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.’
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.
- 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.’
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 are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezek 32:29–30There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.
- Jer 9:25–26“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh:
- Ezek 32:21The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
- Ezek 28:10You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezek 31:2Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness?
- Ezek 32:24There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are 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.
- 1 Sam 17:36Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.”
- 1 Sam 17:26David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes 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 over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
- Ezek 27:3–4and tell Tyre, you who dwell at the entry of the sea, who are the merchant of the peoples to many islands, thus says the Lord Yahweh: You, Tyre, have said, I am perfect in beauty.
- Isa 14:9–15Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.