Ezekiel 29:18

Nebuchadnezzar attacked Tyre (Ezekiel 26–28). His army worked very hard but gained little wealth from the city.

The Lord said that workers deserve their wages. So he would give Egypt to Babylon as payment for their work. Egypt would become their reward.

This message came in the twenty-seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. This is the latest dated message in the book of Ezekiel. It is even later than Ezekiel’s vision of the temple in Ezekiel 40–48.

• The seventh and final message of judgment against the nations targets Egypt, an old enemy and ally of Israel. This message is the longest and, like the one against Tyre, it addresses both Egypt and its ruler.

• Egypt often tempted Israel and Judah to turn away from their loyalty to the Lord. Soon after leaving Egypt, Israel fell into the trap of Egypt's idolatry. Egypt led Judah to rely on chariots and horses instead of the Lord, but Egypt was unreliable when it mattered most. The Lord judged Egypt for leading his people astray (compare Luke 17:1–2).

• This section contains a series of messages of judgment against nearby nations. There are six shorter messages against Judah's immediate neighbors, arranged in a clockwise order, followed by a final message against Egypt (Ezekiel 30–32). Through experiencing God's judgment, the nations would recognize God's control over everything. The nations might be used to carry out God's judgment on his people, but they would not avoid judgment themselves.

• One of the main purposes of these messages was to show that the negative part of God's promise to Abraham ("I will … curse those who curse you," Genesis 12:3) was still active. No one can harm God's people and avoid consequences, even when God's people are under his judgment.