Ezekiel 25-32: Oracles Against the Nations

Ezekiel 25-32 consists of oracles against and laments over foreign nations, a sort of reassurance of Israel after God thoroughly censures his people. Though Israel is in the process of being brought down, it will one day be raised back up, and its neigboring countries will suffer a harsh fate for their conduct against Israel, whether it was warfare, mockery, or failing to protect God's people.

The following nations are singled out: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt.

Ammon
Ammon will be handed over to the nomads of the east, who will set up shop in the area: "They shall set their encampments among you and pitch their tents in your midst; they shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. This is retribution for their rejoicing at the destruction of Israel. It is said that Ammon will be wiped from history.



Moab
Moab will suffer the same fate because they never recognized Israel's prominent status with God.

Edom
Edom will have the Lord's vengeance thrust upon it for its past vengeance upon Israel.

Philistia
The hostility of the Philistines against Israel will be repaid with the wrathful punishment of God.

Tyre
The section of oracles against Tyre is broken up into four parts, a proclamation against the land, a lament over the land, a proclamation against the king, and a lament over the king. Tyre is built up to be a great land with a ruler that is described in primordial terms and even at one point seems to have had God's support. Tyre's special treatment probably stems from the fact that it was able to repel the Babylonians for 13 years, and escaped from the encounter intact. Judah, on the other hand, was unable to stand against the strong hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

Proclamation against Tyre: Ezekiel 26
God's wrath falls on Tyre because it rejoices at Israel's destruction, knowing that this will increase its commerce. The Lord will bring the armies of many nations onto Tyre, and it will be completely destroyed:

I will make you a bare rock;
you shall be a place for spreading nets.
(Ezekiel 26.14)

Lamentation over Tyre: Ezekiel 27
The Lamentation over Tyre takes the form of prose and poetry listing all the nations that the city-state had contact with and benefited from.

Maritime imagery dominates the first poetic section, fitting as the port city served as a an important commercial center. Tyre is first described as a ship, with planks from the firs of Senir, a mast made of the cedar of Lebanon, oars from the oaks of Bashan, a deck made of pines from Cyprus, a linen sail from Egypt, awning from Elishah, rowers from Sidon and Arvad, and pilots from Zemer. The elders and artisans of Gebal caulk the seams.

The poem then turns to militaristic imagery: an army that featured men from Paras, Lud, Put, Arvad, Helech, Gamad.

It continues with descriptions of all the other nations that used Tyre's ports: Tarshish, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Beth-Togarmah, the Rhodians, Edom, Judah and Israel, Damascus, Helbon, Vedan and Javan from Uzal, Dedan, Arabia and all the princes of Keday, Sheba and Raamah, Haran, Canneh, Eden, Sheba, Asshur, Chilmad.

These countries and their wares listed, the poem reverts to sea imagery in order to show the destruction of the ship. Tyre goes down with all its wares and most of the nations that support it. A great lament will be raised for the destruction of so great a people.

Proclamation against the King of Tyre: Ezekiel 28.1-10
The King of Tyre is a very wise man, but he is also very bold. Though God confesses the man is wiser than even the wise mythical king Daniel, he also promises to strike the King down for self-deification. Both he and his kingdom will be destroyed by foreign armies.

Lamentation over the King of Tyre: Ezekiel 28.11-19
The King of Tyre is further extolled in the beginning of the lamentation over him, for the purpose of bringing him very low at the end.
You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering...

With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you;
you were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked among the stones of fire.
You were blameles in your ways
from the day that you were created,
until iniquity was found in you.
(Ezekiel 28.12-13; 14-15)

The King of Tyre enjoys a mythical back story that features elements of the Genesis tale of cosmogony. He was in Eden, on the very mountain of God (the description posits Zion as the location of the Edenic narrative). Blameless, he walks in a paradise created by God, protected by one of God's own cherubim. This man is not even related to Jacob!

But even he is cast down when the Lord discovers the evil within him. And for his violence and iniquities he is exposed and conquered.

Sidon
For treating Israel with contempt, Sidon will be besieged with both war and pestilence.

Egypt
Of all the countries listed, Egypt receives the harshest treatment from the Lord, with a total of seven pronouncements against it. Like Tyre, Egypt also resisted Babylonian invasion. However, Egypt deserves even greater retribution in God's eyes because it was unable to protect Israel from the Babylonians.

...because you were a staff of reed
to the house of Israel;
when they grasped you with the hand, you broke,
and tore all their shoulders;
and when they leaned on you, you broke,
and made all their legs unsteady.
(Ezekiel 29.6-7)

For this, and for her pride, Egypt will be brought low:

I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.
(Ezekiel 29.12)

Generally, nations that receive God's retribution are completely destroyed. This is not the case for Egypt, however, whose people are dispersed. There is a certain resonance with the plight of the Israelites here. Both nations are conquered and their people dispersed for a long period of time (the forty years is not literal, but a symbolic number indicating a long period of time that is brought to completion). In fact, they will be conquered - at least it is predicted - by the Babylonians, adding a further kindred resonance. The destruction is described in violent detail in Ezekiel 32.

In continuing this idea, Egypt will again be restored, albeit to a much lesser degree. The purpose of this seems to be humiliation. Even worse than eradication, Egypt will fail as an ineffectual state as Israel becomes a great nation. Egypt will be defined by its shortcomings, in contrast with Israel.

Next week: How Israel will be restored.