XXXI. This chapter consists of a single prophecy, uttered a little less than two months after the previous one, and a little less than two months before the destruction of the Temple. It is a further prophecy against Egypt, but so couched in the form of a parable that it all relates to Assyria, exce... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS MULTITUDE. — The word means literally _tumult,_ and applies to the multitude as influenced by whatever is the occasion of tumult: their wealth, their idols, their sources of pride of every kind.... [ Continue Reading ]
A CEDAR IN LEBANON. — Lebanon is mentioned only because it was the place where the most famous cedars grew in their greatest perfection. Assyria did, indeed, at one time possess Lebanon, but this was never its home or seat of empire. The word “shroud” in the description refers to the thickness of th... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS PLANTS. — Should rather be, _his plantation._ SENT OUT HER LITTLE RIVERS. — The thought is that the various surrounding and subordinate nations were nourished from the great stream of prosperity which swelled the power and wealth of Assyria.... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE FOWLS OF HEAVEN. — Comp. Ezekiel 17:23; Daniel 4:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GARDEN OF GOD. — See Ezekiel 31:9; Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 31:18; also Ezekiel 28:13. This is not a representation of Assyria as being in the garden of God, as in the case of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:13, but only a further expression of its greatness by a comparison of the tree representing it with the... [ Continue Reading ]
AMONG THE THICK BOUGHS. — _The clouds,_ as in Ezekiel 31:3; Ezekiel 31:14, and Ezekiel 19:11. As Ezekiel 31:3 have described Assyria’s greatness, so Ezekiel 31:10 speak of her fall. This was now a past event, yet is in part poetically spoken of in the future (Ezekiel 31:11; Ezekiel 31:13), making th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MIGHTY ONE OF THE HEATHEN. — The Chaldæan monarch. At the time of the fall of Assyria this was Nabupolassar, Nebuchadnezzar’s father. In this verse, and partially in the next, the prophet drops his figure to make clear literal statements.... [ Continue Reading ]
GONE DOWN. — Because the cedar is represented as growing upon the height of Lebanon. Yet “the people of the earth” is literal.... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON HIS RUIN SHALL ALL THE FOWLS. — There is no inconsistency between this and the previous verse. AT the fall all nations and people rush away, to avoid becoming involved in the catastrophe; but as soon as the giant cedar is prostrate, they gather upon its trunk and branches to fatten upon its rui... [ Continue Reading ]
STAND UP IN THEIR HEIGHT. — The original is more closely followed by the margin, _stand upon themselves for their height,_ and the thought is that the trees (princes) shall no longer rely on their own strength and be infatuated by the prosperity which has been given them. ALL THAT DRINK WATER is on... [ Continue Reading ]
I COVERED THE DEEP FOR HIM. — Ezekiel 31:15 describe the effect of Assyria’s fall. Ezekiel 31:15 speaks of the mourning of the nations and of the drying up of the streams, or sources of Assyria’s prosperity. “The deep” is the same as in Ezekiel 31:4, the flood of waters which fertilised the great ce... [ Continue Reading ]
HELL is here, as generally, Sheol, or Hades, the world of the departed. SHALL BE COMFORTED. — Comp. Isaiah 14:9, which was probably in Ezekiel’s mind.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WHOM ART THOU THUS LIKE. — In this closing verse the whole chapter is brought to a point. Egypt, like Assyria in glory, shall be like her in experience of the judgments of God. On “uncircumcised” comp. Note on Ezekiel 28:10.... [ Continue Reading ]