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Ezekiel 32 — God gives Pharaoh a guided tour of the graveyard where every empire ends up
7 min read
nocap.bible editorialTwo weeks before the end of the twelfth year of , God gave another word — and this one was a funeral song. Not a quiet, dignified elegy either. This was a full-on lamentation, the kind that cuts deep, the kind that makes everyone stop and listen.
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The target? , king of . The empire that had flexed on the ancient world for centuries was about to learn what every superpower eventually learns: no outlasts the God who raises and buries them all.
God told to raise a funeral song directly over . And He didn't hold back on the imagery.
"You think you're a lion among nations — but you're really more like a sea monster thrashing around in the waters. You churn up the rivers, muddy everything with your stomping around, and foul the waters wherever you go."
Pharaoh saw himself as majestic and untouchable. God saw a creature making a mess. And then came the net.
"I'm going to throw My net over you — and it won't just be Me. A massive coalition of nations will haul you up in My dragnet. I'll fling you onto the open ground, let the birds of the sky settle on you, and feed the beasts of the entire earth with your carcass. I'll scatter your flesh across the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains."
The scale of this is staggering. God wasn't just talking about a military defeat — He was describing the total dismantling of an empire. Mountains soaked in blood. Valleys filled with the wreckage. ⚡
"When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens — the stars will go dark, the sun will be hidden behind clouds, and the moon won't give its light. Every bright light in the sky will go dark over your land."
This is language — the kind the used when God's was so total that it shook creation itself. The lights going out over wasn't just poetic; it was God saying this is cosmic-level serious.
"Nations you've never even heard of will be shaken when they hear what I did to you. Kings will tremble. Their hair will stand on end with horror. Every one of them will fear for their own life on the day you fall."
When God moves in judgment, the shockwaves don't stay local. The whole world watches — and the whole world takes notice.
God named His instrument. This wasn't going to be some vague, cosmic event — it had an address.
"The sword of the king of Babylon is coming for you. I will bring down your multitude by the blades of the most ruthless nation on earth. They will shatter the pride of Egypt. All of it. Gone."
Every beast grazing by famous waters — gone. No human foot, no animal hoof would disturb those waters again. The once-bustling riverbanks of the would fall completely silent.
"Then I will make your waters clear and your rivers run smooth like oil."
There's something eerie about that image. The rivers of Egypt, once churned up by thrashing, would finally run still — because there would be nobody left to disturb them. through total emptiness.
"When I make the land of Egypt desolate — stripped of everything that fills it, everyone who lives in it struck down — then they will know that I am the LORD."
That phrase — "then they will know that the LORD" — is whole thesis statement. Every oracle, every vision, every judgment comes back to this: God will be known. Whether through blessing or through devastation, His identity will not be ignored.
God declared this would become an official funeral song — chanted by the daughters of the nations over Egypt and all her people. A dirge that would echo through history. 💀
Two weeks later, God gave another word — same month, same year, but this one went darker. Way darker.
"Son of man, wail over the people of Egypt. Send them down — Egypt and the daughters of the greatest nations — down to the world below, to those who have already descended into the pit."
God asked a devastating question:
"Who do you think you're better than? Go down and lie with the uncircumcised — with those slain by the sword."
In the ancient world, being buried "with the uncircumcised" — outside the community, among the dishonored dead — was the ultimate disgrace. , for all her monuments and pyramids, was being told: you'll be buried with the nobodies.
"The mighty chiefs already in Sheol will call out: 'They've arrived. They lie still now — the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.'"
The dead were waiting. And they had things to say. The imagery here is haunting — the rulers of the underworld watching as Egypt's people are dragged down to join them.
What follows is one of the most chilling passages in all of — a guided tour through the graveyard of empires. Every nation that once terrorized the living world is already there in the pit, and God walks through them one by one.
is there first. The empire that once conquered everything in sight — all of them slain, fallen by the sword. Their graves are set in the deepest parts of the pit. They spread terror when they were alive, and now they lie in silence surrounded by their dead.
Then — an ancient power east of . All her multitude, slain, uncircumcised, shamed. They once made nations tremble, and now they bear their among the dead.
Then - — peoples from the far north. Same story. Graves everywhere, all uncircumcised, all slain by the sword. They don't even get the honor of the ancient warriors who were buried with their weapons laid under their heads. Those old mighty ones at least went down with dignity. But these nations? They go down in disgrace.
"And as for you — you will be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword."
The repetition in this passage is intentional. "Slain by the sword... uncircumcised... spread terror in the land of the living... bear their shame." Over and over and over. It's a drumbeat. A funeral march. Every empire that thought it was permanent is now just another grave in the pit. 💀
The roll call continues. is there — her kings and all her princes. For all their might, they're laid with the slain. The and the princes of the north are there too, gone down in shame despite all the terror they caused.
Every single one of these nations had one thing in common: they spread fear when they were alive. They thought power meant permanence. They were wrong.
And then comes the most darkly ironic line in the entire chapter:
"When Pharaoh sees all of them, he will be comforted — comforted about all his fallen multitude."
Comforted. Not because things are okay — but because misery company. will look around the pit and see that he's not the only empire God brought low. is there. is there. -, , the Sidonians — they're all there. And somehow, seeing that every other power that defied God ended up in the same place provides a grim kind of solidarity.
"For I spread terror in the land of the living; and Pharaoh shall be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword — Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God."
That's the final word. The God who controls the terror, who raises and buries nations, who darkens the skies and fills the valleys — He alone remains. Every empire is temporary. Every throne eventually empties. The only that never falls is His. ⚡