Ezekiel 30:5, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 30:5 is part of the prophecies against Egypt in Ezekiel 29-32, which foretell the fall of Egypt from one of the greatest kingdoms and at one time the greatest empire on earth to become the basest of the kingdoms. It stands among prophecies against foreign nations, including those concerning Ammon, Moab, and Tyre, in which the named peoples are foretold to fall by the sword alongside Egypt. It was spoken by the Lord through His prophet six hundred years before Christ when Egypt was struggling with Babylon for supremacy in world-empire, and belongs to the prophecy of Egypt's invasion and conquest by Nebuchadnezzar.

It means that Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league — the peoples who uphold Egypt and its allies — shall fall with Egypt by the sword. The judgment it foretells came in fire and sword from Egypt's delta to Ethiopia, as God had declared. It is part of the foretelling that Egypt would fall to become the basest of the kingdoms, brought low and abased, never again to lift itself above the nations, rule over the nations, or rise among the nations.

The judgment includes its foundations broken down, the pride of its power brought down, its land and cities made desolate, its rivers dried up, its idols destroyed and its images caused to cease from Memphis, no more a prince from its own land, and fire set in Zoan with judgments executed upon No. Every prediction has been fulfilled literally, evident today, through Egypt's later subjection to successive foreign powers, including the certain fate coming upon Pharaoh and his host. It is part of twenty-two years of pleading with Israel to turn to God by illustration from the kingdoms on all sides of Israel, showing how God brings down their pride, dealing here with Egypt as a former oppressor of God's people and the symbol of black infidelity.

It is one of the only places in the Bible where the word Ethiopia occurs, and it does not say that Ethiopia shall rise up and be a nation. The prophecy about Egypt to which it belongs was linked to England taking complete control of Egypt and Turkey's sovereignty there coming to an end.