Ezekiel 32:16

16 {This is} a lament, and they will chant it as a lament; the daughters [of] the nations will chant it as a lament over Egypt, and over all of its hordes they will chant it as a lament," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

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 settle, and their rivers as the olive oil I will let flow," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

15 "Then I make the land of Egypt [a] desolation, so that the land will be stripped from its fullness when I strike all of [those] dwelling in it, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.

16 {This is} a lament, and they will chant it as a lament; the daughters [of] the nations will chant it as a lament over Egypt, and over all of its hordes they will chant it as a lament," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

17 {And then} in the {twelfth} year, {on the fifteenth} [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying},

18 "Son of man, mourn over the hordes of Egypt, and make her go down, [and] with her [the] daughters of mighty nations, {down to the deep underworld} with [the people] going down to [the] grave.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "she [is]"
• [b]. Literally "declaration of"