Ezekiel 31

Eze 31:1-18.

THE

OVERTHROW OF

EGYPT

ILLUSTRATED BY

THAT OF

ASSYRIA.

Not that Egypt was, like Assyria, utterly to cease to be, but it was,

like Assyria, to lose its prominence in the empire of the world.

1. third month--two months later than the prophecy delivered in

Eze 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

(Eze 17:3;

Da 4:20-22).

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

Eze 17:23;

Da 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

(Mt 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

(Eze 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

(Ge 2:10-14).

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

(Da 2:37, 38).

12. from his shadow--under which they had formerly dwelt as

their covert

(Eze 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--

(Eze 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

(Re 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 14:9-11).

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

(La 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

(Eze 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

(Ex 14:30, 31).