Ezekiel 30:15-16 - Exposition

Sin . The name signifies "mire," like the Greek Pelusium (so the Vulgate), from πήλος . The modern name Pheromi has the same meaning. The remains of an old fortress near the town are still known as Tineh, the "clay" of Daniel 2:41 . The fortress stood on the eastern branch of the Nile, surrounded by swamps, and its position made it, in modern phrase, the "key" of Egypt. Suidas and Strabo ( ut supra ) describe it as an obstacle to invaders from the East. Ezekiel, in describing it as "the strength of Egypt," must have known its local characteristics. The multitude of No ; in the Hebrew, as in Jeremiah 46:25 , Hamon-No . Did the prophet, after the manner of Micah 1:10-14 , indulge in a play on the full name of the city as given in Nahum 3:8 ? The LXX . as before, gives Diospolis, and the Vulgate Alexandria . Noph shall have distresses daily . So the Vulgate, angustiae quotidianae . Hitizig and Keil, however, take the words as "troubles in the day-time." The city should be attacked, not by night ( Obadiah 1:5 ), but in open day (compare "the spoiler at noonday" of Jeremiah 15:8 ). The LXX . emits the name of the city, and renders, "waters shall be poured out." For Sin the LXX . here gives, following a different reading, "Syene."