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Ezekiel 31:1

And it came to pass in the eleventh ° year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

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Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

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Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

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The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.

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Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.

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All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.

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Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.

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The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

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I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

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Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;

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I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.

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And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

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Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:

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To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

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Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

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I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

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They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.

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To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 31:1

31:1 third month. The prophecies of Ezekiel 31 were delivered about five months after those in Ezekiel 29:1-16. See also note on Ezekiel 20:1.

Ezekiel 31:2

31:2 Whom art thou like. In this chapter the supposedly mighty king of Egypt is compared unfavorably to the already fallen king of Assyria.

Ezekiel 31:3

31:3 a cedar in Lebanon. The nations are here compared to trees in a forest, with proud Assyria originally like a mighty cedar in Lebanon.

Ezekiel 31:4

31:4 waters made him great. The waters referred to are the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, that provided lands of rich fertility to Assyria and were a chief cause of her eminence among the nations.

Ezekiel 31:9

31:9 trees of Eden. The Tigris-Euphrates region had so reminded the early settlers there after the Flood that they named the rivers after those that had once flowed out of the long-vanished garden of Eden. Thus this hyperbolic description of the proud nation of the Assyrians. See notes on Genesis 2:10; 11:2.

Ezekiel 31:11

31:11 the mighty one of the heathen. Even such a mighty nation as Assyria had been cut down by Nebuchadnezzar. Pharaoh, with all his pride, would also be cut down.

Ezekiel 31:18

31:18 nether parts of the earth. Like the pompous king of Assyria, who was cast down to hell (Hebrew sheol, Ezekiel 31:16), the equally arrogant Pharaoh would also descend into hell, the same as “the pit” and “the nether parts of the earth.” The Hebrew sheol corresponds to hades in the Greek.

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