Ezechiele 32:2

2 Figliuol d’uomo, prendi a fare un lamento di Faraone, re di Egitto, e digli: Tu sei stato simile ad un leoncello fra le nazioni, e come un coccodrillo ne’ mari, ed uscivi fuori per li tuoi fiumi, e intorbidavi le acque co’ tuoi piedi, e calpestavi i lor fiumi.

Ezechiele 32:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 32:2

Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt,
&c.] Pharaohhophra, or Apries; say a funeral dirge for him; this is ordered, not out of honour and respect to him, or in compassion for his misery and ruin, but to assure him of it: and say unto him, thou art like a young lion of the nations;
for strength and fierceness, for cruelty and tyranny, which he exercised, not in one nation only, but in many; a lively emblem of the beast of Rome, spiritually called Egypt and Sodom, compared to a leopard, bear, and lion, ( Revelation 11:8 ) ( 13:2 ) : and thou art as a whale in the seas;
or rather "like a crocodile" ^F21, which was common in the rivers of Egypt, but not the whale; which also has not scales, nor does it go upon land, nor is it taken in a net; all which is said of this creature here, and in ( Ezekiel 29:3 Ezekiel 29:4 ) and to the crocodile there is an allusion in the name of Pharaoh, in the Arabic language, as Noldius from Camius observes ^F23; see ( Ezekiel 29:3 ) : and thou camest forth with thy rivers;
or, "by thy rivers" ^F24; as the crocodile in the river Nile, by the arms of it, or canals made out of it, sometimes went out from thence to other parts: or, "out of thy rivers" ^F25 upon the land, as the crocodile does; so the king of Egypt went forth with his armies out of his own land, into other countries, to disturb them, as follows: or rather, "camest forth in thy rivers" ^F26; as the crocodile puts forth its head out of the water for respiration: and thou troublest the waters with thy feet, and foulest their rivers;
just as the feet of men or beasts, in shallow waters, raise up the mud or clay at the bottom, and so foul them; this best agrees with the crocodile, which has feet; Grotius thinks, for this reason, the sea horse is intended; the meaning is, that Pharaoh with his soldiers entered other nations, made war upon them, and disturbed their peace and tranquillity. The Targum is,

``thou hast been strong among the people, as a whale in the seas, thou hast fought with thine army; and thou hast moved the people with thine auxiliaries, and thou hast wasted their provinces.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (Myntk) "similis es crocodile", Noldius, Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 375.
F23 Ibid. No. 1306.
F24 (Kytwrhnb) "per flumina tua", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus.
F25 "Ex fluminibus tuis", Starckius.
F26 "In fluviis tuis", V. L. Piscator; "in fluminibus tuis", Cocceius

Ezechiele 32:2 In-Context

1 AVVENNE eziandio, nell’anno duodecimo, nel duodecimo mese, nel primo giorno del mese, che la parola del Signore mi fu indirizzata, dicendo:

2 Figliuol d’uomo, prendi a fare un lamento di Faraone, re di Egitto, e digli: Tu sei stato simile ad un leoncello fra le nazioni, e come un coccodrillo ne’ mari, ed uscivi fuori per li tuoi fiumi, e intorbidavi le acque co’ tuoi piedi, e calpestavi i lor fiumi.

3 Così ha detto il Signore Iddio: Io altresì stenderò la mia rete sopra te, con raunata di molti popoli, i quali ti trarranno fuori con la mia rete.

4 E ti lascerò sopra la terra, e ti getterò sopra la faccia della campagna; e farò albergar sopra te tutti gli uccelli del cielo, e sazierò di te le fiere di tutta la terra.

5 E metterò la tua carne su per li monti, ed empierò le valli della tua strage.