This third oracle isn’t dated but was probably delivered about the same time as the previous one. It pictures the judgment of Egypt in terms of a great storm that shakes the very foundations of the land.
The storm is coming (vv. 1–5). “The day of the Lord” (v. 3) is a biblical phrase that describes any period of divine judgment, such as the judgment of Egypt. It particularly refers to the time of tribulation in the last days when the Lord will punish the nations (Isa. 65:17–19; Joel 1—3; Zeph. 1—2; Rev. 6–19) before He returns to earth to establish His kingdom. Whether this judgment is local, as with Egypt, or global, as in the last days, it is the Lord’s work, and nobody can stop it or control it. It is “a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations” (Ezek. 30: niv). In the end times, all the nations will experience this time of wrath, but in Ezekiel’s time, judgment would fall on Egypt and her neighboring allies. This would include Ethiopia (Cush, the upper Nile region; see vv. 5, 9), Put (an African nation), Lud (Lydia), the Arabian nations, Cub (Libya), and “the people of the covenant” (v. 5 niv), who are probably Jews serving as mercenaries in the Egyptian army (see 27:10).
Egypt will be desolate (vv. 6–9). When the Babylon sword invades the land, not only with Egypt fall, but so will their allies. Those areas were desolate enough before, but now they would be even worse as the land is devastated. God will crush Egypt’s allies and light a fire that will destroy the land. The people of Cush will think they are secure, so the Lord will send them messengers to wake them up, but it will be too late.
Babylon will do God’s work (vv. 10–12). When the Lord punished Egypt during the time of Israel’s slavery, He did the work Himself; but now He would use Nebuchadnezzar as His appointed servant to punish the proud Egyptians. His army would be ruthless (28:7, “terrible” kjv; see 31:12; 32:12) and fill the land with corpses. But His judgments would also affect the rivers and make them dry, a great catastrophe for such an arid land.
Nothing shall escape God’s wrath (vv. 13–19). Ezekiel has told us what would happen and how it would happen, and now he reveals the vast scope of God’s wrath. Note the repetition of the phrase “I will” as the Lord describes His work of judgment in both Lower Egypt (“Noph” = “Memphis,” v. 13) and Upper Egypt (Pathros). Instead of a land of pride, Egypt will be a land filled with fear. “Zoan” is “Rameses,” “No” is “Thebes,” and “Sin” is “Pelusium.” The verbs used make it clear that the Lord will permit total devastation: destroy, make desolate, set fire, pour fury, cut off, the day darkened. The Jews were led out of Egypt by a bright cloud (Ex. 13:21), but the Egyptians who once enslaved them will be under a dark cloud. As a result of God’s judgment, the power and pride of Egypt will be destroyed, and the nation would never rise to its former heights again. The young men would be slain and the young women taken into slavery, so the future generation would be given into the hands of the enemy.
Nations never seem to learn that God is serious about what happens to His people Israel. The devastating judgment that God sent to Egypt before the exodus should have taught the Egyptians a lasting lesson, but apparently they forgot it. In opposing God’s purposes for Israel, Egypt invited God’s judgments on their own nation, for the Lord always keeps His covenant promises.