Ezekiel 32:24

24 Elam^[a] is there with all her hordes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword- they who went down to the underworld^[b] uncircumcised, who [once] spread their terror in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit.

Ezekiel 32:24 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 32:24

There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave,
&c.] The kingdom of the Medes and Persians lying in ruin, and the potent kings thereof in the state of the dead; with their army, as the Arabic version, slain and destroyed, and placed round about the grave of the king of Persia; for of him rather it is to be understood than of the king of Assyria, or of Egypt, as some: all of them slain, fallen by the sword;
either of the Scythians in the reign of Cyaxares; or of Nebuchadnezzar a few years before this, in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah; see ( Jeremiah 49:34-39 ) : which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth;
unholy persons, profane sinners, destitute of the grace of God; who were gone down into the grave, and even into hell and everlasting destruction, as their sins deserved: which caused their terror in the land of the living;
made a great noise in the world, and struck a panic in neighbouring nations, invaded and conquered by them; this they did while living, but now, being in the state of the dead, nothing was to be feared from them: yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit; were obliged to submit to death, and a shameful one, by the hands of their conquerors, and to be laid with ignominy in the grave with others, without any mark of distinction; all being upon a level, cast into the same pit of destruction, and into the lower parts of it; though their king might have a magnificent sepulchre erected for him, as follows:

Ezekiel 32:24 In-Context

22 Assyria is there with all her company; her graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword.

23 Her graves are set in the deepest regions of the Pit, and her company is all around her burial place. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword- they who [once] spread terror in the land of the living.

24 Elam is there with all her hordes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword- they who went down to the underworld uncircumcised, who [once] spread their terror in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit.

25 Among the slain they prepare a resting place for Elam with all her hordes. Her graves are all around her. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword, although their terror was [once] spread in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit. They are placed among the slain.

26 Meshech and Tubalare there, with all their hordes. Their graves are all around them. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword, although their terror was [once] spread in the land of the living.

Footnotes

• [a]. Gn 10:22
• [b]. Lit the lower parts of the earth