Ezekiel 30:18

18 "In ¹Tehaphnehes the day will be ²dark When I ³break there the yoke bars of Egypt. Then the pride of her power will cease in her; A cloud will cover her, And her daughters 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 a fire in Egypt; Sin will writhe in anguish, Thebes will be breached And Memphis will have distresses daily.

17 "The young men of On and of Pi-beseth Will fall by the sword, And the women will go into captivity.

18 "In Tehaphnehes the day will be dark When I break there the yoke bars of Egypt. Then the pride of her power will cease in her; A cloud will cover her, And her daughters will go into captivity.

19 "Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt, And they will know that I am the LORD .""'

20 In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh of the month, the word of the LORD came to me saying,

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 43:8-13
• 2. Ezekiel 30:3
• 3. Leviticus 26:13; Isaiah 10:27; Jeremiah 27:2; Jeremiah 28:10, 13; Jeremiah 30:8; Ezekiel 34:27

Footnotes

• [a] So with many mss and ancient versions; M.T. "restrain"