Ezekiel 32:16

16 "This is a lament that will be chanted; the women of the nations will chant it. They will chant it over Egypt and all its hordes." [This is] the declaration of 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 let their waters settle and will make their rivers flow like oil. [This is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the declaration of the Lord God .

15 When I make the land of Egypt a desolation, so that it is emptied of everything in it, when I strike down all who live there, then they will know that I am the Lord.

16 "This is a lament that will be chanted; the women of the nations will chant it. They will chant it over Egypt and all its hordes." [This is] the declaration of the Lord God .

17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth [day] of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:

18 "Son of man, wail over the hordes of Egypt and bring Egypt and the daughters of mighty nations down to the underworld, [to be] with those who descend to the Pit: