that God judges here, as elsewhere.
The might that caused terror
The verse ties their disgrace to the fear they once spread by their strength.
William KellyThere lie the finest of them, with no sign of any tie to God, "with the uncircumcised." There, in utter weakness and humiliation, lie Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal, Edom, Sidon and others 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.
Laid with the uncircumcised
Circumcision was the outward mark of belonging to God's people. To lie uncircumcised with the slain is to be counted with those who never carried that mark. The surprise is that Egypt, which did practise it, lies in the same heap.
F. W. GrantThis is a judgment not of people one by one, but of nations — the judgment of the whole world, as far as it had then come into the light of God's revelation. 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 lifelessness and shadow of death. This unchanging funeral song, the same for all of them, is part of the lesson meant by it. It should impress on us the common blank and desolation in which so many energies, so many kinds of human character and activity, all come into one ruin you cannot tell apart.
Shame that is still carried
These nations do not vanish. They "bear their shame" — and to bear anything at all, they must still exist.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThese are solemn words. Behind them stands the undeniable truth that the human race exists consciously and for ever. But only the New Testament Scriptures give the full light upon the future state.
Where the lament is not the last word
The chapter ends in darkness, yet one writer points beyond it. In God's purposes, nations named in this lament are not left in the pit.
F. W. GrantThank God, we are now going to come out into brighter things!… Resurrection is all of God. Here it is plain that man has no power at all; he does not come into it. So God is free to show Himself as He wants to. Then the grave itself is no obstacle to Him. It becomes instead the means of a brighter display of His divine glory. So among the names here, Egypt herself is to have her resurrection and blessing in the coming day, and Assyria also, as Isaiah testifies.
Seeing this scene, the Christian is not left only to grieve:
William KellyThe Christian feels for men in view of eternity, but, thank God, God has given him the gospel, the ministry of reconciliation. It rests on the atonement made by Him who was once here revealing God in perfect grace, yet was despised and rejected by men.
Summary
- Down. The princes of the north and the Sidonians have "gone down" — swept off the earth when God's patience ran out and their wickedness reached its full measure.
- Might. The strength that once spread terror is now their shame. The Lord's terror falls hardest on those who spread terror by the sword.
- Enmity. Sidon, "the taker of prey," was a brier and a thorn to Israel, not a great threat. God judges the enmity, not just the damage done.
- Levelled. Circumcised Egypt lies with the uncircumcised. Death merges every distinction, and all that human energy ends in one ruin you cannot tell apart.
- Raised. They carry their shame beyond the grave, still conscious. Yet resurrection is all of God, and He promises blessing in a coming day to nations named in this lament.