Ezekiel 30:25

Eze 30:25 But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.

Ver. 25. But I will strengthen.] See Eze 30:25.

And they shall know.] See on Eze 30:8.

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.

Whereby we see that tyrants have no power of themselves, neither can do anymore harm than God appointeth, and when he will they must cease.

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

But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon,.... Which is repeated for the sake of confirmation:

and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down: as when a man's arms are broken; and he shall not be able to lift them up and defend himself:

and they shall know that I am the Lord; namely, the Egyptians, as in Eze 30:19,

when I shall have put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt; that is, when he shall have a commission to carry the war into Egypt; and he shall spread desolation over all the land, cutting off the inhabitants of it everywhere, as before described in this chapter.

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

These two foregoing verses are a repetition of God’s threats against Pharaoh, and of his promises to assist Nebuchadnezzar in the war, and every thing plain in them.

Will strengthen; give the first strength, and continue it with new supplies, so that with strength from God he shall proceed.

Put my sword in his hand; is strength shall have a weapon suited and proportioned to it; and what will be hard, where God’s sword and his strength are engaged to effect it?

He, Hophra,

shall groan; not only as the stoutest must when nature breaks, but cry out and sigh, or howl, not becoming a brave man.

Before him, king of Babylon,

with the groanings of a deadly wounded man; who hath given him his deadly wound, under which he roars while he hath any strength, and groans when his voice fails him. It speaks sore griefs, and deep sense of them, as Exo 2:24; Jdg 2:18; Job 24:12.

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

Vers. 25, 26. The imagery is slightly varied. The arms of the Egyptian king are described, not as broken, but as feeble. They hang down by his side instead of wielding the sword. I will scatter, etc. The prophet dwells once more, repeating the very words of Ver. 23 and Eze_29:12 with all the emphasis of iteration, on the dispersion which was the almost inevitable sequel of an Oriental conquest. There in the land of exile they should see that they had been fighting against God; and so the prophet ends the chapter with his ever-recurring formula, They shall know that I am Jehovah. (Eze_28:26 Eze_29:21)

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

Will strengthen - As Judges on the bench like Pilate, so generals in the field, like Nebuchadrezzar, have no power but what is given them from above.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

God continues speaking of the armies of Egypt and Babylon as if the armies were the arms of their kings. He also speaks of making the army of Babylon strong to attack others as if he had a sword and put it in the Babylonian king's hand. (See: Parables)

For I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon

Here "arms" are a metonym for the army. AT: "I will make the army of the king of Babylon strong" (See: Metonymy)

while Pharaoh's arms will fall

Here "Pharaoh's arms" is a metonym for his army, and "will fall" represents being weak. AT: "but Pharaoh's army will be unable to defeat enemies" (See: Metonymy)

Then they

The word "they" possibly refers to 1) "the Egyptians" or 2) "all people who hear what Yahweh has done."

for he will attack the land of Egypt with it

"and the king of Babylon will attack the land of Egypt with my sword"

scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them through the lands

These two phrases mean basically the same thing. See how you translated similar phrases in Ezekiel 12:15. (See: Parallelism)

translationWords

disperse

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And I shall grasp [Heb. וְהֲחֲזַּקְתִּי,] an expression of grasping, that one grasps his hand to support it so that it should not fall. The end of it proves it: “and the arms of Pharaoh will fall,” because He does not hold them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.