Ezekiel 32:21, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to the prophecy against Egypt declaring the certain fate of Pharaoh and his host, whose foretold ruin was fulfilled when Egypt fell from greatness to become the basest of kingdoms. Hell here renders the Hebrew sheol, the same as the Greek hades, meaning the grave and the state and place of the dead beneath in the nether parts of the earth. It pictures the strong among the mighty dead addressing Pharaoh out of the midst of Sheol among his helpers, where they have gone down and lie uncircumcised and slain by the sword. That nether region stands in contrast to the surface as the land of the living, holding only dead men slain by the sword with friend and foe buried together. Their speaking and comfort are figurative personification and not literal conversation or consciousness, for the slain lying in Sheol are dead and silent without knowledge or activity, so the portrayal does not teach that disembodied spirits live and converse.

Egypt's Foretold Downfall

Ezekiel 32 belongs to the prophecies against Egypt. Its foretold ruin was literally fulfilled. Egypt was once one of the greatest kingdoms, and became the basest of the kingdoms. In that downfall it lost its supremacy and rule over other nations and suffered ruin.

Ezekiel 32:21 belongs to that prophecy of Egypt's downfall. It declares the certain fate of Pharaoh and his host.

Sheol's Meaning and Location

The word rendered hell in the verse is the Hebrew sheol, identical in meaning with the Greek hades, signifying the grave, the pit, and the state and place of the dead. Grave is a preferable rendering for the abode where the slain have gone down and lie, and the word itself teaches nothing of future punishment. It is one of the Old Testament places where sheol is translated hell.

Sheol, hades, or hell is beneath, in the interior, depths, and nether or lower parts of the earth itself, and every statement of its location puts it beneath. It embraces the interior of the earth as the region of the dead and the place of every grave, though it is not the word usually rendered grave, although so rendered thirty-one times. It is a material place in the earth, not an immaterial spirit land.

The nether parts are set against the surface, which is the land of the living, so that hades is the realm of the dead where no living beings are found. It holds only dead men slain by the sword, picturing Pharaoh and his slaughtered army and the dead of Egypt and its enemies cast down together. They are buried indiscriminately with friend and foe cast into pits, going down with their weapons of war and their swords laid under their heads.

Sheol is a temporary prison of death from which the resurrection will bring the dead out. As the earth's interior, the pit, or hades, the abode of the dead, it will be consumed when the earth is destroyed by fire. It is not in heaven in sight of the New Jerusalem where conversation could pass between one in heaven and one in hades. Therefore Paradise, the place of the tree of life for the overcomer, cannot be in hades, since hades is a place with no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom. The nether parts of the earth are the lower parts of the earth, the place of the dead into which Christ descended when he died before ascending far above all heavens.

Figurative Speech of Dead

The strong among the mighty dead speak to Pharaoh out of the midst of Sheol among those who helped him, where they have gone down and lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Egyptian and Chaldean warriors lie together there, with Pharaoh and his slaughtered army gone down together and buried indiscriminately with friend and foe cast into pits, going down with weapons of war and swords laid under their heads. Pharaoh sees the multitude of slain enemies lying with him and is comforted. The scene pictures the dead of Egypt and its enemies cast down together in the nether parts of the earth, in contrast with the land of the living on the surface.

That speaking, and the comfort, shame, and response joined with it, are figurative personification and prophetic figure to set forth truth forcibly, not literal conversation, comfort, life, action, or consciousness in death. The slaughtered dead lying in Sheol are dead and silent, without knowledge, thought, or activity, in deep sleep and forgetfulness. Their speech is a figurative picture of defeated nations and rulers in the realm of the dead, poetically portrayed as speaking and responding, not a description of conscious conversation among the dead. The victims of slaughter going down to Sheol with their weapons of war and laying their swords under their heads, and Pharaoh lying among them and being comforted at seeing the multitude of his enemies slain also, is exactly like the rich man speaking in Hades.

The portrayal of the dead as speaking does not teach that disembodied spirits exist or that the dead are conscious and able to converse, and it does not prove that the dead in Sheol know, speak, or act. The unconscious inhabitants of Hades are personified as speaking and acting in order to bring truth forcibly to bear on the living, not because the dead are conscious. Those in the grave are dead and without knowledge, since the state of the dead is described elsewhere as having no knowledge, thought, or activity. One line of teaching reads this portrayal of the dead in the grave as speaking as a conscious portrayal corresponding to the rich man in Hades, where he is described as buried and then seeing and speaking.

The verse is an Old Testament example of metaphorical imagery like that used in parables, showing that such figurative descriptions are not unique to Jesus' teaching about the dead. It belongs with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and with other Old Testament representations of the dead speaking. Its speech vividly pictures future retribution. Hades is a place of darkness, silence, secrecy, and death within the earth, without thought or knowledge, where the dead are represented as speaking about the facts and fate of their cases as though alive.