1And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 2Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness? 3Behold, Assyria was like a cedar in Lebanon, with fine branches that shaded the forest, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. 4The waters made it grow; the depths gave it height, with their rivers running around the place where it was planted, and sent out rivulets to all the trees of the field. 5Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field; its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long because of the abundance of water, as it sent them out. 6All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young; and in its shadow all great nations made their home. 7Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches, because its roots reached to abundant waters. 8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like its branches; no tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty. 9I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it. 10Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height, 11therefore I have delivered it into the hand of the Mighty God of the nations, and He shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness. 12And strangers, the most terrifying of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs lie broken by all the ravines of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it. 13On its ruin will dwell all the birds of the heavens, and all the beasts of the field shall be on its branches; 14so that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor set their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drinks water may ever be high enough to reach up to them. For they have all been delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the sons of men who go down to the Pit. 15Thus says the Lord Jehovah: In the day when it went down to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep for it. I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were held back. I caused Lebanon to mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. 16I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol together with those who descend into the Pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the depths of the earth. 17They also went down to Sheol with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its arm, who dwelt in its shadows among the nations. 18To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE OVERTHROW OF EGYPT ILLUSTRATED BY THAT OF ASSYRIA. (Eze. 31:1-18)
third month--two months later than the prophecy delivered in
Ezek 30:20.
2 Whom art thou like--The answer is, Thou art like the haughty king of Assyria; as he was overthrown by the Chaldeans, so shalt thou be by the same.
3 He illustrates the pride and the consequent overthrow of the Assyrian, that Egypt may the better know what she must expect.
cedar in Lebanon--often eighty feet high, and the diameter of the space covered by its boughs still greater: the symmetry perfect. Compare the similar image (
Ezek 17:3;
Dan 4:20-
Dan 4:22).
with a shadowing shroud--with an overshadowing thicket.
top . . . among . . . thick boughs--rather [HENGSTENBERG], "among the clouds." But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The top, or topmost shoot, represents the king; the thick boughs, the large resources of the empire.
4 waters . . . little rivers--the Tigris with its branches and "rivulets," or "conduits" for irrigation, the source of Assyria's fertility. "The deep" is the ever flowing water, never dry. Metaphorically, for Assyria's resources, as the "conduits" are her colonies.
5 when he shot forth--because of the abundant moisture which nourished him in shooting forth. But see Margin.
6 fowls . . . made . . . nests in . . . boughs--so
Ezek 17:23;
Dan 4:12. The gospel kingdom shall gather all under its covert, for their good and for the glory of God, which the world kingdoms did for evil and for self-aggrandizement (
Matt 13:32).
8 cedars . . . could not hide him--could not outtop him. No other king eclipsed him.
were not like--were not comparable to.
garden of God--As in the case of Tyre (
Ezek 28:13), the imagery, that is applied to the Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered Assyria (
Gen 2:10-
Gen 2:14). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there outtopped it.
9 I . . . made him--It was all due to My free grace.
10 thou . . . he--The change of persons is because the language refers partly to the cedar, partly to the person signified by the cedar.
11 Here the literal supersedes the figurative.
shall surely deal with him--according to his own pleasure, and according to the Assyrian's (Sardanapalus) desert. Nebuchadnezzar is called "the mighty one" (El, a name of God), because he was God's representative and instrument of judgment (
Dan 2:37-
Dan 2:38).
12 from his shadow--under which they had formerly dwelt as their covert (
Ezek 31:6).
13 Birds and beasts shall insult over his fallen trunk.
14 trees by the waters--that is, that are plentifully supplied by the waters: nations abounding in resources.
stand up in their height--that is, trust in their height: stand upon it as their ground of confidence. FAIRBAIRN points the Hebrew differently, so as for "their trees," to translate, "(And that none that drink water may stand) on themselves, (because of their greatness)." But the usual reading is better, as Assyria and the confederate states throughout are compared to strong trees. The clause, "All that drink water," marks the ground of the trees' confidence "in their height," namely, that they have ample sources of supply. MAURER, retaining the same Hebrew, translates, "that neither their terebinth trees may stand up in their height, nor all (the other trees) that drink water."
to . . . nether . . . earth . . . pit-- (
Ezek 32:18;
Ps 82:7).
15 covered the deep--as mourners cover their heads in token of mourning, "I made the deep that watered the cedar" to wrap itself in mourning for him. The waters of the deep are the tributary peoples of Assyria (
Rev 17:15).
fainted--literally, were "faintness" (itself); more forcible than the verb.
16 hell--Sheol or Hades, the unseen world: equivalent to, "I cast him into oblivion" (compare
Isa 14:9-
Isa 14:11).
shall be comforted--because so great a king as the Assyrian is brought down to a level with them. It is a kind of consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
17 his arm, that dwelt under his shadow--those who were the helpers or tool of his tyranny, and therefore enjoyed his protection (for example, Syria and her neighbors). These were sure to share her fate. Compare the same phrase as to the Jews living under the protection of their king (
Lam 4:20); both alike "making flesh their arm, and in heart departing from the Lord" (
Jer 17:5).
18 Application of the parabolic description of Assyria to the parallel case of Egypt. "All that has been said of the Assyrian consider as said to thyself. To whom art thou so like, as thou art to the Assyrian? To none." The lesson on a gigantic scale of Eden-like privileges abused to pride and sin by the Assyrian, as in the case of the first man in Eden, ending in ruin, was to be repeated in Egypt's case. For the unchangeable God governs the world on the same unchangeable principles.
thou shall lie in . . . uncircumcised--As circumcision was an object of mocking to thee, thou shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, slain by their sword [GROTIUS]. Retribution in kind (
Ezek 28:10).
This is Pharaoh--Pharaoh's end shall be the same humiliating one as I have depicted the Assyrian's to have been. "This" is demonstrative, as if he were pointing with the finger to Pharaoh lying prostrate, a spectacle to all, as on the shore of the Red Sea (
Exod 14:30-
Exod 14:31).