The section of Ezekiel 29 – 32 is all about Egypt. The exiles for whom Ezekiel is writing had trusted that their kinsmen left in Judah would mount a force to deliver them. Ezekiel assures them in this book that will not be the case. The remnant people of God left in Judah hoped that Egypt would help them. In fact, Egypt had always been a source of strength for Judah – at least, Judah thought they were a source of strength. In point of fact, they never were all that helpful.
Trust in Egypt went back to Abraham who went to Egypt to escape a famine – not unlike Jacob in later years. God wanted Israel to trust Him, not Egypt.
The date of Ezekiel 32 is 586/585 B.C., a short time after Jerusalem’s final fall to the Babylonians. Once again, the ally Egypt had been unequal to the task – a broken reed of a staff for God’s people. Here, God tells the exiles of Egypt’s doom. She will go the way of all the other great nations – nations who thought they were lions but who really just muddied the water as to where real deliverance lay. She will sleep the sleep of all those who are not God’s people – the un-circumcised, for that is the decreed fate of all who do not belong to God’s family.