The date is about two months before Jerusalem fell. Pharaoh under the figure of a great cedar cut down and flung upon the ground The passage has three parts: (1) Ezekiel 31:1. Pharaoh, the impersonation of the spirit and might of Egypt, was a lofty cedar, with spreading branches, and its top in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_his multitude_ The population of Egypt; hardly merely his army. _Whom art thou like_ The question seems to imply that none can be compared to him; he is unapproached in his greatness; cf. Ezekiel 31:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Assyrian_was _a cedar_ It is evident that the Assyrian has nothing to do here; any comparison of Egypt to Assyria is without motive. Besides Ezekiel 31:3 is repeated in Ezekiel 31:10, and spoken of Egypt (cf. Ezekiel 31:18). The word "asshur" here is the name of a tree, either the same as teass... [ Continue Reading ]
_set him up on high_ i.e. made him grow lofty. There is probably, however, the figure of a parent nourishing his offspring. The words "made great" and "set on high" are rendered "nourished and brought up" children, Isaiah 1:2; cf. Isaiah 23:4. The waters rear the tree as their child. The waters are... [ Continue Reading ]
_his boughs were multiplied_ Wanting in LXX. _when he shot forth_ When he SENT THEM FORTH, i.e. his branches, cf. Ezekiel 17:6-7. Others: when it (the deep) sent them (the waters) forth; cf. Ezekiel 31:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
The "fowls" and "beasts" are as much figurative as the tree; they are probably interpreted by "nations" in the end of the verse; cf. Ezekiel 17:23; Daniel 4:12; Daniel 4:14. But see Jeremiah 27:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_could not hide him_ Probably: EQUAL HIM, compare with him (cf. the common particle "over against" or "alongside of," Ezekiel 1:20; Ezekiel 48:13, &c.). _chesnut trees_ Probably: PLANE trees, Genesis 30:37; cf. Psalms 104:16; Numbers 24:6. The trees in the garden of God are naturally the most lofty... [ Continue Reading ]
_have made him fair_ I MADE him fair. But the idea of his beauty being conferred by God is foreign to the connexion. His stateliness was due to his great waters, beside which he was planted; it was the fruit of _nature_, which in this passage is rather contrasted with God. The words are wanting in L... [ Continue Reading ]
Because of his pride in his height he shall be cut down. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty one of the nations, shall hew him to the ground, and the beasts shall feed on him. Such judgment must overtake any great tree that exalts itself into the heavens... [ Continue Reading ]
_the thick boughs_ the CLOUDS.... [ Continue Reading ]
_have … delivered_ I WILL DELIVER. _mighty one of the heathen_ of the NATIONS, Nebuchadnezzar. _for his wickedness_ The traditional reading is: _according to_his. On "driven out" cf. Genesis 3:24. The whole clause, "I have … wickedness" appears to fail in LXX.... [ Continue Reading ]
The tenses in Ezekiel 31:12 are perfects of threatening: the fut. would be plainer in Ezekiel 31:12 as A.V. Ezekiel 31:13. On "terrible" cf. Ezekiel 28:7. _have left him_ CAST HIM DOWN, ch. Ezekiel 32:4; Amos 5:2. His great trunk covers the land and fills the watercourses. The nations who dwelt unde... [ Continue Reading ]
_his ruin_ i.e. his fallen trunk and branches, ch. Ezekiel 32:4; Ezekiel 39:17; Isaiah 18:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
The downfall of Pharaoh IS A chastisement for his pride and a warning. _for their height_ Or, IN their. It is not merely pride of heart because of the height, it is the height itself, the shooting up their top among the clouds aspiring to a greatness belonging only to heaven that is the sin. _thic... [ Continue Reading ]
Creation puts on mourning and is paralysed at Pharaoh's fall. Lebanon is covered with blackness, and all the trees faint. _down to the grave_ to SHEÒL, the place of the dead. _caused a mourning_ Rather: I CAUSED TO MOURN, I COVERED the deep for him. The term "covered" (wanting in LXX.) is used as i... [ Continue Reading ]
_at the sound of his fall_ See on Ezekiel 26:15; cf. Ezekiel 32:10. _to hell … into the pit_ to SHEÒL with them that ARE GONE DOWN to the pit, ch. Ezekiel 32:18; Isaiah 14:15. The nations living on the earth shake with terror (ch. Ezekiel 26:15) at the noise of his fall; while those already gone dow... [ Continue Reading ]
_They also … into hell_ THESE ALSO ARE GONE DOWN INTO SHEÒL, ref. being to the "trees of Eden," Ezekiel 31:16. were _his arm_, that _dwelt_ AND HIS ARM, THAT DWELT. His "arm" is his helpers (Ezekiel 17:9). The construction is difficult (read probably cons. plur. of part. for "that dwelt;" om. of re... [ Continue Reading ]
The question implies that Pharaoh had no peers. Yet though incomparably greater than the other trees his fate shall be the same as theirs he shall be brought down with them to the nether parts of the earth. LXX. reads the first half of the verse thus: To whom art thou like? Go down, and be brought d... [ Continue Reading ]