Ezekiel 31:3

3 Look! Assyria [was] a cedar in Lebanon, [with] beautiful branches and a forest giving shade, and {very high}, and its treetop [was] between [the] clouds.

Ezekiel 31:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 31:3

Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon
Here grew the tallest, most stately, broad and flourishing ones. This sense is, that he was as one of them; comparable to one, for his exaltation and dignity; for the largeness of his dominion, the flourishing circumstances of it, and its long duration; that empire having lasted from the times of Nimrod unto a few years of the present time; for this is to be understood, either of the monarchy itself, or of Esarhaddon; or rather of Chynilidanus, or Saracus, the last king of it. The Septuagint, and Arabic versions render it the "cypariss" in Lebanon; but not that, but the cedar, grew there, and which best suits the comparison: with fair branches;
meaning not children, nor nobles, nor subjects; but provinces, many and large, which were subject to this monarch: and with a shadowing shroud;
power, dominion, authority, a mighty army sufficient to protect all that were under his government, and subject to it: and of an high stature:
exalted above all the kings and kingdoms of the earth: and his top was among the thick boughs;
his kingly power, headship, and dominion, was over a multitude of petty princes and states, comparable to the thick boughs and branches of a tree: or, "among the clouds"; as the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it; above the heights of which the Assyrian monarch attempted to ascend, ( Isaiah 14:14 ) ( Daniel 4:10-12 ) .

Ezekiel 31:3 In-Context

1 {And then} {in the eleventh} year, in the third [month], on the first [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying},

2 "Son of man, say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his crowd, 'To whom are you like in your greatness?

3 Look! Assyria [was] a cedar in Lebanon, [with] beautiful branches and a forest giving shade, and {very high}, and its treetop [was] between [the] clouds.

4 Waters made it great, the deep made it grow high; its rivers [were] going all around {its planting area}, and its channels it sent [out] to all of the trees of the field.

5 Therefore it became tall, [with] its height more than all of the trees of the field, and its branches became numerous, and its branches became long {from its sending its shoots from abundant water}.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "branch"
• [b] Literally "high of height"