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the LORD’s minions

Ezekiel 29:17-21 (JDV)

Ezekiel 29:17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahveh happened to me:
Ezekiel 29:18 “Son of Adam, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made his army work hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder chafed, but he and his army received no compensation from Tyre for the labor he expended against it.
Ezekiel 29:19 Therefore, this is what the Lord Yahveh says: I am going to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth, seizing its plunder and taking its plunder. This will be his army’s compensation.
Ezekiel 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt as the pay he worked for since they did it for me.” This is the declaration of the Lord Yahveh.
Ezekiel 29:21 “In that day I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will enable you to speak out among them. Then they will know that I am Yahveh.”

the LORD’s minions

Greenhill remarks on verse 20 that the army “looked at their king, who commanded and carried them forth to that work, not unto Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth, who set both him and them on work to execute his judgments threatened against Tyre, and in that they did fulfill them, they are said to work for God. Materially they did serve his purpose and providence in the destruction of Tyre, but formally and intentionally they did serve their own wills and lusts. God had a righteous end, and attained it by them; they had an evil end, and obtained it in an ill way.”1

Nebuchadnezzar’s army was serving as the LORD’s minions. They were guilty of all the wrong things they did. But they also were instruments in God’s judgment of Tyre and Egypt.

1 Greenhill, William, and James Sherman. An exposition of the prophet Ezekiel, with useful observations thereupon. London: S. Holdsworth, 1839. p. 638.