Ezekiel 32:30, commentary and pictures

The verse places the princes of the north and the Sidonians among the slain gone down to the pit, lying uncircumcised with those killed by the sword and bearing their shame, their terror and boasted might ending in disgrace. It belongs to the prophecies of chapters 29-32 against Egypt and Pharaoh and his host, foretelling the certain fall of a once-great proud kingdom to waste and to the end of its rule over nations, literally fulfilled. The pit is Sheol, called hell and hades, the grave in the earth beneath in the nether parts of the earth, the land of the dead contrasted with the land of the living on the surface, where there is no work nor knowledge nor wisdom but darkness and silence. The speaking out of Sheol, addressing and comforting Pharaoh, and the shame and seeing ascribed to the slain are figurative personification to make the lesson forceful for the living, like blood crying or a stone speaking, and do not prove consciousness or life in death. They portray the humiliation and leveling power of death and vividly bring true thoughts of future retribution before the mind, while those who held the scene to be literal teach that its inhabitants are conscious.

Prophecy Against Egypt

The princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians or Sidonians are numbered among the slain who have gone down to the pit. They lie uncircumcised with those killed by the sword and bear their shame with those who go down to the grave. The terror they inspired and the might they boasted end in disgrace, for their former power does not spare them in death. They are portrayed as defeated nations whose slain lie in the pit with other battle dead, sharing the disgrace of the dead.

The verse belongs to the prophecies in chapters 29-32 concerning Egypt and the certain fate of Pharaoh and his host. Those prophecies were literally fulfilled and foretold the decline of a kingdom that had once been among the greatest. Its pride and strength would be brought down, its cities laid waste, and its rule over other nations ended. They give a definite description of the revolutions and future state of Egypt, foretelling that defensible, powerful Egypt would be invaded, conquered, spoiled, filled with the slain, made waste, have its idols and images destroyed, have no more a native prince, fall into the hand of strangers forever, become the basest of the kingdoms, and no more rule over the nations. That prediction has been fulfilled over more than twenty-four centuries through Nebuchadnezzar, the Persians, Macedonians, Ptolemies, Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes and Turks.

Pharaoh and his army were slaughtered in battle with the king of Babylon and buried indiscriminately with friend and foe cast together into pits. They went down with their weapons of war with their swords laid under their heads, while the slain multitudes of his enemies lie around him.

Location of Sheol

Sheol is identical with hades and is called hell, and it lies in the earth beneath in the nether or lower parts of the earth. It embraces the interior of the earth as the region of the dead and the place of every grave, always spoken of as beneath, sometimes as in the nether parts of the earth. Ezekiel 32:30 places the defeated princes of the north and the Sidonians or Zidonians there among those slain by the sword, lying uncircumcised in the pit and bearing their shame with those who go down to it.

The pit in the depths of the earth is the land of the dead, set in contrast with the land of the living on the earth's surface. No living beings are found there, for it is where the slain have gone down and lie dead. The nethermost parts of the earth are the pit, or hades, where Pharaoh and his army and the princes of the north lie buried together.

Hell in the verse is sheol in Hebrew and hades in Greek, meaning the grave, the place and state of all the dead, righteous and wicked. There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom there, for it is a place of darkness and silence.

The lower parts of the earth into which Christ descended when He was dead are this same hades in the nether parts of the earth. He descended first into hades and afterward ascended far above all heavens into Paradise and heaven, and did not go both ways at once. The earth's interior identified with hades will be consumed by fire and will then cease to be the abode of the dead.

Figurative Picture of Death

The slain nations in the pit are shown as speaking, addressing Pharaoh, being comforted, being ashamed, seeing and responding, and occupying thrones, yet this speech and feeling among the dead is figurative personification and not literal activity in sheol. The strong among the mighty are pictured as speaking to Pharaoh out of the midst of sheol, and Pharaoh lying among the slain multitudes of his enemies is pictured as comforted at the sight, while the princes of the north and the Zidonians lying uncircumcised with those killed by the sword are pictured as ashamed, but this comforting and being ashamed are not literal conversation, comfort, shame, consciousness or life in death. The dead do not literally converse, feel comfort or shame, or occupy thrones in an underground realm, and the grave is a place of darkness and silence where such imagery of people speaking in the pit is personification like blood crying or a stone speaking. The whole scene from Ezekiel 32:17-32 is a metaphorical illustration of the dead, alongside other Old Testament examples, a figurative scene of the dead taunting or comforting one another rather than a literal account of the dead speaking or feeling or of conscious existence after death.

These figures portray the humiliation of the slain and the leveling power of death, with former might brought to shame and disgrace shared with all who descend to the grave. Unconscious and inanimate things are represented as living, acting, and speaking, because there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in hell, which is sheol in Hebrew and hades in Greek, the grave, the place and state of all the dead, righteous and wicked. Their cases are represented as though they were alive in order to make a lesson forceful for the living, and to bring true thoughts of future retribution vividly before the mind.
Those who held the scene to be literal taught that the inhabitants of sheol, the grave, are represented as seeing and responding and therefore as conscious.