Ezekiel 32:32
For I will spread My terror in the land of the living, so that Pharaoh and all his multitude will be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword, declares the Lord GOD."
Sermons
A Vision of the Unseen WorldW. Clarkson Ezekiel 32:17-32
Companionship in WoeJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 32:17-32
The Gathering of the Guilty Nations in HadesJ.R. Thomson Ezekiel 32:17-32














This vision of the poet-prophet is one of the boldest and most sublime in the whole compass of literature. As a lofty flight of imagination it excites the wonder and admiration of every reader gifted with poetical appreciation. Ezekiel is bringing to a close his prophecies regarding the nations by which the land of Israel was encompassed. How far from the narrowness and the lack of sympathy sometimes attributed to the Hebrews was the prophet of the Oriental captivity! How wide the sweep of his vision! How ready his sympathy for the fate of other peoples than his own! And, above all, how sublime: his conception of the unity and the true immortality of the human race! As he was not limited by space, but interested himself in the territories and the dominions of distant monarchs, so he disdained the bounds of time, passed beyond this scene of discipline and probation, and anticipated the community of the heathen nations in the realm of Hades. There his prophetic spirit beheld Pharaoh and his people surrounded by the kings and armies and multitudes from other lands, participating in a just and common fate.

I. THE COMMON SIN OF THE NATIONS. Of all those mentioned by the prophet, it may be said that they were unfaithful to their trust, and incurred the just displeasure of the Ruler of the universe.

1. They had all forgotten God, for it is in this light that we must view their idolatry.

2. They had all sought their own aggrandizement and glory rather than the life of righteousness.

3. They had all been rapacious, violent, and unscrupulous in their treatment of neighboring peoples.

II. THE COMMON DOOM OF THE NATIONS. It is said of one after another of these guilty states, that they were all slain with the sword, and bore their shame with them that go down to the pit, to the midst of Sheol. It is said that "their iniquities were upon their bones" by which we may understand that their sin clave to them, that they were counted responsible for it, and were required to bear the penalties attaching to it. It would be absurd to attempt a precise explanation of the poetical language of this splendid vision, which is utterly insusceptible of logical analysis. It expresses the mood of the inspired prophet; it conveys a great moral truth; it aids us in the appreciation of national continuity and vitality; it brings powerfully before our mind the amenability of governments and states to the moral law and jurisdiction of the Eternal Righteousness.

III. THE COMMON WOE AND LAMENTATION OF THE NATIONS. "Son of man," said the Lord, "wail for the multitude of Egypt." Although the nations are represented as lying still in the depths of Sheol - their swords under their heads - yet they are represented as in some measure conscious; Pharaoh of Egypt being "comforted" at the awful approach of his compeers in pride and terror, and the Zidonians as ashamed because of their sin and its recompense. Mourning and lamentation must ensue upon sin, even though during its commission there be insensibility and obduracy.

IV. THE COMMON TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. The fate of the colossal world empires of antiquity has preached, in tones of power and in terms of unmistakable precision, to the after-times. These nations, in their worldly pride and in their providential fall, have taught mankind that there is but one sure foundation for a people's well-being, and that those who build upon another foundation are doomed to fall. God himself is the Source of true national life and prosperity. Where he is repudiated or forgotten, ruin is sure. Where he is honored and obeyed, there and there only will there prevail progress and stability and peace. - T.

Gone down to hell with their weapons of war.
I. THE UTTER HELPLESSNESS OF MORTALITY.

1. What might is there that call withstand death! From armies, thrones, castles, courts, and empires, death hath plucked his prey.

2. The universality of death's empire.

(1)We walk not an untrodden path; "It is the way of all flesh."

(2)Though it is "the way of all flesh," yet we must each walk that path alone, and yet not alone (Psalm 23:4).

3. What a picture is here drawn of all enmity against God! Rebellion against God is madness (Psalm 2).

4. What a contrast the grave of the Saviour presents to these! Victorious death in that bright Easter morn was subdued and crushed. Ours is the triumph also. Though mortality be helpless, and must bow to the dust, yet humanity is triumphant, and shall rise again.

II. THE FOND TENACITY OF MEMORY. Memory surrounds the living with relics of the dead and mementoes of the past. Even the dead are surrounded with tokens of their circumstances, character, and career. Above the grave stands the grey tombstone, with the simple inscription, "To the memory." What memories are you preparing for your deathbed and the grave? Our moral actions, mental emotions, and impressions we cannot bury in everlasting oblivion. Our character is our true epitaph cut deeply into our tomb.

(R. S. Latimer.).

People
Elam, Ezekiel, Meshech, Pharaoh, Sidonians, Tubal
Places
Assyria, Babylon, Edom, Egypt, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Tigris-Euphrates Region
Topics
Affirmation, Along, Caused, Circumcision, Death, Declares, Fear, Hordes, Instilled, Killed, Laid, Lie, Midst, Multitude, Pharaoh, Pierced, Rest, Says, Slain, Sovereign, Spread, Sword, Terror, Though, Uncircumcised, Yet
Outline
1. A lamentation for the fearful fall of Egypt
11. The sword of Babylon shall destroy it
17. It shall be brought down to hell, among all the uncircumcised nations

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 32:17-32

     9110   after-life

Ezekiel 32:24-32

     6260   uncircumcised

Library
How the Preacher, when He Has Accomplished all Aright, Should Return to Himself, Lest Either his Life or his Preaching Lift Him Up.
But since often, when preaching is abundantly poured forth in fitting ways, the mind of the speaker is elevated in itself by a hidden delight in self-display, great care is needed that he may gnaw himself with the laceration of fear, lest he who recalls the diseases of others to health by remedies should himself swell through neglect of his own health; lest in helping others he desert himself, lest in lifting up others he fall. For to some the greatness of their virtue has often been the occasion
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Second Coming of Christ.
^A Matt. XXIV. 29-51; ^B Mark XIII. 24-37; ^C Luke XXI. 25-36. ^b 24 But in those days, ^a immediately after the { ^b that} ^a tribulation of those days. [Since the coming of Christ did not follow close upon the destruction of Jerusalem, the word "immediately" used by Matthew is somewhat puzzling. There are, however, three ways in which it may be explained: 1. That Jesus reckons the time after his own divine, and not after our human, fashion. Viewing the word in this light, the passage at II. Pet.
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Epistle cxxii. To Rechared, King of the visigoths .
To Rechared, King of the Visigoths [82] . Gregory to Rechared, &c. I cannot express in words, most excellent son, how much I am delighted with thy work and thy life. For on hearing of the power of a new miracle in our days, to wit that the whole nation of the Goths has through thy Excellency been brought over from the error of Arian heresy to the firmness of a right faith, one is disposed to exclaim with the prophet, This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High (Ps. lxxvi. 11 [83]
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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