Ezekiel 30:18

18 The day will be dark^[a] in Tehaphnehes, when I break the yoke of Egypt there and its proud strength comes to an end in the city. A cloud^[b] will cover Tehaphnehes,^[c] and its villages will go into captivity.

Ezekiel 30:18 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 30:18

At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened
The same with Hanes in ( Isaiah 30:4 ) and Tahapanes in ( Jeremiah 2:16 ) and Tahpanhes, ( Jeremiah 43:7-9 ) , it was a royal seat of the kings of Egypt: there was in Solomon's time a queen of Egypt of this name, and perhaps it might be so called from her, ( 1 Kings 11:19 1 Kings 11:20 ) . It is generally thought to be the Daphne of Pelusium, it being near that city; though Junius takes it to be a place in another part of Egypt, at a great distance, which Herodotus ^F9 calls Tahcompso, an island encompassed by the Nile; and by Ptolemy ^F11 called Metacompso: now at this place the day should be darkened; or should "restrain" ^F12, as it may be rendered; that is, its light; it should be a calamitous and mournful time with the inhabitants of it: when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt;
the yokes they put upon the necks of others, who now should be freed from them: or, "the sceptres of Egypt", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; the regalia of their kings, which might lie in this place; it being a royal seat where Pharaoh had a house, as appears from ( Jeremiah 43:9 ) : and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her;
all that grandeur and magnificence which appeared in the courts of the kings of Egypt in this place: as for her, a cloud shall cover her;
as for this city, a cloud of calamity shall cover it, so as its glory shall not be seen. The Targum is,

``a king with his army shall cover her as a cloud ascends and covers the earth:''

and her daughters shall go into captivity;
which may be taken either in a literal sense for the daughters of the inhabitants of this place, which must be a great affliction to their tender parents, to have them forced away by rude soldiers, and carried captive into distant lands; or in a figurative sense, for the villages and the inhabitants of them round about this city; it being usual to represent a city as a mother, and its villages as daughters; and so the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi interpret it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 29.
F11 Geograph. l. 4. c. 5.
F12 (Kvx) "prohibuit", Montanus; "vitavit", Munster; "cohibuit", Cocceius; "probibebit, arcebit", Vatablus; so Ben Melech.

Ezekiel 30:18 In-Context

16 I will set fire to Egypt; Pelusium will writhe in anguish, Thebes will be breached, and Memphis will face foes in broad daylight.

17 The young men of On and Pi-beseth will fall by the sword, and those cities will go into captivity.

18 The day will be dark in Tehaphnehes, when I break the yoke of Egypt there and its proud strength comes to an end in the city. A cloud will cover Tehaphnehes, and its villages will go into captivity.

19 So I will execute judgments against Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord.

20 In the eleventh year, in the first [month], on the seventh [day] of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:

Footnotes

• [a] Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg; MT reads will withhold
• [b] Ezk 32:7; 34:12
• [c] Or Egypt; lit it