English · KJV

Ezekiel 31

Listen to this chapter
0:00 0:00

The Parable of the Mighty Cedar 1–9

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, ​
2
Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness? ​
3
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. ​
4
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. ​
5
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.
6
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. ​
7
Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
8
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. ​
9
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.

The Cedar's Judgment and Fall 10–14

10
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; ​
11
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. ​
12
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.
13
Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14
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. ​

Cosmic Mourning and Descent to Sheol 15–18

15
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. ​
16
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. ​
17
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.
18
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. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ezekiel 31

Verse 1

in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day — This is nearly two months after the word of 30:20, dated in the first month. It falls in Zedekiah’s eleventh year, and a little over a month later, in the fourth month, ‘the city was broken up’ (Jer 52:5–7). The word is addressed to Pharaoh and runs to the end of the chapter.

Verse 2

Whom art thou like in thy greatness? — ‘Like’ is damah, to compare, and the question recurs through the chapter: ‘nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him’ (v.8); ‘To whom art thou thus like’ (v.18). It is put to Pharaoh ‘and to his multitude’ (hamon), the same word as in 30:10, 15.

Verse 3

the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon — Pharaoh is set beside Assyria, a kingdom whose fall Nahum describes (Nah 3:18). Isaiah used the same figure of Assyria: ‘the high ones of stature shall be hewn down’ and ‘Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one’ (Isa 10:33–34). The ‘top… among the thick boughs’ (tsammereth, aboth) is named again in vv.10, 14.

Verse 4

The waters made him great — The ‘deep’ is tehom, the word of ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep’ (Gen 1:2). Its streams (‘rivers’, nahar; ‘little rivers’, te’alah, channels) feed the tree and reach ‘all the trees of the field’. The greatness came with the water; in v.15 the LORD stops it.

Verse 6

under his shadow dwelt all great nations — The nesting birds and the beasts bringing forth young are the picture of a great ruler sheltering many peoples, as in Nebuchadnezzar’s tree (Dan 4:12). The cedar the LORD himself plants on Israel’s mountain has the same shelter: ‘under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing’ (Ezek 17:23).

Verse 8

the garden of God — The garden of God is Eden (28:13; Gen 2:8); the ‘trees of Eden’ are named again in vv.9, 16, 18. The cedars, ‘fir trees’ (berosh) and ‘chesnut trees’ (armon, the plane tree) there had no branches like his. ‘Beauty’ is yophi; the verse tells his unmatched greatness, which becomes pride in v.10.

Verse 10

his heart is lifted up in his height — Gabah, to be high, and gobah, height or haughtiness, are the words of the verdict on Tyre’s king: ‘Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty’ (Ezek 28:17). Proverbs states the rule: ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall’ (Prov 16:18).

Verse 11

the mighty one of the heathen — The king of Babylon, with ‘his people… the terrible of the nations’ who come against Egypt (30:10–11) and are the ‘strangers’ of v.12. ‘Driven out’ is gerash, the verb of Adam’s expulsion from Eden: ‘So he drove out the man’ (Gen 3:24). The cause stated is ‘his wickedness’.

Verse 14

the nether parts of the earth — Tachtiyyot, the lowest parts, where all ‘that drink water’ go, among ‘the children of men’ (adam). The purpose is stated: none of the trees is to ‘exalt themselves for their height’, the verb of v.10. Psalm 82:7 says the same of the great: ‘ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes’.

Verse 15

I covered the deep for him — ‘Grave’ is sheol, the place of the dead. The deep (tehom) that raised him in v.4 is now covered and its floods (nahar) ‘restrained’. Lebanon, where he stood, mourns for him. Isaiah has the cedars of Lebanon rejoice at the fall of Babylon’s king (Isa 14:8); here they mourn.

Verse 16

comforted in the nether parts of the earth — The nations ‘shake at the sound of his fall’, as the isles do at Tyre’s (26:15). ‘Hell’ is sheol, and ‘the pit’ (bor) its other name, as in Isaiah’s ‘brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit’ (Isa 14:15). Pharaoh too will be ‘comforted’ there (32:31).

Verse 18

the midst of the uncircumcised — Arel, uncircumcised, names those slain by the sword in the pit; the same words appear in 32:19, 21. Jeremiah lists ‘Egypt, and Judah, and Edom’ among nations ‘uncircumcised’ in heart (Jer 9:25–26). The parable is explained at last: ‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude.’