3. A day of cloud. Given the context of impending catastrophe, this is more than just a cloudy day. The day when God exacts retribution is here (compare verse 18), as in several other prophets, a day when the sky goes ominously dark.

4. shuddering in Nubia / when the slain fall in Egypt. The Hebrew features wordplay: “shuddering” is ḥalḥalah, “the slain” is ḥalal.

5. Nubia and Put and Lud and all the mixed throng / and Cub. These are all neighboring lands (though Cub has not been indentified) that were either allied with Egypt or provided mercenaries to the Egyptians.

the people from the land of the pact. The reference is somewhat obscure, but as part of a list of allies of Egypt, it probably indicates a country that had some sort of military pact with the Egyptians.

6. From Migdol to Seyene. As before, this is from north to south within Egypt.

8. all who help her. As with the “supporters” in verse 6, this is a term often used for those who provide military aid.

9. there shall be shuddering in them on the day of Egypt. This formulation conveys the idea that as retribution comes down on Egypt, it will engulf her neighboring allies as well.

12. I will turn the rivers into dry land. Again, “rivers” is literally “Niles,” meaning the Nile, its tributaries, and its canals.

14. No. This is a city in northern Egypt that at times served as a capital. “No” is a variant of “Noph”: the Hebrew sometimes uses one form and other times the other (e.g., in verse 16 below, as well as in Jeremiah 2:16).

15. the abundance of No. It should be noted that both here and in verses 4 and 10 above, the term hamon, “abundance” or “wealth,” can also mean “crowd.”

16. and Noph, the foes by day. The translation reproduces the obscurity of the Hebrew. Perhaps a preposition (“from,” “by”) was dropped.

18. Tahpanhes. Another prominent Egyptian city; like No, there are variant spellings in the Hebrew. This translation reflects that, sometimes using the spelling Tahpanes (e.g., Jeremiah 2:16).

go dark. The Masoretic Text reads ḥasakh, “hold back,” but many Hebrew manuscripts show the more plausible ḥashakh, “go dark.”

when I break there the staffs of Egypt. The staff is an emblem of sovereignty.

20. the eleventh year. This takes us back to 587 B.C.E. This historical moment, just before the final destruction of Jerusalem, seems to have been a time when Ezekiel was repeatedly moved to pronounce prophecies about the nations.

21. I have broken the arm of Pharaoh. The prophecy is a striking instance of the rhetorical strategy of resuscitating a dead metaphor. Repeatedly, “arm” is a term for “strength” or “power.” That is what it means here, but the literal sense of the word becomes salient: the arm is broken; it has been given no medical attention to heal it; dangling broken, it can no longer grasp a sword; then the other arm is broken, and the damaged one is broken a second time. The devastation of Egypt as a military power in this way is made painfully vivid.

22. make the sword drop from his hand. In keeping with the literalization of the metaphor of the arm, Pharaoh’s broken, pain-wracked arm, incapable of holding a sword, lets it drop from his grip.

24. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylonia and put My sword in his hand. This is the final turn of the metaphor of the arm: while Pharaoh’s broken arms dangle, unable to wield any weapon, God makes Nebuchadnezzar’s arms strong and ready to grasp the sword. “My sword” does not refer to a divine or magical weapon but simply invokes the idea that the Babylonian king is acting on God’s behalf, or at God’s bidding.

26. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations and scatter them among the lands. One again sees the pronounced tendency in Ezekiel’s prose prophecies to deploy formulaic language and frequent repetition.