Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.
- BSB Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be placed 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 31:18To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
- Ezek 32:29–30There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.
- Jer 9:25–26Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
- Ezek 32:21The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
- Ezek 28:10Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
- Ezek 31:2Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
- Ezek 32:24There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.
- 1 Sam 17:36Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
- 1 Sam 17:26And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
- Ezek 28:12–17Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
- Ezek 27:3–4And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.
- Isa 14:9–15Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
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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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