Ezekiel 32
Pharaoh thought he was a young lion among the nations — but Egypt will lie in the pit beside Assyria, Elam, Meshech, and Tubal, the uncircumcised slain by the sword.
Summary
Chapter 32 is the last of the Egyptian oracles and the climax of the foreign-nation section. It contains two laments. The first, dated to the first day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year (early 585 BCE), opens with the prophet being commanded to take up a lamentation over Pharaoh. The charge: Pharaoh considered himself a young lion of the nations, but he is like a monster in the seas. The imagery returns to the dragon of chapter 29. The Lord will spread a net and haul him up; the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth will be filled with him. The cosmic dimension follows: the Lord will cover the heavens and make the stars dark; the sun will be covered with a cloud; the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will be darkened over Egypt. The nations will be appalled; their kings will shudder.
The second lament, dated two weeks later, is one of the most unusual passages in the book. It is a sustained vision of Sheol, the underworld, and the nations gathered in it. Ezekiel is told to wail for Egypt and send it down with the daughters of the nations to the earth below. The vision then catalogues the inhabitants of Sheol: Assyria is there with its multitude, its graves all around. Elam is there — mighty Elam, whose terror was once in the land of the living — now bearing its shame with those who go down to the pit. Meshech and Tubal are there; Edom is there; the princes of the north. Each nation is described as mighty in its day and now laid low, uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Egypt will lie among them. The chapter is the culminating vision of the foreign-nation section: the empires that seemed eternal are all in the underworld, and Egypt is about to join them.
- Ezekiel 1Chapter 1 is the founding vision of the book and one of the most visually elaborate passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- Ezekiel 2Chapter 2 is the moment of commissioning that follows the vision.
- Ezekiel 3Chapter 3 completes the call narrative.
- Ezekiel 4Chapter 4 opens the sequence of symbolic acts that are among the most sustained and physically demanding in any prophetic book.
- Ezekiel 5Chapter 5 continues the symbolic acts of the previous chapter and delivers the first extended oracle of judgement.
- Ezekiel 6Chapter 6 is the first oracle directed not to a person or community but to a landscape — the mountains of Israel — which in the prophetic convention stand for the land as a whole and, specifically, for the sites of the high places where illicit worship had been practiced.
- Ezekiel 7Chapter 7 is a sustained poetic oracle — one of the most rhythmically concentrated in the book — announcing the coming day of judgment on the land of Israel.
- Ezekiel 8Chapter 8 opens the extended vision of chapters 8-11, in which Ezekiel is lifted by the spirit and transported from Babylon to Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 9Chapter 9 is the vision of Jerusalem's judgment carried out.
- Ezekiel 10Chapter 10 is the structural pivot of the temple vision of chapters 8-11.
- Ezekiel 11Chapter 11 closes the temple vision of chapters 8-11.
- Ezekiel 12Chapter 12 contains two symbolic acts performed in view of the exile community.
- Ezekiel 13Chapter 13 is a sustained oracle against the prophets and prophetesses who prophesy out of their own hearts rather than from God's word.
- Ezekiel 14Chapter 14 presents the elders of Israel coming to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord — the standard prophetic consultative visit.
- Ezekiel 15Chapter 15 is the shortest sustained unit in the book — a brief parable with its interpretation.
- Ezekiel 16Chapter 16 is the longest chapter in the book and one of the most disturbing in the Hebrew Bible.
- Ezekiel 17Chapter 17 is presented explicitly as a riddle and a parable — the only time the book announces itself in this way.
- Ezekiel 18Chapter 18 is the most sustained piece of moral theology in the book and the clearest statement of individual accountability in the Hebrew Bible.
- Ezekiel 19Chapter 19 is explicitly marked as a lamentation — the form used for the dead — and it is the most formally poetic chapter in the first half of the book.
- Ezekiel 20Chapter 20 is the most historically comprehensive oracle in the book.
- Ezekiel 21Chapter 21 is among the most sustained war-oracle sequences in the prophetic literature.
- Ezekiel 22Chapter 22 delivers three distinct oracles against the city of Jerusalem, all focused on the comprehensive moral failure of its institutions.
- Ezekiel 23Chapter 23 is the twin of chapter 16: another extended allegory of sexual infidelity representing Israel's political and cultic failures.
- Ezekiel 24Chapter 24 is the conclusion of the first major section of the book and the climactic symbolic act.
- Ezekiel 25Chapter 25 opens the section of foreign-nation oracles that runs through chapter 32.
- Ezekiel 26Chapter 26 is the first and most sustained of the three chapters addressed against Tyre, the great Phoenician trading city on a rocky island off the Lebanese coast.
- Ezekiel 27Chapter 27 is entirely a lament — a qinah, a dirge — over Tyre, written in the form of a ship's manifest.
- Ezekiel 28Chapter 28 contains two oracles against Tyre's ruler and a brief oracle against Sidon.
- Ezekiel 29Chapter 29 opens the four chapters of oracles against Egypt, the longest of the foreign-nation sections and second only to the Tyre section in literary elaboration.
- Ezekiel 30Chapter 30 contains two oracles.
- Ezekiel 31Chapter 31 is an allegory addressed to Pharaoh in the form of a comparison to the great cedar of Lebanon.
- Ezekiel 32Chapter 32 closes the Egyptian oracle section with two laments.
- Ezekiel 33Chapter 33 is the great hinge of the book of Ezekiel.
- Ezekiel 34Chapter 34 is the parable of the shepherds, one of the most sustained pastoral allegories in the Hebrew prophets.
- Ezekiel 35Chapter 35 is a brief oracle against Mount Seir, the territory of Edom, the neighbouring nation to the south and east of Judah that was Israel's perennial enemy.
- Ezekiel 36Chapter 36 is the theological centre of the restoration section and contains one of the most theologically significant promises in the Hebrew prophetic tradition.
- Ezekiel 37Chapter 37 contains two visions.
- Ezekiel 38Chapters 38 and 39 are the oracle against Gog of Magog, the strangest and most apocalyptically charged passage in Ezekiel.
- Ezekiel 39Chapter 39 narrates the destruction of Gog's army and its aftermath.
- Ezekiel 40Chapter 40 opens the last major section of the book — nine chapters describing a visionary temple in elaborate architectural detail.
- Ezekiel 41Chapter 41 continues the architectural tour into the inner parts of the temple building itself.
- Ezekiel 42Chapter 42 completes the measuring of the main temple complex with two elements: the priestly chambers on the north and south sides of the building, and the measurement of the total outer boundary of the sacred area.
- Ezekiel 43Chapter 43 is the theological culmination of the entire temple vision: the glory of the God of Israel returns.
- Ezekiel 44Chapter 44 deals with two major subjects: the sealing of the east gate and the regulations for the Levites and priests.
- Ezekiel 45Chapter 45 moves from the temple regulations to the regulations for the sacred district and for the prince.
- Ezekiel 46Chapter 46 provides detailed regulations for the use of the gates and for the prince's regular offerings.
- Ezekiel 47Chapter 47 is the most beautiful chapter in the final section and one of the most celebrated images in the Hebrew Bible.
- Ezekiel 48Chapter 48, the final chapter of Ezekiel, lists the allotments of land for the twelve tribes and gives the dimensions of the city and its gates, closing the whole book with the naming of the city.