@Eze 31:1-18. THE OVERTHROW OF EGYPT ILLUSTRATED BY THAT OF ASSYRIA.
Not that Egypt was, like Assyria, utterly to cease to be, but it was, like Assyria, to lose its prominence in the empire of the world.
1. third month--two months later than the prophecy delivered in @Eze 30:20.
2. Whom art thou like--The answer is, Thou art like the haughty king of Assyria; as he was overthrown by the Chaldeans, so shalt thou be by the same.
3. He illustrates the pride and the consequent overthrow of the
Assyrian, that Egypt may the better know what she must expect.
cedar in Lebanon--often eighty feet high, and the diameter of the
space covered by its boughs still greater: the symmetry perfect. Compare
the similar image (@Eze 17:3 Da 4:20-22).
with a shadowing shroud--with an overshadowing thicket.
top . . . among . . . thick boughs--rather
[HENGSTENBERG], "among the
clouds." But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The
top, or topmost shoot, represents the king; the thick boughs,
the large resources of the empire.
4. waters . . . little rivers--the Tigris with its branches and "rivulets," or "conduits" for irrigation, the source of Assyria's fertility. "The deep" is the ever flowing water, never dry. Metaphorically, for Assyria's resources, as the "conduits" are her colonies.
5. when he shot forth--because of the abundant moisture which nourished him in shooting forth. But see Margin.
6. fowls . . . made . . . nests in . . . boughs--so @Eze 17:23 Da 4:12. The gospel kingdom shall gather all under its covert, for their good and for the glory of God, which the world kingdoms did for evil and for self-aggrandizement (@Mt 13:32).
8. cedars . . . could not hide him--could not outtop him. No other
king eclipsed him.
were not like--were not comparable to.
garden of God--As in the case of Tyre (@Eze 28:13), the imagery,
that is applied to the Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly
appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered
Assyria (@Ge 2:10-14). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the
glories of paradise, so that no tree there outtopped it.
9. I . . . made him--It was all due to My free grace.
10. thou . . . he--The change of persons is because the language refers partly to the cedar, partly to the person signified by the cedar.
11. Here the literal supersedes the figurative.
shall surely deal with him--according to his own pleasure, and
according to the Assyrian's (Sardanapalus) desert. Nebuchadnezzar is
called "the mighty one" (El, a name of God), because he was God's
representative and instrument of judgment (@Da 2:37,38).
12. from his shadow--under which they had formerly dwelt as their covert (@Eze 31:6).
13. Birds and beasts shall insult over his fallen trunk.
14. trees by the waters--that is, that are plentifully supplied by
the waters: nations abounding in resources.
stand up in their height--that is, trust in their height:
stand upon it as their ground of confidence.
FAIRBAIRN points the
Hebrew differently, so as for "their trees," to translate,
"(And that none that drink water may stand) on themselves,
(because of their greatness)." But the usual reading is better, as Assyria and the
confederate states throughout are compared to strong trees. The clause,
"All that drink water," marks the ground of the trees' confidence "in
their height," namely, that they have ample sources of supply.
MAURER,
retaining the same Hebrew, translates, "that neither their
terebinth trees may stand up in their height, nor all (the other
trees) that drink water."
to . . . nether . . . earth . . .
pit--(@Eze 32:18 Ps 82:7).
15. covered the deep--as mourners cover their heads in token of
mourning, "I made the deep that watered the cedar" to wrap itself in
mourning for him. The waters of the deep are the tributary peoples of
Assyria (@Re 17:15).
fainted--literally, were "faintness" (itself); more forcible than
the verb.
16. hell--Sheol or Hades, the unseen world: equivalent to, "I cast
him into oblivion" (compare @Isa 14:9-11).
shall be comforted--because so great a king as the Assyrian is brought
down to a level with them. It is a kind of consolation to the wretched
to have companions in misery.
17. his arm, that dwelt under his shadow--those who were the helpers or tool of his tyranny, and therefore enjoyed his protection (for example, Syria and her neighbors). These were sure to share her fate. Compare the same phrase as to the Jews living under the protection of their king (@La 4:20); both alike "making flesh their arm, and in heart departing from the Lord" (@Jer 17:5).
18. Application of the parabolic description of Assyria to the
parallel case of Egypt. "All that has been said of the Assyrian consider
as said to thyself. To whom art thou so like, as thou art to the
Assyrian? To none." The lesson on a gigantic scale of Eden-like
privileges abused to pride and sin by the Assyrian, as in the case of
the first man in Eden, ending in ruin, was to be repeated in Egypt's
case. For the unchangeable God governs the world on the same
unchangeable principles.
thou shall lie in . . . uncircumcised--As circumcision was an object
of mocking to thee, thou shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised,
slain by their sword
[GROTIUS]. Retribution in kind (@Eze 28:10).
This is Pharaoh--Pharaoh's end shall be the same humiliating one as
I have depicted the Assyrian's to have been. "This" is demonstrative, as
if he were pointing with the finger to Pharaoh lying prostrate, a
spectacle to all, as on the shore of the Red Sea (@Ex 14:30,31).