Down to the Pit With the Uncircumcised
1 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, ‘You were likened to a young lion of the nations; yet you are as a monster in the seas. You broke out with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.’” 3 The Lord Yahweh says: “I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples. They will bring you up in my net. 4 I will leave you on the land. I will cast you out on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you. I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you. 5 I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. 6 I will also water the land in which you swim with your blood, even to the mountains. The watercourses will be full of you. 7 When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon won’t give its light. 8 I will make all the bright lights of the sky dark over you, and set darkness on your land,” says the Lord Yahweh. 9 “I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. 10 Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid for you, when I brandish my sword before them. They will tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.” 11 For the Lord Yahweh says: “The sword of the king of Babylon will come on you. 12 I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of the mighty. They are all the ruthless of the nations. They will bring the pride of Egypt to nothing, and all its multitude will be destroyed. 13 I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters. The foot of man won’t trouble them any more, nor will the hoofs of animals trouble them. 14 Then I will make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil,” says the Lord Yahweh. 15 “When I make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I strike all those who dwell therein, then they will know that I am Yahweh. 16 “‘“This is the lamentation with which they will lament. The daughters of the nations will lament with this. They will lament with it over Egypt, and over all her multitude,” says the Lord Yahweh.’” 17 Also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. 19 Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised. 20 They will fall among those who are slain by the sword. She is delivered to the sword. Draw her away with all her multitudes. 21 The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword. 22 “Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, 23 whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living. 24 “There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. 25 They have made Elam a bed among the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are around her, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is put among those who are slain. 26 “There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude. Their graves are around them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. 27 They will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war and have laid their swords under their heads. Their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. 28 “But you will be broken among the uncircumcised, and will lie with those who are slain by the sword. 29 “There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword. They will lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit. 30 “There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain. They are put to shame in the terror which they caused by their might. They lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 31 “Pharaoh will see them and will be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword,” says the Lord Yahweh. 32 “For I have put his terror in the land of the living. He will be laid among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude,” says the Lord Yahweh.
The lament over Pharaoh ends in a roll call of fallen empires already lying in the grave, and the last line says he will see them.
The lament opens by correcting Pharaoh's own preferred image. You were likened to a young lion of the nations; yet you are as a monster in the seas. A lion is a creature of the high ground with a certain dignity. What he actually is, the verse says, is the river beast of chapter 29 — thrashing about, troubling the waters with his feet and fouling the rivers other people drink from. The whole of Egypt's political record is compressed into that second sentence.
The capture is described as a hunt with a net, and then the language expands past anything a hunt would justify. When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon won't give its light. The fall of one kingdom is written in the vocabulary of the sky going out. That is a convention the prophets use for the collapse of an order, and it is worth noticing that Scripture applies such language to a historical event with a date attached, in a chapter dated to the twelfth year.
The second half is the strangest passage in the oracles against the nations. Pharaoh is escorted down to the pit, and the underworld is described as already occupied by nations who went before him. Assyria is there with all her company, her graves around her. Elam is there, with a note that she caused their terror in the land of the living and now bears her shame. Meshech and Tubal are there. Edom is there with her kings and princes. The princes of the north and all the Sidonians are there.
Each is described in the same terms, and the phrase that recurs is the uncircumcised — outsiders, buried without honor, and grouped by the fear they once caused. The effect of the roll call is cumulative and deliberate. Every one of these had been unanswerable in its day, and every one is now a name in a list with its weapons laid under its head. The lament ends by telling Pharaoh that he will see them, and will be comforted over all his multitude — which is the coldest comfort in Scripture, and the last word the book gives to any empire.
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