When Israel took hold of you with their hands, you splintered, tearing all their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke, and their backs were wrenched.
God sets this prophecy against Egypt at the very moment when the Egyptians were tempting the Jews to rely on them instead of the Lord. Mark the mercy in it: He lets us foresee the failure of every earthly prop just when we are most prone to lean on it, so we may cease from man and trust only in Him.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 29:1-7
When they took hold of thee by thy hand,.... When the Israelites entered into an alliance and confederacy with the Egyptians, called for their assistance according to treaty, and put their confidence in them: thou didst break and rend all their shoulder; as a reed which a man puts under his armhole, and leans upon, and it breaks under him, the splinters run into the...
hand--or handle of the reed. rend . . . shoulder--by the splinters on which the shoulder or arm would fall, on the support failing the hand. madest . . . loins . . . at a stand--that is, made them to be disabled.