Ezekiel 31:1-9

Egypt Will Fall like Assyria

1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: ‘Who can be compared to your greatness?

3 Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds.

4 The waters made it grow; the deep springs made it tall, directing their streams all around its base and sending their channels to all the trees of the field.

5 Therefore it towered higher than all the trees of the field. Its branches multiplied, and its boughs grew long as it spread them out because of the abundant waters.

6 All the birds of the air nested in its branches, and all the beasts of the field gave birth beneath its boughs; all the great nations lived in its shade.

7 It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its limbs, for its roots extended to abundant waters.

8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses ^[a] could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees ^[b] match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with its beauty.

9 I made it beautiful with its many branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God.’

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.

Footnotes

• [a] Or pines or junipers or firs
• [b] Possibly chestnut or juniper