Ezekiel 32:16

16 This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Mitzrayim, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says 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 will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord GOD.

15 When I shall make the land of Mitzrayim desolate and waste, a land destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.

16 This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Mitzrayim, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the Lord GOD.

17 It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Mitzrayim, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the eretz, with those who go down into the pit.