Ezekiel 31:15-18

C. The Descent of the Cedar 31:15-18

TRANSLATION

(15) Thus says the Lord GOD: In the day he went down to Sheol I caused the deep to mourn and cover over him, and I held back her rivers, and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn over him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. (16) At the sound of his fall I caused the nations to shake, when I brought him down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth. (17) They also went down with him to Sheol unto those who were slain by the sword; and they who were his arm, who dwelt in his shadow, in the midst of nations. (18) To whom are you like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the lower parts of the earth; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude (oracle of the Lord GOD.

COMMENTS

The fall of Assyria caused a great upheaval in the world. Even the deep from which all the nations of the earth were watered was plunged into mourning.[448] The rivers which formerly nourished the great tree (cf. Ezekiel 31:4) now had dried up. All the trees of Lebanon other notable nations of the time fainted in fear for their own safety (Ezekiel 31:15). Previous world powers (all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon) were comforted by the thought that now Assyria had joined them in the lower parts of the earth in Sheol the realm of the departed (Ezekiel 31:16). The allies of Assyria (they that were his arm) were destroyed once their protector was gone. They too joined their once proud master in the most disgraceful of deaths (them that are slain by the sword; Ezekiel 31:17).

[448] Cf. Ezekiel 32:7 where the sun is plunged into mourning.

In the final verse of chapter 31 Ezekiel drives home the application of his lengthy allegory. If the giant Assyrian cedar has been cut down, how can Egypt hope to escape? Pharaoh and his people will be brought down to a humiliating defeat and death. He would lie among the uncircumcised, i.e., those who suffer death by the sword and whose bodies lie unburied on the ground (Ezekiel 31:18).