4 I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Hooks in thy jaws - Compare Job 41:2. The crocodile is thus rendered an easy prey.
Fish of thy rivers - i. e., the allies of Egypt shall be involved in her ruin.
I will put hooks in thy jaws - Amasis, one of this king's generals, being proclaimed king by an insurrection of the people, dethroned Apries, and seized upon the kingdom; and Apries was obliged to flee to Upper Egypt for safety.
I will cause the fish - to stick unto thy scales - Most fish are sorely troubled with a species of insect which bury their heads in their flesh, under their scales, and suck out the vital juices. The allusion seems to be to this. Pharaoh was the crocodile; the fish, the common people; and the sticking to his scales, the insurrection by which he was wasted and despoiled of his kingdom.
But I will put (c) hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales, and I will bring thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick to thy scales.
(c) I will send enemies against you who will pluck you and your people which trust in you out of your sure places.
But I will put hooks in thy jaws,.... The allusion is to fishhooks, which are taken by fishes with the bait into their mouths, and stick in their jaws, by which they are drawn out of the river, and taken. The king of Egypt being before compared to a fish, these hooks design some powerful princes and armies, which should be the ruin of Pharaoh; one of them, according to Junius and Grotius, was Amasis, at the head of the Cyreneans and Greeks; and another was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; see Job 41:1,
and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales; the people of his kingdom, especially his soldiers, generals, princes, and great men, to cleave to him, follow him, and go out with him in his expedition against Amasis. The Targum is,
"I will kill the princes of thy strength with thy mighty ones:''
and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers: alluding to the crocodile, to which he is compared, which sometimes comes out of the river, and goes on dry land. The king of Egypt was brought out of his kingdom by the following means: Amasis, with the Cyreneans and Greeks, having seized upon Lybia, and drove the king of it from thence, he applied to Pharaoh for help, who gathered a large army of Egyptians, and led them out into the fields of Cyrene, where they were defeated by Amasis, and almost all perished, and the king saved himself by flight; upon which the Egyptians mutinied and rebelled against him, and Amasis became their king:
and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales; the common people of Egypt; for the above numerous army consisted only of Egyptians, whom he gathered from all parts, drained his rivers of them, and almost exhausted his country hereby; he had indeed in an army, after this battle with Amasis, thirty thousand auxiliaries, Carians and Ionians; but these were not the fish of his rivers. The Targum is,
"I will make thy kingdom to cease from thee, and all the princes of thy strength with thy mighty ones shall be killed;''
with which the history agrees. The allusion to the crocodile is here very just and pertinent, which is a fish full of scales. Monsieur Thevenot (a), who saw many of them, says, that
"the body of this fish is large, and all of a size; the back is covered with high scales, like the heads of nails in a court gate, of a greenish colour, and so hard that they are proof against a halberd; and it has a long tail covered with scales like the body;''
and another traveller says (b) they have scales on their back musket proof, and therefore must be wounded in the belly; but another traveller (c) says, this is a vulgar report that a musket shot will not pierce the skins of the crocodiles, for upon trial it is found false; yet all writers, ancient and modern, allow it to have very firm scales on its back, which render it capable of bearing the heaviest strokes, and to be in a measure impenetrable and invincible; so Herodotus (d) says, it has a skin full of scales, on the back infrangible; or, as Pliny (e) expresses it, invincible against all blows and strokes it may be stricken with; and so says Aristotle (f), with which Aelian (g) agrees, who says that the crocodile has by nature a back and tail impenetrable; for it is covered with scales, as if it was armed as one might say, not unlike to hard shells.
(a) Travels, par. 1. B. 2. c. 72. p. 245. (b) Mandelsloe in Harris's Voyages, &c. vol. 1. p. 759. (c) Tavernier in ib. p. 835. (d) Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 63. (e) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25. (f) Hist. Animal: l. 2. c. 10. (g) De Animal. l. 10. c. 24.
hooks in thy jaws-- (Isaiah 37:29; compare Job 41:1-2). Amasis was the "hook." In the Assyrian sculptures prisoners are represented with a hook in the underlip, and a cord from it held by the king.
cause . . . fish . . . stick unto . . . scales--Pharaoh, presuming on his power as if he were God (Ezekiel 29:3, "I have made it"), wished to stand in the stead of God as defender of the covenant-people, his motive being, not love to them, but rivalry with Babylon. He raised the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a time (compare Ezekiel 29:6; Jeremiah 37:5, Jeremiah 37:7-10); ruin overtook not only them, but himself. As the fish that clung to the horny scales of the crocodile, the lord of the Nile, when he was caught, shared his fate, so the adherents of Pharaoh, lord of Egypt, when he was overthrown by Amasis, should share his fate.
Put hooks - The Allegory is continued. The fish - The people of Egypt. To stick - To adhere to their king.
*More commentary available at chapter level.