Chapter Thirty-One

Egypt – a Haughty Cedar

The fall of Egypt is here depicted in a parable, after which in the XXXII chapter a lamentation over it will follow, just as was also done concerning Tyre, although there the parable and lamentation are merged into one. The comparison is close to chapter XVII, in part to XIX and Dan 4. The speech has poetic construction and is divided into 3 stanzas: verses 2–9 describe the height and beauty of an incomparable, wonderful cedar; verses 10–15 its fall and God’s purpose in this; verses 16–18 the consequences of the fall.

Ezekiel 31:1. In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: May 586 BC, somewhat less than 2 months after the preceding speech and two months before the fall of Jerusalem; consequently, perhaps, still under the impression of the repulse of Pharaoh, going to the relief of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 31:2. Son of man! Say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness? “To his multitude” – Old Church Slavonic more accurately “to his crowd,” literally rabble, whereby is meant the mixed-nationality army of Pharaoh, the main force of which was constituted by foreigners; in the further the distinction between Pharaoh and his army: verses 6, 12, is maintained. – “Whom are you like?” To what kingdoms and kings. There follows no answer to this question, which is repeated and again without an answer in verse 18; but the further comparison of Pharaoh with a cedar has the purpose to show that there is no such answer possible, that Pharaoh places himself above all kings.

Ezekiel 31:3. Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and a shady crown, and tall of stature; its top was among the thick clouds. “Assyria.” Instead of the expected speech about Egypt, the prophet suddenly speaks about Assyria. Previously this strangeness was explained by the fact that the prophet in the fate of Assyria wants to give a warning to Egypt: if Assyria, such a warlike cedar, perished, then all the more Egypt. But nothing further does the prophet give to understand that he wants to convey such a thought; on the contrary, the further entire parable is constructed so that Egypt itself is compared to a cedar. Therefore, in the expression “Assyria was a cedar,” which literally from Hebrew will be “Assyria – cedar,” many now see the name of a special kind of cedar; indeed, in Isa 60:13 and Ezek 27:6 there is the name of a tree teashur (the tav letter could disappear from the proximity to the resembling letter ge of the preceding word), which in the first of the indicated places LXX translate “cedar,” and in the second simply “tree” (Russian Bible: “beech”). It is thought that here is meant a particularly high cedar, the so-called pinus cedrus, according to Pliny (XXIV, 5): cedrus magna, quam cedrelaten vocant. But only the combination assur-cedar is unusual; it should have said: cedar-assur. Therefore, others suppose in one of these words a gloss, or read instead of ashur – adir, strong (according to the Ethiopic translation). – “And a shady crown,” Old Church Slavonic “partially covered.” The cedar does not grow as neatly as our conifers, but more in width and drops mighty branches to the ground often at 6–10. – “Its top was among the thick clouds.” Hebrew avotim, branches, LXX read avot, clouds: and “among the clouds his dominion was” – a reading that is more powerful, beautiful, and considered by new commentators to be the most probable.

Ezekiel 31:4. The waters made it grow; the deep made it tall, sending its rivers around the place it was planted, sending its streams to all the trees of the field. “The waters” – the Nile. – “The deep.” Water in rivers is generally of subterranean origin. The expression was especially fitting concerning the Nile, whose sources were in a country unknown to the ancients and embellished by imagination. – “Its rivers,” “its streams” – the branches and canals of the Nile. – “Sending its streams to all the trees of the field.” Other trees had only the overflow of water, which remained from nourishing the cedar. Egypt left to neighboring kingdoms only the lands unnecessary to itself.

Ezekiel 31:5. Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and its boughs became many, and its branches became long from abundant waters in its growth. “And its boughs became many.” (Absent in LXX.) “Boughs” Hebrew sarapphotav; probably an Aramaic form instead of seappot, branches, verse 6 and 8.

Ezekiel 31:6. 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, and all the great nations lived under its shadow. “Boughs” and “branches” see explanation of Ezek 17:23. – “Birds” and “animals.” Nations making up the Egyptian monarchy, its allies and mixed-nationality army (neighboring peoples – other trees). – “And all the great nations lived under its shadow.” An explanation of the preceding. A sharp turn from the allegory to direct speech.

Ezekiel 31:7. It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down to abundant waters. Up to verse 9 specifically about the incomparability of the tree; therefore the repetition of verse 4.

Ezekiel 31:8. The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; nor the fir trees equal its boughs; nor did any tree in the garden of God match its beauty. “The cedars in the garden of God, that is, in paradise, could not rival it.” Important data for the Old Testament concept of paradise, that its trees were natural and even did not surpass the natural. Egypt, like Tyre in Ezek 28:13, is thought of as part of paradise; the Nile, Lebanon, and paradise replace each other in the description of it. “Could not rival” – presumed (according to Ezek 33:3) translation of Hebrew amam, which, judging from the meaning of this root in Ezek 1:20 (“equally”) and here and there in chapters XL-XLVIII and from affinity in Assyrian emu, to be equal, should mean “to rival”; thus also LXX: “were not like,” Vulgate “non adaequaverunt.” In such a case the thought is intensified: the Egyptian cedar surpasses the paradise cedars (LXX: fir trees). Jerome the Blessed, Jarchi and others consider the garden of God a synonym for the earth at the time of creation. Gregory the Great (Moral. XXXII, 18) sees here a reference to the glory of the devil (Lucifer) before the fall. – “The fir trees” are attracted for comparison due to the density of their branches, united in a spherical crown; Old Church Slavonic “pines”; Vulgate abietes (firs). – “Any tree” Old Church Slavonic “elies,” Hebrew armon (from the root “to peel”), used only in Gen 30:37, modern commentators according to Vulgate give the meaning “plane tree,” which could be attracted here for comparison because of its wide, shading foliage.

Ezekiel 31:9. I made it beautiful with its many branches, so that all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God. “I made it beautiful,” just as the paradise trees, planted by God directly. I, therefore, can and destroy it. “The trees... envied” – personification, so natural in a parable.

Ezekiel 31:10. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you grew tall in stature and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud in its height, The fall of the cedar is described. “And set its top among the clouds.” Old Church Slavonic “and gave you authority among the clouds” (see verse 3) more clearly indicates the self-exaltation of Pharaoh, reaching the point of self-deification; cf. Gen 3:5.

Ezekiel 31:11. I gave it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with it. For its wickedness I have cast it out. “A mighty one” – Nebuchadnezzar. Hebrew el, properly God, mighty; but it is thought here to be an abbreviation of eil, ram, tarn, in the sense of “fighter.” The name, one way or another, is unexpected. – “I have cast it out” – Old Church Slavonic more accurately “I have driven it out,” that is, out of Eden? but does not apply to a tree. Perhaps – the Pharaoh out of the kingdom (the allegory can transition into direct speech).

Ezekiel 31:12. Foreigners, the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys its branches are broken; and all the peoples of the earth left it in its shade and abandoned it. “The most terrible of the nations” – see the explanation of Ezek 7:24. – “And left it on the mountains,” Old Church Slavonic more accurately “on mountains,” where cedars mainly grow. – “And on all the valleys its branches fell.” Because of the extraordinary size of the cedar, the broken branches covered not only the mountain where it grew, but also the surrounding valleys. The fall of Egypt was felt beyond its borders. – “And its branches are broken on all the ravines of the earth.” The branches in falling penetrated into the gorges. As a world power, Egypt caused its fall to be felt by the whole earth. Can here mean the Egyptians killed (cf. Ezek 32:5). The prophet gradually abandons his comparison; see further: “from under the shade of it all the nations (instead of expected: birds) of the earth.” – “And abandoned it” – the allies; presumed translation; Old Church Slavonic “and they despoiled it.”

Ezekiel 31:13. On its fallen trunk all the birds of the sky will perch, and in its branches will be all the animals of the field. “On its fallen trunk,” Old Church Slavonic more accurately: “in its falling”: but Hebrew mappelet besides such an abstract meaning can also have a concrete meaning “corpse” (Judg 14:8), here – the corpse of a tree; hence the further: “all the birds of the sky will perch...” – predatory, to benefit from the corpse (the tree is represented as living; cf. verse V). The allies and neighbors of Egypt rejoiced at its fall and tried to extract profit from it for themselves.

Ezekiel 31:14. This is in order that no tree by the waters may grow tall in stature or set its top among the clouds, and that no tree that drinks water may reach up to it; for they are all given over to death, to the world below, among mortals, with those who go down to the pit. A pedagogical purpose which the Lord connects with the catastrophe (Ezek 16:41). No tree (kingdom) should imagine that it can grow up to the heavens (cf. the tower of Babel). – “Trees by the waters” are especially abundantly nourished (the Nile for Egypt). – “The thick clouds,” Old Church Slavonic “clouds” as in verses 3, 10. – “That they may not reach up to it in their height...” – presumed translation; in LXX, in the opinion of the newest scholars, it is more correct: “and shall not stand on its height toward it (shall not strive toward it to a heavenly height) all who drink water.” – “To the world below” – Ezek 26:20. The tree is personified to an extraordinary degree: even after death has a human fate. – “Among mortals” – ordinary mortals, simple people, burial with whom was considered especially shameful for Egyptian Pharaohs. – “The pit” – see the explanation of Ezek 26:20.

Ezekiel 31:15. Thus says the Lord God: On the day it went down to Sheol I caused a mourning; I closed the deep over it, and stopped its rivers; and the many waters were stilled; and I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field withered away on account of it. The impression produced by the ruin of Egypt upon nature and people is described. Nature from this ruin will come to a state of positive torpor from fear and sorrow. – “I closed the deep over it.” The subterranean waters that nourished and fed the cedar – Egypt – will be numbed, frozen with grief for it. A powerful image, involuntarily directing the thought beyond Egypt and the Nile, into the spiritual world and its mysterious and unknown to mankind history. – “And stopped its rivers...,” that nourished the cedar, – in a sign of mourning. – “And I made Lebanon mourn for it,” embellished by which was the cedar. Does not the thought of the fall of the devil and its reflection in the event of the whole world and nature lie behind (ancient commentators saw in all these chapters such a hidden thought). The fall of every earthly grandeur, consequently, is deeply felt by nature: cf. Ezek 32:7 and ff.

Ezekiel 31:16. I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I brought it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were consoled in the world below. The fall of Egypt causes nations to tremble from unexpectedness and fear for their own fate, and the inhabitants of the underworld (trees are also in the underworld – symbols of kingdoms, more particularly – of kings) to rejoice, as exceptional a rejoicing, moreover, as Ezek 14:22-23; Ezek 16:54; cf. Ezek 32:31. – “Were consoled” – more accurately comforted; but the LXX give somewhat another thought with their “comforted him.” – “Trees of Eden.” Here Eden is only an epithet: trees of Eden, as the further apposition shows, stand on Lebanon, therefore LXX and Vulgate better: “trees of delight,” ligna voluptatis. – “That drink water” – verse 14.

Ezekiel 31:17. They too went down with him to Sheol, to those killed by the sword; and those who were his arm, living under his shadow among the nations. “They” – other trees, the well-ordered and mountain kingdoms. – “Those who were his arm” – literally “strength,” that is, what constituted the power of Pharaoh, mainly the mercenary army, and the lands that provided it; cf. verse 6. LXX, reading zero instead of zerou, “his seed,” which Cornill understands in the sense of “half his tree.” – “Living under his shadow among the nations.” The speech becomes almost direct. The catastrophe was not limited only to Egypt: it entailed the ruin of other kingdoms, independent and living at the expense of Egypt.

Ezekiel 31:18. Thus you are brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God. With a question, which, like in verse 2, remains without an answer (see there), the chapter returns to its beginning. The ruin of Egypt not only equaled this colossus, which was incomparable with anything, with other great kingdoms (“trees of Eden”), but it befell him with the fate of the most unfortunate of the dead – the uncircumcised (see the explanation of Ezek 28:10; among the Egyptians circumcision was widely practiced, at least among the upper classes. Vigouroux. La bible… ed. 2, t.1, p. 414) and deprived of burial. – “This is Pharaoh” – an explanation of the parable, solemnly given from the mouth of the Lord Himself, especially necessary in view of verse 3 (some commentators even now apply it to Assyria based on this verse). Cf. Ezek 19:14.