1.
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2.
Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
3.
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
4.
The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
5.
Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.
6.
All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
7.
Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
8.
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
9.
I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
10.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11.
I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12.
And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13.
Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14.
To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
15.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16.
I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
17.
They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18.
To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
THE DOOM OF EGYPT
‘This is Pharaoh.’
Ezekiel 31:18
I. Two months later than the prophecy of Ezekiel 30:20 , Ezekiel spoke again the doom of Egypt.—He tells the story of Assyria, comparing that mighty nation to a cedar of Lebanon, whose towering heights seemed to hold commerce with the clouds. Watered by the Tigris, it grew and spread, and all the nations seemed to dwell under the shadow of its branches ( Ezekiel 17:23; Daniel 4:12). But all the glory of Assyria passed away under the assault of Babylon. The final destruction of Nineveh by the Medo-Babylonian army is one of the great events of history (b.c. 877). How graphic is the picture of the overthrow of the great forest-tree in Daniel 4:13-14. The waters of the rivers that watered the mighty city are depicted as mourning ( Daniel 4:15: see also Revelation 17:15). From the overthrow of Nineveh, Ezekiel turns to Egypt, saying in effect: ‘All that has been done to Assyria shall be done to thee; though thou, too, art pre-eminent among the trees of Eden, thou shalt not escape, and men shall say of thee, lying prone and desolate, “This is Pharaoh!” ’
II. Both these great kingdoms forgot that God had made them fair.—They became proud and haughty, tyrannous and oppressive. They were meant to represent God’s purposes among the nations, but they sought only their own glory, and vaunted their independence. Hence their ruin! How different the Tree of the Gospel, in the boughs of which the nations gather (St. Matthew 13:32). Happy the souls that have fled to Christ for refuge! There is no fear that we shall ever be ashamed!
Illustration
‘The prophecy of this chapter is directed against Egypt, the last of the great world-kingdoms. Hophra was on the throne at this time. His reign for the first twenty-five years was very successful, and he recovered much that had been lost to Egypt in the great battle at Carchemish. He felt, therefore, so proudly secure, that he said (so Herodotus tells us) that not even a god could deprive him of his kingdom. Ezekiel also depicts him as saying, “My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.” ’