EZEKIEL—NOTE ON Ezekiel 31:1 Ezekiel’s fifth oracle against Egypt dates to June 587 B.C., only a few weeks after the preceding unit. Here the prophet points to Assyria as an object lesson for Egypt. In its dying days, the once-mighty Assyrian Empire looked to Egypt for help against the growing power of Babylon (c. 610 B.C.). Even together they could not withstand the Babylonians. That had been just 23 years earlier, well within living memory. In Isaiah’s prophecies, given even earlier, proud Assyria was destroyed by the Lord (Isaiah 10:5). This, Ezekiel says, is the fate awaiting Egypt.

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