Ezekiel 30:4

4 A sword will come against Egypt, and anguish will come upon Cush.[a]When the slain fall in Egypt, her wealth will be carried away and her foundations torn down.

Ezekiel 30:4 in Other Translations

KJV
4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
ESV
4 A sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Cush, when the slain fall in Egypt, and her wealth is carried away, and her foundations are torn down.
NLT
4 A sword will come against Egypt, and those who are slaughtered will cover the ground. Its wealth will be carried away and its foundations destroyed. The land of Ethiopia will be ravished.
MSG
4 Death will rain down on Egypt. Terror will paralyze Ethiopia When they see the Egyptians killed, their wealth hauled off, their foundations demolished,
CSB
4 A sword will come against Egypt, and there will be anguish in Cush when the slain fall in Egypt, and its wealth is taken away, and its foundations are torn down.

Ezekiel 30:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 30:4

And the sword shall come upon Egypt
The sword of the Chaldeans shall come upon the Egyptians, by which they should be cut off; it having a commission from the Lord for that purpose: and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in
Egypt;
Ethiopia being a neighbouring nation to Egypt, shall be in a panic when it shall hear of the sword of the Chaldeans being in Egypt, and of the ravages made by it, of the multitudes slain with it; fearing it will be their turn next to fall into the same hands, and in the same manner; and the rather, not only as they were neighbours, but allies: and they shall take away her multitude;
that is, the Chaldeans shall carry captive vast numbers of the Egyptians; such as fell not by the sword should not escape the hand of the enemy, but be taken and carried into other lands. Egypt was a very populous country; according to Agrippa's speech in Josephus F6, there were in it 7,500,000 persons from Ethiopia to Alexandria, besides the inhabitants of the latter, as might be gathered from the tribute each person paid; hence they are compared to the trees of a forest that cannot be searched, and to grasshoppers innumerable, ( Jeremiah 46:23 ) , but now their numbers should be lesser: and her foundations shall be broken down;
either in a literal sense, the foundations of the cities, towers, and fortified places in Egypt, should be undermined and destroyed, and consequently the buildings on them must sink and fall; or in a figurative sense, her king, princes, magistrates, laws, and government, which are the support of a state, should be removed, and be of no more service.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 4.

Ezekiel 30:4 In-Context

2 “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “ ‘Wail and say, “Alas for that day!”
3 For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near— a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.
4 A sword will come against Egypt, and anguish will come upon Cush.When the slain fall in Egypt, her wealth will be carried away and her foundations torn down.
5 Cush and Libya, Lydia and all Arabia, Kub and the people of the covenant land will fall by the sword along with Egypt.
6 “ ‘This is what the LORD says: “ ‘The allies of Egypt will fall and her proud strength will fail. From Migdol to Aswan they will fall by the sword within her, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Cross References 3

  • 1. Jeremiah 25:19; Daniel 11:43
  • 2. S Genesis 10:6; S Ezekiel 29:10
  • 3. S Ezekiel 29:19

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. That is, the upper Nile region; also in verses 5 and 9
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