Text: Ezekiel 29:17
OT Text Referred to: Ezekiel 26:7
Subject: shift payment for Nebuchadnezzar
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Ezekiel 29:17-20 acknowledges that Nebuchadnezzar's army received no wages (שָׂכָר, sakhar) from the siege of Tyre prophesied in Ezekiel 26:7-14, so God grants him Egypt as compensation. This is a remarkable inner-Ezekiel connection where the prophet himself revisits an earlier oracle and explains its partial fulfillment. The earlier prophecy named Nebuchadnezzar as God's instrument against Tyre (26:7), but the prolonged siege yielded insufficient plunder. God's solution—redirecting payment to Egypt—demonstrates that YHWH sovereignly employs and compensates pagan kings as instruments of His purposes, honoring His own word even when its fulfillment takes unexpected forms.