1. The date is about two months before Jerusalem fell.

Ch. 31 Pharaoh under the figure of a great cedar cut down and flung upon the ground

The passage has three parts:

(1) Ezekiel 31:1-9. Pharaoh, the impersonation of the spirit and might of Egypt, was a lofty cedar, with spreading branches, and its top in the clouds. All the fowls lodged in the branches, and all the beasts brought forth their young under it. Its waters nourished it and made it great. The trees in the garden of God did not equal it; all the trees of Eden envied it.

(2) Ezekiel 31:10-14. The great tree shall be cut down by the mighty one of the nations, and thrown upon the ground. Its bulk shall fill the mountains and valleys of the land. All the nations shall depart from under the shadow of it; and the fowls and beasts of the field shall feed on it. Its heart was lifted up because of its great height, therefore it shall be cut down, that none of the trees lift themselves up and put their head among the clouds.

(3) Ezekiel 31:5-18. Nature shall shudder and put on blackness over the fall of Pharaoh. And the great trees of the garden of God that are gone down to the pit shall be comforted when Pharaoh and his auxiliaries descend among them.

The allegory is easily read. The mighty cedar, burying its head in the clouds, is the proud king and his powerful state, aspiring to a greatness that belongs to heaven. The fowls and beasts lodging under the shadow of the tree are the nations of the earth seeking his protection and subject to him (Daniel 4:12). The trees in the garden of God are other mighty states impersonated in their rulers. The universal meaning which was given to the judgment on Egypt by representing it as the day of the Lord in ch. 30 is suggested here in other ways, by the imposing height of the cedar, unapproachable by other trees in the garden of God; by the fowls and beasts of the field lodging in the tree—all nations seeking the protection of the Pharaoh; and by the shock which all nature receives when the great tree is cut down and flung upon the ground; and finally by the commotion occasioned in Sheòl when Pharaoh descends among the dead (ch. 32 Isaiah 14). In some points the allegory has incongruities, as was natural. Pharaoh is a great cedar, but it is his waters—the Nile—that nourish him, and give him an altitude to which the trees of Eden cannot aspire. The cedar is in Lebanon, the home of cedars, but also by the great deep, and probably too in Eden (Ezekiel 31:11). The trees, once in Eden, descend into Sheòl with those that are gone down to the pit.

2. his multitude] The population of Egypt; hardly merely his army.

Whom art thou like] The question seems to imply that none can be compared to him; he is unapproached in his greatness; cf. Ezekiel 31:18.

3. the Assyrian was a cedar] It is evident that the Assyrian has nothing to do here; any comparison of Egypt to Assyria is without motive. Besides Ezekiel 31:3 is repeated in Ezekiel 31:10, and spoken of Egypt (cf. Ezekiel 31:18). The word “asshur” here is the name of a tree, either the same as teasshur (ch. Ezekiel 27:6), or this form should be read. Render: Behold a stately cedar in Lebanon (lit. a teasshur of a cedar); or, behold a sherbin, a cedar in Lebanon—the more general “cedar” being added after the species.

a shadowing shrowd] The “shroud,” usually “forest,” must refer to the closely interwoven branches, hardly to the underwood. The phrase is wanting in LXX.

the thick boughs] The clouds, so Ezekiel 31:10; Ezekiel 31:14; cf. Ezekiel 19:11.

4. set him up on high] i.e. made him grow lofty. There is probably, however, the figure of a parent nourishing his offspring. The words “made great” and “set on high” are rendered “nourished and brought up” children, Isaiah 1:2; cf. Isaiah 23:4. The waters rear the tree as their child. The waters are those of Egypt.

with her rivers running] The construction is anomalous, and with expresses accompaniment, not instrumentality. It is easiest to read (with LXX.): she (the deep) made her rivers to run round … and sent out. Or possibly: as for her rivers, they ran, &c.

his plants] Rather: her plantation, “her” referring to the “deep,” which nourished the plantation, though this is not quite natural.

her little rivers] Marg. conduits, the small canals for irrigation. The plenteous waters nourished the great tree and the other trees alike.

5. his boughs were multiplied] Wanting in LXX.

when he shot forth] When he sent them forth, i.e. his branches, cf. Ezekiel 17:6-7. Others: when it (the deep) sent them (the waters) forth; cf. Ezekiel 31:4.

6. The “fowls” and “beasts” are as much figurative as the tree; they are probably interpreted by “nations” in the end of the verse; cf. Ezekiel 17:23; Daniel 4:12; Daniel 4:14. But see Jeremiah 27:6.

8. could not hide him] Probably: equal him, compare with him (cf. the common particle “over against” or “alongside of,” Ezekiel 1:20, Ezekiel 48:13, &c.).

chesnut trees] Probably: plane trees, Genesis 30:37; cf. Psalm 104:16; Numbers 24:6. The trees in the garden of God are naturally the most lofty.

9. have made him fair] I made him fair. But the idea of his beauty being conferred by God is foreign to the connexion. His stateliness was due to his great waters, beside which he was planted; it was the fruit of nature, which in this passage is rather contrasted with God. The words are wanting in LXX., and may be a marginal gloss on “beauty,” which a reader attributed to God. If the words be omitted, the last clause of Ezekiel 31:8 should probably be closely connected with Ezekiel 31:9 : “and no tree in the garden of God was like unto him, because of (in) the multitude of his branches.”

10. the thick boughs] the clouds.

10–14. Because of his pride in his height he shall be cut down. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty one of the nations, shall hew him to the ground, and the beasts shall feed on him. Such judgment must overtake any great tree that exalts itself into the heavens

11. have … delivered] I will deliver.

mighty one of the heathen] of the nations, Nebuchadnezzar.

for his wickedness] The traditional reading is: according to his. On “driven out” cf. Genesis 3:24. The whole clause, “I have … wickedness” appears to fail in LXX.

12. The tenses in Ezekiel 31:12-13 are perfects of threatening: the fut. would be plainer in Ezekiel 31:12 as A.V. Ezekiel 31:13. On “terrible” cf. Ezekiel 28:7.

have left him] cast him down, ch. Ezekiel 32:4; Amos 5:2. His great trunk covers the land and fills the watercourses. The nations who dwelt under his shadow, seeking his protection, have fled away from him (Daniel 4:11). For people, peoples.

have left him] and (or, for) they have cast him down. The words seem emphatic repetition from the beginning of the verse.

13. his ruin] i.e. his fallen trunk and branches, ch. Ezekiel 32:4, Ezekiel 39:17; Isaiah 18:6.

14. The downfall of Pharaoh is a chastisement for his pride and a warning.

for their height] Or, in their. It is not merely pride of heart because of the height, it is the height itself, the shooting up their top among the clouds—aspiring to a greatness belonging only to heaven—that is the sin.

thick boughs] the clouds.

neither their trees stand up] Rather: and that their mighty ones (those of the nations) stand not up (or, forward, i.e. display themselves) in their height. The phrase “all that drink water” is a circumlocution for “trees,” fed by water.

nether parts of the earth] i.e. Sheòl, the place of the dead, deep down in the earth, or under it.

the children of men] i.e. men in general, common men. The meaning is hardly that expressed in Psalm 49:10, that all die, the wise as well as the fool and the brutish, and that the “mighty ones” have no privilege over common men in this respect; the death referred to here is rather the violent death, the death of them slain with the sword, attended with no funeral honours. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 32:17 seq.

them that go down] them that are gone down to the pit. So everywhere. The allegory of the tree here passes over into the reality.

15. Creation puts on mourning and is paralysed at Pharaoh’s fall. Lebanon is covered with blackness, and all the trees faint.

down to the grave] to Sheòl, the place of the dead.

caused a mourning] Rather: I caused to mourn, I covered the deep for him. The term “covered” (wanting in LXX.) is used as in Ezekiel 32:7, “cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof black,” having the same meaning as “caused to mourn.” The “deep” and the “floods” (rivers in Ezekiel 31:4) are those mentioned in Ezekiel 31:4, but though the ref. is to the Nile and the waters of Egypt, a universal magnitude is given to these, they are the “deep” absolutely. This deep which had nourished the great cedar is covered with mourning and paralysed by his fall, she is motionless, her waters congeal.

caused Lebanon to mourn] Lit. made Lebanon black, in mourning. The prophet’s representation naturally is not quite consistent. The home of Pharaoh, as a cedar, is Lebanon, but it is the waters of Egypt, magnified here into the “deep” absolutely, that nourish him. Hence both the deep and Lebanon, with all the trees thereon, mourn and faint (Isaiah 51:20) over his fall. What the language primarily expresses is the idea of the world-wide importance of the Egyptian power, so that, as the greatest forces of nature minister to its growth, all creation is affected by its fall. Cf. Ezekiel 32:9-10.

16. at the sound of his fall] See on Ezekiel 26:15; cf. Ezekiel 32:10.

to hell … into the pit] to Sheòl with them that are gone down to the pit, ch. Ezekiel 32:18; Isaiah 14:15. The nations living on the earth shake with terror (ch. Ezekiel 26:15) at the noise of his fall; while those already gone down to the pit are “comforted” that one so mighty has fallen as well as themselves, Ezekiel 32:19; Ezekiel 32:31; Isaiah 14:10. The language does not imply that those comforted were hostile to Pharaoh.

the trees of Eden] The figure of “trees” for states, or for the representatives of states like Pharaoh, is continued. The term Eden is used generally to suggest great trees or the place where trees are found, for the next words describe the trees as the “choice of Lebanon.”

choice and best] An anomalous construction, which is obviated in LXX. by the want of “best.”

drink water] i.e. trees nourished by water, Ezekiel 31:14.

17. They also … into hell] These also are gone down into Sheòl, ref. being to the “trees of Eden,” Ezekiel 31:16.

were his arm, that dwelt] and his arm, that dwelt. His “arm” is his helpers (Ezekiel 17:9). The construction is difficult (read probably cons. plur. of part. for “that dwelt;” om. of rel. improbable); cf. Ezekiel 32:15. LXX. points “his seed” for “his arm,” but that “seed” could mean underwood (Corn.) has no probability.

18. The question implies that Pharaoh had no peers. Yet though incomparably greater than the other trees his fate shall be the same as theirs—he shall be brought down with them to the nether parts of the earth. LXX. reads the first half of the verse thus: To whom art thou like? Go down, and be brought down with the trees of Eden to the nether parts of the earth, cf. Ezekiel 32:19.

midst of the uncircumcised] The term is applied to those slain with the sword, and buried indiscriminately with no funeral rites, ch. Ezekiel 28:10; cf. Ezekiel 32:19; Ezekiel 32:21; Ezekiel 32:24, &c.