Ezekiel 29:9

Eze 29:9 And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD: because he hath said, The river [is] mine, and I have made [it].

Ver. 9. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.] With this proud speech he is twice twitted. {see Eze 29:3} The Egyptians so trusted in their river Nile, as if they needed no help from heaven.

“ Aegyptus sine nube ferax, ”

saith Claudian. {a} And Lucan to like purpose:

“ Terra suis contenta bonis, non indiga mercis

Aut Iovis; in solo tanta est fiducia Nile. ”

How much better might God have said to these Egyptians, than Vespasian did, Haurite a me tanquam a Nile, Come ye to me, "the fountain of living waters," and "hew not out thus to yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water!" But they used in mockery to tell the Grecians, that if God should forget to rain, they might chance to starve for it; they thought the rain was of God, but not the river:

“ Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres:

Arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Iovi. ”

- Tibul. de Nilo.

God therefore threateneth here to dry it up, and so he did; ingratitude forfeiteth all. In the reign of Cleopatra, Nile overflowed not the banks for two years together, saith Seneca. He brings in Callimachus, telling of a time wherein it had not done so for nine years’ time. Hence Ovid: {b}

“ Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva

Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem. ”

Thus their gold flowing {c} and fruit giving {d} river failed them, because they attributed too much to it. In Joseph’s time they had seven years’ famine.

{a} Epigram. 6.

{b} Art., lib. i.

{c} χρυσοροας. - Athenaeus.

{d} καρπ ωδοτης. - Nazianz.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus God cannot suffer that man should arrogate anything to himself, or put his trust in anything save in him alone.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

I am the Lord--in antithesis to the blasphemous boast repeated here from Eze 29:3, "The river is mine, and I have made it."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(9) Because he hath said.—Again, as in Eze_29:6, the division of the verses is very unfortunate. The expression “shall know that I am the Lord,” so common in Ezekiel, always closes a train of thought. The new sentence begins with the reason for the judgment upon Egypt—because of its pride.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. The ungodly overweening pride of Egypt is chiefly mentioned as the cause of its humiliation. It is a common idea that pride draws forth the judgment of Jehovah, who is alone exalted (Isaiah 2, 3). The prophet assumes that this pride is irreligious and an offence against Jehovah. However sedulously devoted the Egyptians might be in serving their own gods, their religion did not prevent this self-deification, which was an offence against him who was God alone.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste,.... Men few or none being left in it, to till it, nor cattle found upon it:

and they shall know that I am the Lord; by these judgments executed upon them, now foretold; and which when come to pass, they will be obliged to acknowledge the omniscience and omnipotence of Jehovah:

because thou hast said, the river is mine, and I have made it; See Gill on Eze 29:3; this insolent expression was highly resented by the Lord, as appears by the repetition of it. The Targum is here, as before,

"the kingdom is mine, and I have subdued it;''

but, notwithstanding this vaunt, he could not keep it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The land of Egypt; that part here intended, say some, and in the 10th verse, bounded from Syene to the borders of Ethiopia; nor is this inconsistent with that Eze 29:2, against all Egypt, for all Egypt suffered much, though all were not equally wasted, and turned into a desolation, as these parts shall be. Desolate; a desolation, i.e. most desolate, and wasteness by the sword of the enemy, and by drought, as the word imports both: and this latter part of the judgment was executed by the folly of the twelve Egyptian roitelets, who made a mighty lake, Morris, to fill which they much drained and weakened Nilus, that it could not, as before it did, water and fertilize the land; suitable to Isa 19:5.

He hath said, & c.: see Eze 29:3.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The pride of creation.

In the insanity of his pride, Pharaoh is supposed even to claim the mighty Nile, that great work of nature on which the wealth and even the very life of his people depended, as a creation of his own imperial power. Such a foolish boast illustrates in an extreme form the common mistake of claiming to create what has in fact been received as a gift of God.

I NOTE THE PREVALENCE OF THE PRIDE OF CREATION. This is seen with many kinds of success.

1. National greatness. The proud nation glories in having built up its own greatness. The mighty monarch regards himself as the maker of his empire.

2. Private fortune. One who has risen from the ranks regards himself as a self-made man. His success he attributes to his own ability and energy; and his ability and energy he regards as springing from himself.

3. Skilful inventions. Man does indeed seem to create with his brain. We say that Homer created the "Iliad;" Phidias, the Elgin Marbles; Watt, the steam-engine; Stephenson, the locomotive. The thought that constituted or shaped these great works of genius was bred in the brains of the men who originated them.

4. Personal character. Men commonly regard themselves as the architects of their own characters. If there is growth in wisdom or strength, the strong temptation is to think that this growth is due to their own thought and effort. But

II CONSIDER THE FOLLY OF THE PRIDE OF CREATION. This pride springs from a delusion. Certainly it did with Pharaoh. He make the Nile! The Nile made him! Egypt was just the child of the Nile. Her wealth depended on the ministry of the mighty river. Floods gathered from melting snows on distant African mountains far beyond the territory or even the knowledge of the Pharaohs, swelled its waters so that they overflowed their banks and spread fertility on the narrow strips of river-side called Egypt. But this is but an evident instance of what is true in less conspicuous ways. All great things, all new things, all things that exist, come from God. They spring from God, and they depend on him.

1. In nature. God is the Creator and Preserver of nature. He not only made the stone that the sculptor chisels; he made the laws of matter and the fundamental principles of art along which the sculptor must work. National greatness largely depends on geographical and other physical conditions of Divine creation.

2. In providence. God is still in the world, ruling it according to his own thought for his own great purposes. He overrules the government of kings. In private life he helps one on to prosperity, and sends another needful adversity through those turns of events, those conjunctions of circumstances, which the wisest cannot foresee and which the ablest cannot modify.

3. In grace. For the higher good of life spiritual attainments are necessary. Without these attainments Fra. Angelico could not have painted his beautiful angels, Milton could not have written his grand epics, Luther could not have wrought his Titanic revolution. God"s inward grace makes souls and characters good and great.

III AVOID THE SIN OF THE PRIDE OF CREATION. This pride is positively wicked. It robs God of his rightful honor. It is distinctly ungrateful. Indeed, it is atheistic; and practical atheism of this character is far worse morally than the intellectual atheism that denies the being of God as a proposition in academic discussions. Such a sinful pride destroys a man"s sense of dependence, his remembrance of obligations, his consciousness of responsibility, that admission of his own littleness which is necessary for humility as well as that feeling of God"s greatness and goodness which is at the root of religion.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.