Ezekiel 32:16

16 "This is the funeral song people will sing for Egypt. The women of the nations will sing it; they will sing a funeral song for Egypt and all its people, says 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 So I will let the Egyptians' water become clear. I will cause their rivers to run as smoothly as olive oil, says the Lord God.

15 When I make the land of Egypt empty and take everything that is in the land, when I destroy all those who live in Egypt, then they will know that I am the Lord.'

16 "This is the funeral song people will sing for Egypt. The women of the nations will sing it; they will sing a funeral song for Egypt and all its people, says the Lord God."

17 It was in the twelfth year of our captivity, on the fifteenth day of the month. The Lord spoke his word to me, saying:

18 "Human, cry for the people of Egypt. Bring down Egypt, together with the women of the powerful nations; bring them down to the place of the dead below the earth to join those who go to the place of the dead.