Ezekiel 32:16

16 This is the lamentation, and they shall sing it; the daughters of the Gentiles shall sing it: they shall lament over Egypt and over all her multitude, said the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 32:16 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 32:16

This is the lamentation with which they shall lament her
The Egyptians themselves, or rather they that are after mentioned. The Targum is,

``the prophet said, a lamentation is this prophecy, and it shall be for a lamentation;''

he was bid at the beginning of it to take up a lamentation, and now at the end of it he pronounces it to be one, and that it should be sung as such: the daughters of the nations shall lament for her;
either literally understood, it being the business and custom of women to say or sing the funeral dirge, or the lamentation at the interment of the deceased; or figuratively, the inhabitants of other nations. So Ben Melech and the Targum, ``the villages of the people shall lament her''; that is, the inhabitants of them, who were in alliance with Egypt, and under its protection: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude;
for the desolation of the land, and for the vast numbers of people that should be slain with the sword, or carried captive: saith the Lord God;
which is added for the confirmation of it; for what he has spoken shall be done.

Ezekiel 32:16 In-Context

14 Then I will make their waters deepen and cause their channels to run like oil, said the Lord GOD.

15 When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and the fullness of the land shall be taken away when I shall smite all those that dwell therein, then they shall know that I am the LORD.

16 This is the lamentation, and they shall sing it; the daughters of the Gentiles shall sing it: they shall lament over Egypt and over all her multitude, said the Lord GOD.

17 It also came to pass 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, lament over the multitude of Egypt and cast him down and the habitations of the strong Gentiles into the lower parts of the earth with those that go down into the grave.