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There be the princes of the north - The kings of Media and Assyria, and all the Zidonians - the kings of Tyre, Sodom, and Damascus. See Calmet.

The princes of the north - i. e., north of Palestine - The Tyrians and the Syrians.

With their terror they are ashamed of their might - i. e., “When their might and power were terrible to all, they were shorn of their power and delivered over to shame and confusion.” There are here six nations, Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, Zidon, which added to Egypt make up seven (see the Ezekiel 25:1 note). The section which contains the prophecies against the pagan, closing with this description of the kings who had gone down to the grave, accords with the general purport of the whole section, namely,: the declaration that all the powers of the world shall be annihilated to make way for the kingdom of God.

Divers nations are mentioned as gone down to the grave before Egypt, who are ready to give her a scornful reception; these nations had been lately ruined and wasted. But though Judah and Jerusalem were about this time ruined and laid waste, yet they are not mentioned here. Though they suffered the same affliction, and by the same hand, yet the kind design for which they were afflicted, and the mercy God reserved for them, altered its nature. It was not to them a going down to the pit, as it was to the heathen. Pharaoh shall see, and be comforted; but the comfort wicked ones have after death, is poor comfort, not real, but only in fancy. The view this prophecy gives of ruined states shows something of this present world, and the empire of death in it. Come and see the calamitous state of human life. As if men did not die fast enough, they are ingenious at finding out ways to destroy one another. Also of the other world; though the destruction of nations as such, seems chiefly intended, here is plain allusion to the everlasting ruin of impenitent sinners. How are men deceived by Satan! What are the objects they pursue through scenes of bloodshed, and their many sins? Surely man disquiets himself in vain, whether he pursues wealth, fame, power, or pleasure. The hour cometh, when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of Christ, and shall come forth; those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.