Ezekiel 31

Ezekiel 31:6

The prophecy of this, as of the two former chapters, is against Egypt, and designed to humble Pharaoh. The prophet is here ordered, 1. To shew him that the king of Affyria had been like him in greatness, ver. 3—9. And, 2. In pride and casual severity, ver. 10. 3. He is to relate to him the fall of the king of Affyria, what a noise it made among the nations, and what a warning it gave to all potent princes to take heed of pride, ver. 11—17. 4. He must leave the king of Egypt to apply all this to himself, to see his own face in the sinking-glass of the king of Affyria’s sin, and to foresee his own fall through the perspective-glass of his ruin, ver. 18.

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 Affyrian man 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 necks 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; not 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, cavied him.

2. 1—9. This prophecy bears date about five weeks before Jerusalem was taken, when judgment, which had begun at the

3 M b. u. f. 10. v. 5. 11. v. 15. 12. v. 16. 13. v. 18. V. Gen. 5. 8. B A E K I R L. monarchal tions of God, did not end there; but Egypt must also drink of the cup of trembling. Pharaoh is bid to confide the records of time, and select the mightiest monarch that had gone before him, with whom to compare himself, even the Af Syrian; who, notwithstanding all his ancient greatness, was now fallen. Nimrod had founded that monarchy, and the Babylonian empire had risen on its ruins. A warning to the greatest not to be high-minded, but fear. The Af Syrian monarch is compared to a tall and spreading cedar. His dignity most exalted, his dominions valley extensive, and admirable governed, like the regular branches of a lofty tree, v. 7. No prince or potentate could die with him of all the forenoonling nations, v. 8. and they secretly envied his greatness, v. 9. the tribute which merit and prosperity usually must pay. Proceeded by his power, and late under his government, multitude from all nations chose to settle in his dominions, Planted by the Divine Providence, v. 9. and watered with the abundance of temporal good things, he formed suffi-

ciently strong to resist every stormy blast; and sent out little rivers

Ezekiel 31:10-18

The Af Syrian monarch, whom Pharaoh resembled in greatness, he must resemble in his ruin. 1. They were both puffed up on their prosperity. Thus half lifted up thyself in height; thou, O king of Egypt; or thou, O king of Af Syrian; for to either the words may be applied; and they are true of both, pride being the common snare which attends advancement; and few carry with them, into a superior spicere, the humble spirit of their former station. 2. They fall alike, as the just punishment of their pride and wickedness, v. 11. 1. The Af Syrian by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty one of the heathen, who in the beginning of his reign, in construction with Cyaaxes king of the Medes, is said to have destrued that monarchy, with Nineveh the capital, and transferred the feat of empire to Babylon. God had ordained his ruin, and therefore it must infallibly come to pass, v. 12. All ready this mighty cedar is broken: the terrible army of Chaldeans and Medes have topped all his branches, and left them withering on every mountain and valley, and by every river: the provinces of the empire dismembered, the cities and country fubdued; so that, as birds from a falling tree, the mortal autions, who fought for shelter under the shadow of the Af Syrian monarch, are fled, have deserted him in the day of his calamity,

Ezekiel 31:12

His enemies, like birds and beasts of prey, fled upon him; or, literally, the fowls of heaven fall upon the carcasses of the slain; or those who envied his greatness, v. 9. rejoice at his fall, v. 13. And herein God designed to warn proud monerche of their danger, not to trust on their power or wealth, as if these could be their protection; but to remember they are mortal worms, and to an infant, when God strikes, rendered with the dead, v. 14. This the Af Syrian monarch proved, and at his ruin a universal groan was given from all who were in league with him, as the forced echoes with the falling cedar,

Ezekiel 31:16

a general stagnation of trade and commerce for a while prevailed; and, trembling for themselves, his allies formed, conscious of their own inability to resist the conqueror of their mightest Af Syrian friend, v. 15. whilst the tree of Eden, the shoal and lofty of Lebanon, either the kingdoms subdued and revaged by the Af Syrian monarch in times past, or the nations in alliance with him, who shared his fearful destruction, v. 17. Shall in their graves be comforted to see him brought as low as themselves, v. 18. Note, (1.) Wickedness is the truth of all our wretchedness. (2.) Pride will have a fall. (3.) They who are courted in prosperity will often be deserted in the day of calamity. (4.) The fall of great men usually involves multitudes in their ruin. (5.) God intends his providential strokes on others should be warnings to sunshine. (2.) The Egyptian monarch may expect the same fate. Let him choke the mightiest kingdoms with which to compare himself, nay were he even to great as the king of Af Syrian, it would not secure him from ruin: he should be brought to the same wretched state; he down among the dead, yea among the uncircumcised, under the eternal wrath of God. This is Pharaoh and his multitude: such shall be the end of all his greatness, grandeur, and numerous subjects. And thus shall do indeed be turned into hell, with all the nations, however many or mighty, that forget God.