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death of a monster

Ezekiel 32:1-8 (JDV)

Ezekiel 32:1 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahveh happened to me. This is what it said:
Ezekiel 32:2 “Son of Adam, sing a dirge for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, ‘You compare yourself to a lion of the nations, but you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet, and muddy the rivers.
Ezekiel 32:3 ” ‘This is what the Lord Yahveh says: I will spread my net over you with a mob of many peoples, and they will haul you up in my net.
Ezekiel 32:4 I will abandon you on the land and throw you onto the open field. I will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you and let the wild creatures of the entire land eat their fill of you.
Ezekiel 32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your carcass.
Ezekiel 32:6 I will drench the land with the flow of your blood, even to the mountains; the ravines will be filled with your gore.
Ezekiel 32:7 ” ‘When I snuff you out, I will cover the skies and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.
Ezekiel 32:8 I will darken all the shining lights in the sky over you and will bring darkness on your land. This is the declaration of the Lord Yahveh.

death of a monster

Greenhill remarks, “Whales are not more troublesome to the seas, crocodiles to the rivers of Egypt, lions and wild beasts to the land than tyrants are to their own kingdoms, and those that are near unto them.” 1

The picture of God’s judgment upon Pharaoh that Ezekiel paints looks like the slaughter of a gigantic whale. Pharaoh had been a monster in the seas, but his day of judgment had come. Now his carcass fills the land.

Such is the case for modern-day tyrants as well. They may spread hate and terror while alive, but death comes to them all in God’s time.

1 Greenhill, William, and James Sherman. An exposition of the prophet Ezekiel, with useful observations thereupon. London: S. Holdsworth, 1839. p. 656.