Lives of Scripture

Pharaoh Hophra ruled Egypt when Judah's last king, Zedekiah, rebelled against Babylon and looked to Egypt for horses and troops (Ezekiel 17:15-17). While Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, Pharaoh's army marched out of Egypt and the Babylonians withdrew. Zedekiah's court took hope, but Jeremiah warned that the Egyptian army would go home and the Babylonians would return and burn the city -- and so it happened (Jeremiah 37:5-11). Ezekiel, among the exiles in Babylon, prophesied against the same Pharaoh in a series of dated oracles: God would drag Egypt's king like a great monster out of his Nile (Ezekiel 29:2-3), break his arms so he could not hold a sword (30:21-25), and cut him down like a towering cedar that fell because its heart was proud (31:2-18); Ezekiel then raised a lament over him going down to the pit with the fallen nations (32:2-32). After Jerusalem fell, a remnant of Judah fled to Egypt against the LORD's word. At Tahpanhes, where Pharaoh had a palace, Jeremiah buried large stones and declared that Nebuchadnezzar would set his throne over them (Jeremiah 43:9-10). Then he named the king: the LORD would give Pharaoh Hophra into the hand of his enemies, just as He had given Zedekiah into Nebuchadnezzar's hand (44:30). Judah had trusted Egypt to rescue it; the prophets warned that Egypt's king could not even save himself.