CHAPTER 31 THE FIFTH ORACLE AGAINST EGYPT. THE GREAT CYPRESS TREE. This chapter is split into three sections, the parable of the great cypress tree which likens Pharaoh and his people to a great cypress (Ezekiel 31:2), its downfall at the hand of foreigners (Ezekiel 31:10) and its descent into Sheo... [ Continue Reading ]
PHARAOH AND HIS PEOPLE ARE LIKE A GREAT CYPRESS (EZEKIEL 31:1). ‘And so it was in the eleventh year, in the third month on the first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, say to Pharaoh King of Egypt, and to his multiplicity of people, ‘Whom are you like in your... [ Continue Reading ]
“Behold a cypress (‘assur', probably a variant of te'assur, and not therefore Assyria which would be out of place here), a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and with a woody shade and of great height, and his top was among the interwoven branches (LXX clouds).” Pharaoh is likened to a large Cypr... [ Continue Reading ]
“The waters nourished him, the deep made him grow, her rivers ran round her plantations and she sent out her streams to all the trees of the field.” The tree was well watered by many streams, by the Nile and its tributaries and channels, so that all the trees and growing things around benefited fro... [ Continue Reading ]
“Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the forest, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long by reason of many waters when he shot them forth. All the birds of the air made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches all the beasts of the field brought fort... [ Continue Reading ]
“The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him, the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the plane trees were not as his branches. Nor was any tree in the garden of God like him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the ga... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DOWNFALL OF PHARAOH AND EGYPT BECAUSE OF THEIR WICKEDNESS (EZEKIEL 31:10). ‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because you are exalted in height, and he has set his top among the interweaving boughs, and his heart is lifted up because of his height, I will even deliver him into the hand of t... [ Continue Reading ]
“On his ruin all the birds of the air will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on his branches, to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their height, nor set their top among the interweaving branches, nor that their mighty ones stand up in their height, eve... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DESCENT INTO SHEOL (EZEKIEL 31:15). “Thus says the Lord Yahweh, In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were stayed. And I caused Lebanon to be black for him and all the trees of the field fainted f... [ Continue Reading ]
“To whom are you thus like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the nether parts of the earth. You will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and his numerous people.” A similar... [ Continue Reading ]