Thus saith the Lord God, I will make the multitude of Egypt to cease,.... The vast numbers of people that inhabited Egypt; some of its cities were very populous, especially the city No, after mentioned; but now the numbers should be greatly lessened, and the whole land sadly depopulated: or the "noise" (r), "tumult", and hurry of it; which is very great where there are large numbers of people, and which ceases when they are cut off. The Syriac version renders it, the riches of Egypt. Now the instrument God would make use of to do all this is mentioned by name, as follows,

by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; the then greatest monarch in the world.

(r) "strepitum", Vatablus, Cocceius.

The executors of the judgment. - Ezekiel 30:10. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I will put an end to the tumult of Egypt through Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Ezekiel 30:11. He and his people with him, violent of the nations, will be brought to destroy the land; they will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with slain. Ezekiel 30:12. And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of wicked men, and lay waste the land and its fulness by the hand of foreigners; I Jehovah have spoken it. - המון cannot be understood as signifying either the multitude of people only, or the abundance of possessions alone; for השׁבּית is not really applicable to either of these meanings. They are evidently both included in the המון, which signifies the tumult of the people in the possession and enjoyment of their property (cf. Ezekiel 26:13). The expression is thus specifically explained in Ezekiel 30:11 and Ezekiel 30:12. Nebuchadnezzar will destroy the land with his men of war, slaying the people with its possessions. עריצי, as in Ezekiel 28:7. מוּבאים, as in Ezekiel 23:42. 'הריק וגו, cf. Ezekiel 12:14, Ezekiel 12:28; 7. חלל...מלאוּ, as in Ezekiel 11:6. יארים, the arms and canals of the Nile, by which the land was watered, and on which the fertility and prosperity of Egypt depended. The drying up of the arms of the Nile must not be restricted, therefore, to the fact that God would clear away the hindrances to the entrance of the Chaldeans into the land, but embraces also the removal of the natural resources on which the country depended. מכר, to sell a land or people into the hand of any one, i.e., to deliver it into his power (cf. Deuteronomy 32:30; Judges 2:14, etc.). For the fact itself, see Isaiah 19:4-6. For 'השׁמּתי וגו, see Ezekiel 19:7.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.

10. the multitude-the large population.

30:1-19 The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is very full. Those who take their lot with God's enemies, shall be with them in punishment. The king of Babylon and his army shall be instruments of this destruction. God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another. No place in the land of Egypt shall escape the fury of the Chaldeans. The Lord is known by the judgments he executes. Yet these are only present effects of the Divine displeasure, not worthy of our fear, compared with the wrath to come, from which Jesus delivers his people.