---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Ezekiel 31"
description: "CHAPTER 31   :-. 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"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/ezekiel/31"
---

CHAPTER 31

. 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 .

**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
([Ezekiel 17:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/17/3); [Daniel 4:20-22](../../../kjv/daniel/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 [Ezekiel 17:23](../../../kjv/ezekiel/17/23);
[Daniel 4:12](../../../kjv/daniel/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 ([Matthew 13:32](../../../kjv/matthew/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 ([Ezekiel 28:13](../../../kjv/ezekiel/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 ([Genesis 2:10-14](../../../kjv/genesis/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 ([Daniel 2:37](../../../kjv/daniel/2/37);
[Daniel 2:38](../../../kjv/daniel/2/38)).

**12. from his shadow**—*under*
which they had formerly *dwelt* as their covert ().

**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**— ([Ezekiel 32:18](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/18);
[Psalms 82:7](../../../kjv/psalms/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 ().
**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 [Isaiah 14:9-11](../../../kjv/isaiah/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 (); both alike "making flesh their arm, and in heart
departing from the Lord" ().

**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 ([Ezekiel 28:10](../../../kjv/ezekiel/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 ([Exodus 14:30](../../../kjv/exodus/14/30);
[Exodus 14:31](../../../kjv/exodus/14/31)).

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