Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be placed with the uncircumcised!
Parallel translations
- WEB Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.
- KJV Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.
- NKJV ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down, be placed with the uncircumcised.’
- NASB ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised.’
- NLT Say to them, ‘O Egypt, are you lovelier than the other nations? No! So go down to the pit and lie there among the outcasts.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Egypt is mockingly asked whom she surpasses in beauty, then ordered to go down among the uncircumcised dead. Her vaunted glory cannot exempt her from the grave.
Overview
The taunting question exposes the emptiness of Egypt's claim to superior beauty and might. To 'lie with the uncircumcised' was a dishonored death, here applied to a nation that prided itself on greatness. No splendor secures a place above the common fate of the condemned; only God exalts and abases.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ezek 31:18Who then is like you in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You also will be brought down to the depths of the earth to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.’”
- Ezek 32:29–30Edom is there, and all her kings and princes, who despite their might are laid among those slain by the sword. They lie down with the uncircumcised, with those who descend to the Pit.
- Jer 9:25–26“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised:
- Ezek 32:21Mighty chiefs will speak from the midst of Sheol about Egypt and her allies: ‘They have come down and lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.’
- Ezek 28:10You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners. For I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.”
- Ezek 31:2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: ‘Who can be compared to your greatness?
- Ezek 32:24Elam is there with all her multitudes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who went down uncircumcised to the earth below, who once spread their terror in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit.
- 1 Sam 17:36Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”
- 1 Sam 17:26David asked the men who were standing with him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
- Ezek 28:12–17“Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
- Ezek 27:3–4Tell Tyre, who dwells at the gateway to the sea, merchant of the peoples on many coasts, that this is what the Lord GOD says: You have said, O Tyre, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’
- Isa 14:9–15Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 32:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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