What does Ezechiel Chapter 32 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A netted dragon accompanies darkened heavens. A second lament lists sword-slain peoples. Denied weapon burial and final speaker remain exact.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 32 first dates its lament to year twelve, month twelve, day one. Pharao is compared to a lion of nations and a sea dragon pushing with a horn, troubling and trampling river streams. The Lord spreads a net with many peoples and casts him onto open land for birds and beasts, laying flesh on mountains, corruption on hills and stinking blood in valleys. Heaven, stars, sun and moon darken and mourn. Anger and amazement reach peoples and terrified kings in lands he does not know as the Lord's sword flies before their faces. A self-image contrasted with reality and muddy silt are not specified.

Babylon's king's sword and mighty nations destroy Egypt's pride and multitude. Beasts beside waters cease, and no foot or hoof disturbs them. Waters become clear and rivers run like oil after land and inhabitants are struck. Daughters of nations sing the lament. The second word is dated year twelve and the fifteenth day of an unnamed month; it is not securely dated two weeks later within the same month.

The prophet's mournful song casts Egypt and mighty nations' daughters into the pit. Strong ones speak from hell. Assur lies with surrounding graves, Elam with shame, and Mosoch and Thubal with uncircumcised sword-slain people who once spread terror. Crucially, they do not sleep with the brave who descended with weapons and swords beneath heads; that denied comparison must not become their own burial. Pharao likewise sleeps among the slain. Edom's kings and princes, northern princes and hunters are present, with no named Sidonians in this edition. Pharao sees and is comforted concerning his slaughtered multitude. The closing speaker says he spread terror in the living land; this is not silently reassigned to Pharao or enlarged into the common fate of every empire.

The story inside

Opening: A netted dragon accompanies darkened heavens. Development: A second lament lists sword-slain peoples. Conclusion: Denied weapon burial and final speaker remain exact.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A netted dragon accompanies darkened heavens.
2
A second lament lists sword-slain peoples.
3
Denied weapon burial and final speaker remain exact.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 94722–94730
32:2. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharao the king of Egypt, and say to him: Thou art like the lion of the nations, and the dragon that is in the sea: and thou didst push with the horn in thy rivers, and didst trouble the waters with thy feet, and didst trample upon their streams. 32:3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: I will spread out my net over thee with the multitude of many people, and I will draw thee up in my net.
Lines 94759–94768
32:11. For thus saith the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee, 32:12. By the swords of the mighty I will overthrow thy multitude: all these nations are invincible: and they shall waste the pride of Egypt, and the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. 32:13. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof that were beside the great waters: and the foot of man shall trouble them no more, neither shall the hoof of beasts trouble them.
Lines 94799–94811
32:22. Assur is there, and all his multitude: their graves are round about him, all of them slain, and that fell by the sword. 32:23. Whose graves are set in the lowest parts of the pit: and his multitude lay round about his grave: all of them slain, and fallen by the sword, they that heretofore spread terror in the land of the living. 32:24. There is Elam and all his multitude round about his grave, all of them slain, and fallen by the sword; that went down uncircumcised to the lowest parts of the earth: that caused their terror in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with them that go down into the pit.