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Context No. 3861 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 32:22-27: in context

22“Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, 23whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living. 24“There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have 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. 25They have made Elam a bed among the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are around her, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is put among those who are slain. 26“There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude. Their graves are around them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. 27They will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war and have laid their swords under their heads. Their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

This solemn dirge walks through the graves of the great nations, Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal, once feared powers that spread terror in the land of the living, and now all lie together among the slain in the pit. The prophet's repeated refrain drives the point home: these who caused their terror in the land of the living now share the same grave as all the rest.

Here is a sobering leveling. The nations that once made the whole earth tremble, whose armies seemed unstoppable, come at last to the same place as everyone else, the grave, where their terror counts for nothing. All the dread they inspired could not exempt them from death; they lie in the dust like the weakest of men. There is a lesson in this for every power that trusts in force and inspires fear. The terror and force of nations and rulers are temporary; the grave awaits the feared and the fearsome no less than anyone. What looks unstoppable in the land of the living is brought low in the end, and only what is built on God outlasts the leveling grave.

Do I see through the apparent permanence of worldly power and force, remembering that even the feared and the fearsome come at last to the same grave, so that I build my hope on what outlasts death?

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