Ezekiel 31:8

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. CEDARS IN THE GARDEN OF GOD COULD NOT HIDE HIM - could not out-top him. No other king eclipsed him. GARDEN OF GOD - as in the case of the King of Tyre (, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God"), the imagery that is applied to the Assyrian king is taken from Eden; peculiarly appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterward watered Assyria (Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates, ). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there out-topped it. THE FIR TREES - the cypresses...

1-9 The falls of others, both into sin and ruin, warn us not to be secure or high-minded. The prophet is to show an instance of one whom the king of Egypt resembled in greatness, the Assyrian, compared to a stately cedar. Those who excel others, make themselves the objects of envy; but the blessings of the heavenly paradise are not liable to such alloy. The utmost security that any creature can give, is but like the shadow of a tree, a scanty and slender protection. But let us flee to God for protection, there we shall be safe. His hand must be owned in the rising of the great men of the earth, and we must not envy them. Though worldly people may seem to have firm prosperity, yet it only seems so....

Verse Ezekiel 31:8. _THE CEDARS IN THE GARDEN OF GOD_] Egypt was one of the most eminent and affluent of all the neighbouring nations....

Fifth prophecy against Egypt: a warning to Pharaoh from the fate of the Assyrians. The Assyrian empire, after having been supreme in Asia for four centuries, had been overthrown by the united forces of the Babylonians and Medes, in the year of the battle of Carchemish (605 b.c.), which had broken the power of Egypt. This gives force to the warning to Egypt from Assyria’s fall. Ezekiel 31:4 HIS PLANTS - Rather, her plantation. The water represents the riches and might which flowed into Assyria. Ezekiel 31:5 WHEN BE SHOT FORTH - Or, when the deep water sent forth its streams. Ezekiel 31:8...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 31:1 IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR, etc. June, B.C. 586. Two months all but six days had passed since the utterance of Ezekiel 30:20, when Ezekiel was moved to expand his prediction of the downfall of Egypt into a parable which is partly a _replica _of these in Ezekiel 17:1. and Ezekiel 19:1, and which also finds a parallel in Daniel 4:10. EZEKIEL 31:2 The parabl

THE CEDARS IN THE GARDEN OF GOD COULD NOT HIDE HIM,.... That is, could not rise so high as this cedar, and overtop him, and obscure his glory; even those that were most excellent, which grew in Eden, near to which Babylon stood, and where a mighty king dwelt. The sense is, that the greatest kings and potentates in the whole world, which is like a garden planted by the Lord, were not equal to the king of Assyria, and much less exceeded him in grandeur, wealth, and power: THE FIR TREES WERE NOT LIKE HIS BOUGHS: lesser kings and princes, comparable to fir trees for the beauty, regularity, order, and flourishing condition of their kingdoms; yet these were but petty states, and not to be compared even with the provinces of the king of Assyria: AND THE CHESNUT TREES WERE NOT LIKE HIS BRANCHES; lesser states still: which, though well set, and well spread, and full of people, yet not answerabl...

Ezekiel 31:1. Pharaoh's greatness is described in the first part of the chapter (Ezekiel 31:1). He is compared to the Assyrian, once so powerful and proud. The fall and desolation of the proud monarch under the picture of a tree follows in Ezekiel 31:10. The overthrow of Egypt and the resulting consternation among the nations is predicted in the last section of this chapter (Ezekiel 31:15). Ezekiel 32:1. The lamentation over Pharaoh is contained in Ezekiel 3

EZEKIEL 31. FALLEN IS THE MIGHTY CEDAR. In this striking poem, Pharaoh (= Egypt) is likened to a cedar of surprising height and beauty, fed by the waters of the deep (_i.e._ the Nile) and giving shelter to birds and beasts (_i.e._ protection to dependent peoples). For beauty, height, luxuriance no tree (= nation) could compare with it it was the envy of all (Ezekiel 31:1). (In Ezekiel 31:3 delete the Assyrian, and read simply, there was a cedar, etc. For thick boughs read clouds with LXX. In Ezekiel 31:4 for the trees of the field, read its soil.) But the mighty Nebuchadrezzar, with his terrible army, will send it crashing with a blow, boughs and branches will be scattered over mountain and valley, those who

THE GARDEN OF GOD. Reference to Pentateuch (Genesis 2:8). God. Hebrew. _Elohim_. App-4....

_could not hide him_ Probably: EQUAL HIM, compare with him (cf. the common particle "over against" or "alongside of," Ezekiel 1:20; Ezekiel 48:13, &c.). _chesnut trees_ Probably: PLANE trees, Genesis 30:37; cf. Psalms 104:16; Numbers 24:6. The trees in the garden of God are naturally the most lofty....