Ezekiel 31:14

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 Psalms 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.