Ezekiel 32:24
There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.
Elam with all her slain host lies together around her burial place, cut down by the sword and gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth to bear shame with the others in the pit after spreading terror while alive. This is part of the Lord's judgment upon Pharaoh and Egypt with the nations round about her, showing the certain overthrow of their pride and power. The land of the living above is set against the nether parts beneath, for hell, hades and sheol are the same place in the depths and interior of the earth itself, the realm and prison of all the dead and not in heaven. Their speaking, meeting, seeing and being comforted there is figurative personification to set the truth vividly before the living, for the dead in sheol are silent, unconscious and without knowledge or activity.
Prophecy Against Egypt
The verse stands within the Lord's prophetic judgment against Egypt and the nations round about her. It belongs to the prophecy concerning Egypt and the certain fate of Pharaoh and his host. The prophecies against Egypt in chapters 29-32 were literally fulfilled. Egypt, once among the greatest kingdoms and at one time the greatest empire on earth, was to become the basest of kingdoms.
The verse belongs to a twenty-two-year pleading with Israel to turn to God by showing how God dealt with the kingdoms on every side of Israel and brought down their pride. Egypt was a former oppressor of God's people and, with Tyre, one of the two great nations denounced in that pleading. Egypt is the symbol of black infidelity. God has brought her low and abased her pride so that she will never rise again among the nations, warning that the pride of those who still remain will likewise be brought down.
Grave and Nether Parts
Elam and all her multitude lie together round about her grave, slain and fallen by the sword, gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth. They had caused their terror in the land of the living, but in death they bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. The grave is thus the place of the slain, set in contrast with the land of the living, and the slain nations go down there together among the dead.
The verse sets two regions against each other: the surface of the earth, called the land of the living, and its interior, described as the nether parts, the pit, or hades. Hades is the realm of the dead, not a place where living beings dwell. Hell means hades or sheol and lies beneath in the depths and lower parts of the earth itself.
Hell, hades, and sheol are identical, located in the earth beneath in the interior of the earth. The nether parts embrace the whole interior of the earth as the region of the dead and the place of every grave. Hades is therefore not in the third heaven in sight of the New Jerusalem. Ezekiel 32:18-32 places sheol or hades in the nether parts of the earth where the slain nations go down in shame, with Elam among those buried there after being slain by the sword.
The word for grave in the verse is the Hebrew kever, meaning a grave or cavern, a covered burial place for hiding the dead. It is found in about forty-seven places translated grave. It is the literal place where some of the dead are buried, distinct from sheol, which is the general state of death and unconsciousness where all the dead are.
The verse is evidence that sheol, or hades, is located in the depths of the earth and is the realm of the dead rather than heaven. The dead enter it through death and leave it through resurrection. It is a temporary prison from which Jesus will raise the saints.
Hades is the place of the dead where Christ descended when he died. He descended first into hades under the power of death in the lower parts of the earth and afterward ascended far above all heavens into Paradise. His going down and then up as the same being proves he did not go up and down at once as two beings.
Figurative Unconscious Dead
Elam and all her multitude are shown as slain by the sword and lying together round about the grave, gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, their former terror in the land of the living giving way to shame with them that go down to the pit. In that scene the slain nations are portrayed as going down to sheol and as speaking, meeting, being comforted, seeing others, and bearing shame. That speech and action is figurative personification, not a literal account of conscious conversation in the grave and not proof that the dead are conscious or active. The dead are personified as conscious and seeing others only as a figure, for the slain cannot literally converse or feel comfort or shame in sheol.
Pharaoh and his army are shown slaughtered in battle with the king of Babylon and buried indiscriminately with friend and foe cast together into pits in the nether parts of the earth, which is sheol, contrasted with the land of the living. They went down with their weapons of war with their swords laid under their heads. The strong among the mighty speak to Pharaoh out of the midst of sheol, and Pharaoh lying among them and seeing the multitude of his slain enemies is comforted, while Elam and the others bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. This speaking, comforting, and shame-bearing is figurative and not literal, for the dead in sheol are silent and without knowledge and cannot converse together in the nether parts of the earth.
The unconscious dead in hades are represented as alive to express the facts of their cases, although hades is a place of darkness, silence, and death. Their speech and action are not proof of consciousness in death but a personification used to bring truth forcibly to bear on the minds of the living. The language vividly presents future retribution while the dead remain without knowledge or activity. It is of the same kind as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and exactly like the rich man speaking in hades, given as a figure to set forth a great truth.