Ezekiel 31:1-9

Listen to Ezekiel 31:1-9

Pharaoh to Be Slain

1 ¹In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:

2 ²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to ³his multitude: ⁴“Whom are you like in your greatness?

3 Behold, ⁵Assyria was a ⁶cedar in ⁷Lebanon, with beautiful branches and ⁸forest shade, ⁹and of towering height, its top among the clouds. ^[a]

4 The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making ¹⁰its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field.

5 So ¹¹it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from ¹²abundant water in its shoots.

6 ¹³All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations.

7 It was ¹⁴beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; ¹⁵for its roots went down to abundant waters.

8 ¹⁶The cedars ¹⁷in the garden of God could not rival it, nor the fir trees equal its boughs; neither were the plane trees like its branches; no tree ¹⁸in the garden of God was its equal in beauty.

9 I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of ¹⁹Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.

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Ezekiel 31:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 31

This chapter contains a confirmation of the preceding prophecy, of the ruin of the king of Egypt, by the example of the king of Assyria, to whom he was like in grandeur and pride, and would be in his fall. The time of the prophecy is observed, Eze 31:1, the prophet is ordered to give the following relation to the king of Egypt, Eze 31:2 in which the king of Assyria is compared to a large and flourishing cedar, for the extent of his dominions, the prosperous state of his empire, and his exaltation above all other princes, which drew upon him their envy Eze 31:3-9, wherefore because of his pride, his heart being lifted up with these things, Eze 31:10, ruin came upon him; which is described by the instruments and manner of it, and the effects following it; mourning and fear in some, solace and comfort to others, and destruction to his associates, Eze 31:11-17, wherefore Pharaoh is called upon to consider all this, who was like to him in greatness and pride, and should have the like fate with him; nor could his greatness any more secure him than it did the Assyrian monarch, Eze 31:18.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

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Cross References 19

1. 31:1 See ch. 20:1
2. 31:2 See ch. 2:1
3. 31:2 [ch. 29:19; 30:4; 32:12, 16, 20, 31, 32]
4. 31:2 [ver. 18; ch. 32:19]
5. 31:3 [Isa. 10:34]; See Dan. 4:10, 20-22
6. 31:3 See Judg. 9:15
7. 31:3 [ver. 15, 16]
8. 31:3 [ch. 17:23]
9. 31:3 [Isa. 10:33]
10. 31:4 [ch. 17:7]
11. 31:5 [Dan. 4:11]
12. 31:5 ch. 17:5; [Ps. 1:3]
13. 31:6 ch. 17:23; Dan. 4:12, 21
14. 31:7 [ver. 2]
15. 31:7 [See ver. 5 above]
16. 31:8 [Amos 2:9]
17. 31:8 ch. 28:13; [ver. 16, 18]
18. 31:8 ch. 28:13; [ver. 16, 18]
19. 31:9 See Isa. 51:3

Footnotes 1

[a] 31:3 Or 'its top went through the thick boughs'; also verses 10, 14