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Ezekiel 31

KJV · Chapter 31/48

1And 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,

2Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3Behold, 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.

4The 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.

5Therefore 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.

6All 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.

7Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.

8The 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.

9I 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.

10Therefore 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;

11I 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.

12And 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.

13Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:

14To 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.

15Thus 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.

16I 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.

17They 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.

18To 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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God compares Pharaoh to a magnificent cedar of Lebanon, taller and more leafy than any tree in the 'garden of God,' but one that would be cut down because of its pride, just as happened to Assyria before it.

Explanation

Using Assyria as a warning example (v. 3) is a deliberate strategy: that nation, once the dominant superpower of the region, had already fallen (Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C.), so Pharaoh should have recognized in another's example the fate awaiting him for the same sin of pride. The metaphor of the giant tree whose roots feed on 'many waters' describes power that seems unshakable, yet God can cut it down in an instant. The lesson about watching the mistakes of earlier empires and still repeating them is timeless — history tends to repeat itself when its lessons go unlearned.

Fun facts

  • Cedar of Lebanon was the most prized timber of the ancient world, used in building Solomon's temple and royal palaces throughout Mesopotamia, making it a natural symbol of greatness and power.
  • The fall of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital used here as a warning, is also the central theme of the prophetic book of Nahum, and was confirmed archaeologically by the discovery of the city's ruins in 1847.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezekiel 31:1The formula that opens a new message against Egypt, dated around 587 BC, this time using the image of a great tree.
  2. Ezekiel 31:2The rhetorical question that opens the chapter’s metaphor: ‘Whom art thou like in thy greatness?’ — the answer comes in the form of a long comparison to a gigantic tree.
  3. Ezekiel 31:3Assyria is described as a gigantic cedar in the garden of God, so tall that no other tree compares — the image borrows the prestige of the ancient Assyrian empire, already defeated by Ezekiel’s time, as a warning for Egypt, which was heading toward the same fate.
  4. Ezekiel 31:4The tree used as a warning mirror for Egypt grew enormous thanks to abundant water — an image of prosperity coming from a wealth of natural resources.
  5. Ezekiel 31:5The more water the tree received, the bigger and more numerous its branches became — material wealth feeding ever more uncontrolled growth.
  6. Ezekiel 31:6Birds nest in it, animals shelter beneath its branches, and whole peoples sit in its shade — an image of a power that sustains smaller nations.
  7. Ezekiel 31:7It sums up the tree’s beauty, noting that its strength came from its root planted by ‘great waters,’ that is, from an abundance of resources.
  8. Ezekiel 31:8Not even the cedars in ‘the garden of God,’ language recalling Eden, could compare to this tree — a poetic exaggeration describing unmatched greatness.
  9. Ezekiel 31:9All the trees of Eden envied it, reinforcing that this was the most admired power among all the nations of the time.
  10. Ezekiel 31:10The cause of the cedar’s fall is the same as in other oracles in the book: the heart grew proud because of its own height — pride generated by one’s own success is the pattern repeated in almost every oracle against the great powers in these chapters.
  11. Ezekiel 31:11Because of its pride, the tree is handed over to an even more powerful nation, driven out ‘for his wickedness’ — its very growth becomes the reason for its fall.
  12. Ezekiel 31:12Foreigners cut down the tree; its branches fall scattered about and the peoples who sheltered in its shade leave — the power’s collapse and the flight of its former allies.
  13. Ezekiel 31:13After falling, the same tree becomes a perch for birds and a shelter for animals — an ironic inversion: what once gave protection now serves only as a ruin occupied by creatures.
  14. Ezekiel 31:14This tree’s fall becomes a general warning: no other nation should take pride in its own height, because everyone, sooner or later, goes down to ‘the pit’ of death.
  15. Ezekiel 31:15On the day of the fall, even nature reacts — waters held back, Lebanon covered in mourning — using natural imagery to show the scale of the shock caused.
  16. Ezekiel 31:16‘Cast him down to hell’ here is not hell in the later sense of eternal punishment; it is Sheol, the common idea in the ancient biblical world of a shared place beneath the earth where the dead go, without distinction — just ‘the pit,’ not a detailed theology of the afterlife.
  17. Ezekiel 31:17Others who had already died in that power’s wars go down together with it to the same final destination, the world of the dead.
  18. Ezekiel 31:18The metaphor’s conclusion: the same question from the beginning is applied directly to Pharaoh — he and all Egypt would end up in the same place as this great fallen tree.

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