I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales. I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 4. Bridle. The Tentyrians jump upon the crocodile’s back, give it a club to bite at, which they seize with both hands, and bring it to the shore. Pliny viii. 25.—Others throw a hook baited with swine’s flesh, and holding the rope on the shore, make a little pig squeak, with draws the attention of the crocodile; and, as it comes for its prey, it swallows the hook, and its eyes being filled with dust is easily slain. Herod. ii. 70.—Apries sent an army against Cyrene, which being defeated as it was thought by the king’s fault, many of the Egyptians revolted. He sent Amasis to reduce them, but they gave him the crown. Herod. ii. 161. and iv. 159.—Nabuchodonsor taking advantage of these disturbances, and perhaps invited by Amasis, entered Egypt, drove Apries into Higher Egypt, slew many of the inhabitants, and Jews, and so forth and left Amasis to govern the wretched remains of the kingdom. Usher, A. 3430. The Scripture, however, seems to say that Pharao was slain; (Jeremiah 43. and so forth Calmet.) which Ctesias assures us was done by Amasis, though Herodotus (ii. 169.) says he was killed by the people, and buried with his fathers. This latter circumstance is not very probable: but the historian followed the account of the priests, who would mention what was most honourable for the nation. He seems to have been left unburied. verse 5. Scales. The people depended on the king and share his fate. Calmet.