OLD TESTAMENT

Ezekiel 31

The Holy Bible · English
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1

In the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 1. Year, about a month before the fall of Jerusalem.

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2

“Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude: ‘Whom are you like in your greatness?

3

Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 3. Assyrian. The ruin of this great empire ( Calmet.) might have admonished the king of Egypt of his frail condition. Bible.—About thirty-eight years before ( Calmet.) Ninive had been taken, and its king (Sarac or Chinaladan) slain by his own general, Nabopolassar, and by Astyages, of Media. They divided the empire between them, and the father of Nabuchodonosor fixed his residence at Babylon. Usher, A. 3378.—Cedar. Septuagint “cypress.”—Top; the king of Ninive. Calmet.—Egypt’s monarch thought himself invincible; yet would fall like the Assyrians. Worthington.

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4

The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation. It sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 4. Roots. Various nations paid tribute to the Assyrians, (Saint Jerome Calmet.) while he sent his troops, like rivulets, to keep all in subjection. Theod.

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5

Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied. Its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it spread them out.

6

All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow.

7

Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.

8

The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its branches. The pine trees were not like its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.

9

I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’

10

“Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: ‘Because he is exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick branches, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

11

I will deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 11. I have delivered. Here the time past is put for the future; that is I shall deliver.—The mighty one, and so forth that is Nabuchodonosor, who conquered both the Assyrians and Egyptians; ( Challoner.) or rather his father, Nabopolassar, subdued the former. verse 3. Bible.

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12

Foreigners, the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. His branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow and have left him.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 12. Strangers; revolted Assyrians. See Psalms 17:46.

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13

All the birds of the sky will dwell on his ruin, and all the animals of the field will be on his branches,

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 13. Branches. The nations continued, but submitted to another master.

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14

to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, and don’t set their top among the thick boughs. Their mighty ones don’t stand up on their height, even all who drink water; for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.’

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 14. Pit. The new king would appoint fresh governors.

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15

“The Lord GOD says: ‘In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers. The great waters were stopped. I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 15. Waters, as if they bewailed his fate. Calmet.—Those whom the king of Ninive had exalted, and the people, who wished not to submit to a foreigner, would no doubt lament the slaughtered monarch, new silent ( Bible.) in the grave. Theod.

EXPLANATION

Sheol is the place of the dead.

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16

I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit. All the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 16. Comforted. The ghosts of princes who had been subject to Serac, seeing his fall, bore their own misfortune with greater content. In the grave there is no distinction of master and slave. Calmet.—Surviving princes expected some emolument from the change. Bible.

EXPLANATION

Sheol is the place of the dead.

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17

They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, who lived under his shadow in the middle of the nations.

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 17. Arm; those in power. Septuagint “his seed.” Hebrew Zora, ( Bible.) means both.

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18

“‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord GOD.”

ExplanationCommentary
EXPLANATION

Verse 18. Famous king of Assyria, or of Egypt.—Pharao. Calmet.—

Mutato nomine de te

Fabula narratur. Hor. 1. Sat. 1.

—Though Egypt be like the most potent kingdoms, it shall likewise fall. Worthington.

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