What historical events might Ezekiel 32:32 be referencing? Text of the Passage “For I terrified him in the land of the living; yet he will be laid among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword—Pharaoh and all his multitude—declares the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 32:32) Immediate Literary Context Ezekiel 32 is the second of two funeral dirges for “Pharaoh king of Egypt” (32:2). Verses 17–32 form a vision of the netherworld in which Egypt is consigned to the “pit” with other once-proud powers—Assyria, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, the Sidonians—each already fallen by sword and exile. The verse in question is the climactic verdict: Pharaoh will share their fate. Date of Composition The oracle is dated “in the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month” (32:1) of Jehoiachin’s exile—late March 585 BC. Ezekiel is therefore predicting something still future to him. Which Pharaoh? Jeremiah 44:30 explicitly names “Hophra” (Heb. Ḥophraʿ; Greek Apries) as the Pharaoh whom God will give “into the hands of his enemies.” Hophra reigned 589–570 BC. Every chronological marker in Ezekiel dovetails with that identification. Hophra’s overthrow by his general Amasis in 570 BC, followed by invasion from Babylon in 568/567 BC, fits the prophecy’s horizon. Historical Events Already Known to Ezekiel 1. Egypt’s humiliation at Carchemish (605 BC). Nebuchadnezzar crushed the Egyptian-Assyrian coalition; Babylonian Chronicle BM 21946 reports that Egypt “fled and no one looked back.” 2. Failed Egyptian intervention in Judah (ca. 588 BC). Jeremiah 37–38 records Pharaoh’s army withdrawing after a brief show of force, leaving Jerusalem to fall. These embarrassments supplied Ezekiel’s image of a king already “terrified in the land of the living” (32:32a). Events Still Future When Ezekiel Spoke 1. Babylon’s 37th-year campaign (568/567 BC). A damaged line in BM 33041 (“Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle”) mentions a Babylonian expedition “to Egypt.” Josephus, contra Apion 1.19, preserves a similar memory. 2. Hophra’s civil-war death (570 BC). Herodotus II.161-163 narrates that the Egyptian army mutinied after a disastrous defeat in Libya; Amasis led the revolt, and Hophra was finally strangled. The king’s violent demise answers Ezekiel’s refrain “slain by the sword.” 3. Long-range subjugation. Egypt never regained great-power status, falling successively to Persia (525 BC), Alexander (332 BC), and Rome—fulfilling Ezekiel 29:15 that it would “be a lowly kingdom.” Archaeological and Extrabiblical Corroboration • Babylonian Chronicles (BM 21946; BM 33041) confirm defeats and later invasion. • Amasis Decree (Louvre E10607) dates his accession to Year 1 in late 570 BC, matching Hophra’s fall. • The Jewish-Elephantine papyri (5th c. BC) speak of Babylonian presence in Upper Egypt earlier, evidence that Nebuchadnezzar’s reach extended that far. • Herodotus, though writing later, aligns with the biblical pattern: Egypt’s army destroyed, king killed, nation humbled. Why Ezekiel Lists Other Nations The surrounding lament catalogues Assyria, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, and the Sidonians—powers already ruined by Ezekiel’s day. By placing Egypt alongside them, the prophet moves the prediction from possibility to inevitability: as surely as Nineveh fell (612 BC) and Tyre suffered (586 BC), so Egypt will descend to Sheol. Theological Significance 1. Yahweh’s Sovereignty. The fall of Pharaoh underlines that no earthly deity—Ra, Osiris, or the living Pharaoh himself—can rival “the Lord GOD.” 2. Moral Accountability of Nations. Egypt receives the identical fate allotted to uncircumcised, pagan states; covenant status alone spares none from divine justice. 3. Vindication of Prophetic Scripture. Ezekiel prophesied events fifteen years before they unfolded; subsequent history verifies the text’s supernatural origin (cf. Isaiah 46:10). Prophetic Precision and the Resurrection Parallel Just as Egypt’s foretold defeat materialized in verifiable history, so Ezekiel 37 predicts Israel’s national resurrection, and the prophets foretell Messiah’s bodily resurrection (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53:10-12). The already-fulfilled judgment oracles lend evidential weight to the yet more central claim confirmed in AD 33: “He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31, adapted). Conclusion Ezekiel 32:32 looks back to Egypt’s setbacks at Carchemish and in Judah, and forward to Hophra’s overthrow and Babylon’s incursion of 568/567 BC. Archaeological records, classical historians, and the Bible’s own intertext agree. The verse stands as a mini-history lesson written in advance, sealing the certainty that “the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men” (Daniel 4:32) and foreshadowing the ultimate victory secured in the risen Christ. |
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