1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.
3 Thus saith the Lord God; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.
4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.
5 And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height.
6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.
7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.
9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.
10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.
11 For thus saith the Lord God; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.
12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.
13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord God.
15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the Lord.
16 This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord God.
17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.
19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.
20 They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.
21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
22 Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:
23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.
24 There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.
25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain.
26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
28 Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword.
29 There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.
30 There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.
31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord God.
32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.
<html><b>You resembled a young lion among the nations, but you are like a crocodile in the seas</b> You should have lain in the midst of your rivers, as is the custom of the fish, and not gone out to the dry land; but you were haughty in your heart, and you compared yourself to a young lion, which dominates the dry land and goes forth to tear prey. <b>and you went out with your rivers</b> [Heb. וַתָּגַח,] and you went out with your rivers, the same meaning as in (Ps. 22:10): “You drew me (גֹחִי) from the womb”; (Job 40:23), “he will draw (יָגִיחַ) the Jordan into his mouth”; Jud. 20:33), “And the liers in wait of Israel drew forth (מֵגִיחַ).” [This is] an expression for something flowing and going out of a hidden place. <b>and you sullied</b> [Heb. וַתִּדְלַח,] an expression of making something murky. <b>with your feet</b> You had no feet, but I made for you feet like the beasts of the earth, to cross the waters of the lands and to tread their rivers. The symbolism is like Targum Jonathan: and you waged war with your camps and you caused the peoples to quake with your supporters, and you destroyed their countries.</html>
<html><b>with My net</b> [Heb. בְּחֶרְמִי,] a word for a net, and there are many in Scriptures, [e.g.,] (Hab. 1: 15): “he catches them in his net (בְּחֶרְמוֹ)”; (Ecc. 7:26), “snares and nets (וַחֲרָמִים).”</html>
<html><b>and I shall fill the valleys with what is cast off from you</b> [Heb. רָמוּתֶךָ] your casting, like (Exod. 15: 1): “He cast (רָמָה) into the sea.” Others say that רָמוּתֶךָ is meant as a form of the word for worm (רִמָה), like (ibid. 16:20): “and it became alive with worms (וַיָרֻם).”</html>
<html><b>And I shall water…the land where you float</b> [Heb. צָפָתְךָ,] the land where you float on the surface of the water of your rivers-like (Lam. 3:54): “Water floated (צָפוּ) over my head”; (II Kings 6:6): “and the axe blade floated (וַיָצֶף)” - that land I will water with your blood. <b>even to the mountains</b> the highest [mountains] in it. צָפָתְךָ is ton flottement in French, your floating, swimming. <b>and the streams</b> [Heb. וַאֲפִיקִים,] riveyes in Old French, gullies, gulches; streams.</html>
<html><b>And with your smoke I will cover the heavens</b> [Heb. בְּכַבּוֹתְךָ, lit. with you extinguishing.] When your conflagration will be extinguished, the smoke will rise and cover the sky and darken the luminaries; i.e., all who hear the news of what happened to you will mourn and be astonished, because everyone will worry about himself, saying, “The destroyer will stand up over us as well.”</html>
<html><b>All the bright lights in the heavens</b> the heavenly princes, your intercessors.</html>
<html><b>And I will vex the heart</b> i.e., their heart will tremble and quake. <b>when I bring your ruin</b> when I bring the ruin of your battles among the peoples.</html>
<html><b>And I will cause…to be appalled</b> [Heb. וַהֲשִּׁוֹתִי,] an expression of bewilderment. <b>when I cause My sword to fly before their faces</b> [Heb. בְּעוֹפְפִי,] an expression of a flying bird, when I send upon you the army of My emissaries through their land. <b>and they will quake at their ruin</b> [Heb. לִרְגָעִים,] to ruins, lest ruin come upon them as well. Another explanation: an expression of an actual moment (רֶגַע). In this sense, Menachem (p. 162) connects it. <b>everyone for himself</b> each one concerning himself, soi- meme in French, for himself.</html>
<html><b>from beside…waters</b> of other countries that you used to sully.</html>
<html><b>I shall sink their waters</b> The foot of cattle will not make it murky, and the mud will sink, so that the water will be clear and clean like refined oil.</html>
<html><b>a land that is full</b> [Heb. אֶרֶץמִמְלוֹאָה, a land that is now full (מִמְוּלָאָה) of all goodness.</html>
<html><b>lament</b> Weep and lament. <b>and bring it down, it and the daughters, etc.</b> prophesy, about him and about all the heathens, that they will descend into the Pit of Destruction. Here the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Ezekiel that all the heathens descend to Gehinnom.</html>
<html><b>Whom have you surpassed in pleasantness</b> Are you any better than the other uncircumcised ones? You too will descend into the Pit and lie with them.</html>
<html><b>it was delivered to the sword</b> Egypt was delivered to the sword.</html>
<html><b>shall speak of him</b> [Heb. יְדַבְּרוּ לוֹ] shall speak of him and of his helpers. <b>the strongest of the mighty men…from the midst of the Grave</b> Transpose the verse and interpret it: They shall speak of him אֶתעֹזרָיו, with his helpers; i.e., concerning all his helpers with him, too, shall the strongest of the mighty men, who are in the Grave, speak, and they will say about them thus: <b>the uncircumcised… descended, etc.</b> Every לָהֶם, לִי, לוֹ, and לְךָ written next to דִבּוּר, speech, means nothing but “about.”</html>
<html><b>There are Assyria</b> in Gehinnom. <b>around it [are its graves]</b> In the midst of the Grave its graves are prepared, for from there it will not emerge to rest in a grave.</html>
<html><b>in the utmost part of the Pit</b> in the depths of the Pit; in the midst of its depth. <b>and whose company was</b> in the midst of the Grave, “was around its grave.” <b>who cast destruction</b> [Heb. חִתִית,] who cast destruction in the land of Israel.</html>
<html><b>they provided a bed for her</b> for Elam.</html>
<html><b>slain by the sword</b> [Heb. מְחֻלְלֵי,] like הֲרוּגֵי.</html>
<html><b>But they will not lie</b> These who were mentioned [will not lie] with the mighty who died a natural death, for they will be inferior to and worse than the uncircumcised who died a natural death and descended with their weapons into the Grave. <b>and they laid</b> i.e., those who buried them [laid]…<b>their swords under their heads</b> as a sign to make it known that the sword did not prevail over them. <b>and their iniquities were upon their bones</b> Nothing was lacking from their iniquity, for the slaying sword did not expiate it, because they were not slain. Now what is the iniquity? That the destruction wrought by these mighty men was in the land of the living.</html>
<html><b>And you - in the midst of the uncircumcised</b> He is addressing Pharaoh. <b>with those slain by the sword</b> and not with those who die a natural death.</html>
<html><b>ashamed when they are destroyed in spite of their might</b> [Jonathan renders:] When they are broken in spite of their might, they are ashamed.</html>
<html><b>For I shall cast My fear into the land of the living</b> For I shall cast My fear into the land of the living and the fear of man will no longer be cast therein.</html>