Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 31
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Ezekiel 31
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Ezekiel 31
"Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness?" — Ezekiel 31:2 (ASV)
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.
"Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs." — Ezekiel 31:3 (ASV)
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 the shade of the branches.
Among the thick boughs: Rather, among the clouds. (See Note on Ezekiel 19:11. Compare also Ezekiel 31:10; Ezekiel 31:14.)
"The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers thereof ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels unto all the trees of the field." — Ezekiel 31:4 (ASV)
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.
"All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow dwelt all great nations." — Ezekiel 31:6 (ASV)
All the fowls of heaven.— Compare Ezekiel 17:23; Daniel 4:21.
"The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir-trees were not like its boughs, and the plane-trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto it in its beauty." — Ezekiel 31:8 (ASV)
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 trees of Paradise. Yet this comparison may have been suggested by the fact that the traditional site of Eden was within the bounds of the Assyrian Empire. Fir trees are generally understood to be cypresses, and chestnut to be plane-trees.
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