Predicting Egypt's Fate

This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has some familiarity with the narrative in the TaNaKh that Egypt, after what they did, would become one of the ongoing Big Bad Guys in the eyes of many of the prophets moving forward.

After all, they did enslave and oppress the Israelites for upwards of four centuries! (Can you imagine???)

And lest you forget how miserable a time it must have been, here is how it all began:

Doesn't sound fun. And it wasn't.

Which is why, out of all of the kindnesses that YHWH would do for his people Israel, redeeming them from Egypt is the one celebrated over, and over, and over again.

And the worse Egypt was, the more understandable this is. This theme would come up in the 10 Commandments, it would come up in prayer-poems, it would come up in prophecies...

And hand-in-hand with this is a genre of prophetic oracles which predict Egypt's ultimate downfall.

Here is a particularly powerful example with riveting imagery from the 8th-century prophet, Isaiah.

If you read this chapter in full, you might come away thinking that you'd rather be an Israelite slave in Egypt, as horrible as that was, than an Egyptian when Isaiah's oracle comes to pass!

It is true that Isaiah is not necessarily picking specifically on Egypt here, for this passage comes towards the end of a section which is aptly called Isaiah's Oracles against the Nations, in which a number of the nations with whom Israel had been in conflict are told of their impending fate.

That doesn't diminish from the unique intensity of Isaiah's fire for Egypt here, however, in which he describes the collapse of Egypt's gods, political stability, physical environment, and finally economy. (Jewish Study Bible commentary).

What's really incredible here, though, is that Isaiah goes on to describe a moment of salvation, after all of these calamities, when Egypt and Assyria will recognize the supremacy of YHWH, joining forces in worshiping him, and meriting Divine Blessings:

What a beautiful future that Isaiah looks forward to!

A time when two empires who, for years, would compete with each other for the ancient near east's Biggest Nuisance Award (until Babylon would enter the scene and win that prize), would cast off their haughtiness and join Israel in recognizing YHWH as the Power deserving of their devotion.

While Isaiah's oracle certainly seems like it would make an appropriate final word, much would happen moving forward, and more would be said. And so the collectors of the texts in the TaNaKh would let others have their say as well.

In the next century, Jeremiah too would have his version of Oracles Against the Nations, with Egypt of course being included. Here we see him goading Egypt to participate in a collaborative effort with Assyria against Babylon:

What a great passage! You can almost see Jeremiah's gleeful smile, as he fires up all of the Egyptian troops, rousing their excitement for battle. But little do they know that this is all to prepare a "sacrifice" by the river Euphrates.

Any thoughts on who the sacrifice is meant to be? Here's a hint; It rhymes with He chipped.

below: Egyptian troops ready for battle, after Jeremiah get them all riled up!

What I didn't include was the superscription to Jeremiah's words, in which we are given a little more context as the narrator even tells us how it will all turn out in the end:

This is a moment of huge historical importance. Here is how Robert Alter describes it:

For good reason, this moment would make up a central part of one of the chapters in James A Michener's epic work of historical fiction, The Source.

Here is a description from the perspective of an elderly Israelite woman living in a town in the Galilee.

Isaiah had beautiful ideas. And yet, he seems to have been undermined by history. Egypt and Assyria could not very well join Israel in harmonious celebration of YHWH if they are no more.

And yet, once again, the collected works in the TaNaKh do not stop here. For if we continue moving along in history, we then get to Ezekiel's collection of the Oracles Against the Nations. His passage about Egypt is dated to around 587 BCE, about 20 years after their defeat at Carchemish:

What's going on here is fascinating. Do you remember what life was like for the Judahites in 587 BCE?

Scary.

Jerusalem is under siege, being at the mercy of the Babylonian Empire. The end is nigh.

The Egyptians, however, had not forgotten the embarrassment of Carchemish two decades earlier. And so the then-ruling Egyptian Pharaoh Hophra (589-570), saw the Babylonian-Judahite conflict as an opportunity to strike back, and so he sent military forces to defend Jerusalem, in an ironic turn of events given bitterness that Israel never ceased feeling towards Egypt for the extended enslavement a thousand years earlier.

This is all in the background of Ezekiel's oracle, looking on from Babylonian exile already (he had been in exile since the 590s) as he foretells Egypt's defeat yet again.

below: A beautiful sunset over the Nile River.

On a side-note, history is so abounding with its fascinating ironies.

Many of Hophra's own soldiers would be less than thrilled at this particular military campaign. In fact, a particular garrison would even resort to mutiny! Civil war would then break out between soldiers of Egyptian background and foreign mercenaries. Unfortunately for Hophra, a general named Amasis would emerge as the dominant figure, declaring himself the new Pharaoh and forcing Hophra to flee for his life. Three years later, in 567, Hophra would return, somehow at the head of a Babylonian army, when it was originally warring against the Babylonians that had started all of this to begin with! (The Babylonian army woudn't do him any good. He would ultimately be captured by Amasis and strangled, with Amasis keeping power for himself.).

----- see here for more details: https://www.bible-history.com/links.php?cat=46&sub=3494&cat_name=People+-+Ancient+Egypt&subcat_name=Apries+

below: Pharaoh Hophra (also known as "Apries") being taken in the war against Amasis.

But let's rewind a bit, back to Ezekiel's prophecy against Hophra as he approaches Jerusalem, bent on joining Judah against Babylon in 587. There are a few things I'd like to focus on.

Note, firstly, how Ezekiel refers to the Pharaoh; The Great Dragon, or in Hebrew, the tanim.

Have you seen this term before? I'd bet you have:

Did you ever notice that YHWH creates dragons during the first six days of creation?

Additionally, there's yet another place where this same word makes an appearance - one much closer to home:

What do you make of this; That at this very pivotal moment, Ezekiel is referring to Pharaoh Hophra using the same term and image that is associated with the beginning of the downfall of Egypt at the hands of YHWH? Might he be doing this on purpose? If so, would Pharaoh Hophra understand the intended association?

I'll share with you another possibility.

We are not entirely sure how to tranlate tanin. Here are some possibilities you'll see in a standard Biblical Hebrew dictionary:

• Dragon
• Serpent
• Sea/river monster
• Venomous snake

Could this image count? :

I think it certainly can for a river monster - particularly a Nile-river monster! In fact, crocodiles were seen as symbols of ancient Egypt because of their abundance.

Here are some neat old coins where this is the case:

If this is what Ezekiel had in mind, rather than the association with the passage from Exodus, how does this change the tone, or the feeling, with which he delivers this oracle?

Personally, if we go with the Exodus-connection, I think that it is more ominous, in foreshadowing doom and catastrophe. If we go with the crocodile imagery, maybe it is more sarcastic, or ironic; Egypt, or her Pharaoh, is represented as this imposing Nile-Monster. And yet, she will be so easily and quickly yanked out of the Nile, where it thought it reigned supreme, and flung out into the wilderness to perish.

Could Ezekiel somehow have both of the above two ideas in mind?

I also want to share something about the "staff of reed" comment, which might play into a question that I imagine might be on your mind; Namely, WHY is Ezekiel bringing forth such a dooming oracle against Egypt when, isn't Egypt trying to help Israel??? How does THAT make sense!?

Here is the comment once again:

It seems to me that Ezekiel is remembering some incident in the past where Israel had relied on Egypt only to be sorely disappointed.

And in fact, in his language, he is echoing something very specific.

Remember that right now, Jeruslam is under siege by the Babylonians. Well, over a hundred years earlier, there was another siege. Same place, different agressor.

The story is told in the book Kings, of the moment in the late 8th century when an Assyrian delgation was on the doorstep of Jerusalem, waging psychological warfare in trying to frighten the Judahites into turning against their King, Hezekiah, when he stubbornly and courageously refused to let the Assyrians push him around.

Here is part of that exchange:

Notice anything familiar?

Yet again, we see someone comparing Egypt to reeds, in that it is an unreliable support which is less than unhelpful to those who depend on her. And in this case, we have a fascinating historical relic to provide some background.

The Assyrian emperor Sennacharib's Annals, written in Cuneiform between 691 and 689 BCE and found in Ninveh in 1830, tells the story of some of Sennacharib's military accomplishments.

Here is a passage of relevance:

Egypt certainly was no match for Assyria. Perhaps Egypt only served to inflame Assyria's anger even further. Could this, combined with the fact that reeds, which are easily bent and broken and are found en masse around the Nile, be the reason for this ongoing comparison of Egypt to reeds?

below: Sennacharib's Annals

Let's now bring it back to Ezekiel and to our latest question; Why so much hate coming from him towards Egypt? Even if the "reed" comparison is right insofar as Egypt had been unsuccessful in previous attempts to aid Jerusalem, should they not be lauded for trying?

Yes! They most definitely should be! Which makes me wonder; Who is Ezekiel's intended audience? Sure, he is told to address the Pharaoh and criticize him for his arrogance; But does it really make sense that Ezekiel is addressing Pharaoh all the way from his exile in Babylon? (Don't forget, we are talking pre-ZOOM era!)

Therefore, I wonder if Ezekiel's real intent here is for Israel to get the message. The point is therefore not to insult Egypt, but to hammer the point home to his Judahite brothers and sisters that relying on an Egyptian savior is futile.

I'll leave this with you as an open question; The oracles in the TaNaKh, as we have seen, contain a number of moments in which a prophet turns to address a foreign nation; Be them the Edomites, the Moabites, the Assyrians or others.

Take a deeper look into some of the examples above; If it is indeed true that in the case of the Egyptians, Ezekiel really wanted Israel to hear... Can we say the same for the other moments in which a prophet brings the word of YHWH to a foreign nation? And would the way we answer this question impact, in any way, the way that we read these ancient oracles and relate to them?

And of course, a word of wisdom from a collection of ancient Israelite proverb. (I'll leave it to you to try to work out the relevance to our above material):

below: an alternative translation