A relation to Pharaoh, 1, 2, of the glory of Assyria, 3-9, and the fall thereof for pride, 10-17. The similar destruction of Egypt, 18.
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 "Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude,
'Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon/
with fair branches and with a shady cover/
and of a high stature./
And his top was among the thick boughs.
4 The waters made him great,/
the deep set him up on high./
Her rivers ran around his planting-place/
and she sent out her little rivers/
to 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 birds of heaven made/
their nests in his boughs,/
and under his branches/
all the beasts of the field brought forth their young,/
and under his shade/
all great nations dwelt.
7 Thus he was 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 plane-trees were not like his branches./
No tree in the garden of God/
was like 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 envied him.
10 'Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: "Because you have lifted up yourself in height, and he has shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height, 11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen. He shall surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. Upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have fallen and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land. And all the people of the earth have gone down from his shadow and have left him. 13 Upon his ruin all the birds of the heaven shall remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches, 14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters shall exalt themselves for their height, nor shoot up their top among the thick boughs, nor their trees stand up in their height, even all that drink water, for they are all delivered to death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit."
15 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him and restrained its floods, and the great waters were stayed. And I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall when I cast him down to the grave with those who descend into the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into the grave with him to those who are slain with the sword, and those who were his arm, who dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18 "To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the nether 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,"' says the Lord GOD."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Ezekiel, Chapter 31[➚]
John Gill's Chapter Summary:
This chapter contains a confirmation of the preceding prophecy of the ruin of the king of Egypt by the example of the king of Assyria, to whom he was like in grandeur and pride, and would be in his fall. The time of the prophecy is observed (Ezekiel 31:1); the prophet is ordered to give the following relation to the king of Egypt (Ezekiel 31:2); in which the king of Assyria is compared to a large and flourishing cedar, for the extent of his dominions, the prosperous state of his empire, and his exaltation above all other princes, which drew upon him their envy (Ezekiel 31:3-9); therefore because of his pride, his heart being lifted up with these things (Ezekiel 31:10); ruin came upon him, which is described by the instruments and manner of it and the effects following it; mourning and fear in some, solace and comfort to others, and destruction to his associates (Ezekiel 31:11-17); therefore Pharaoh is called upon to consider all this, who was like to him in greatness and pride, and should have the like fate with him; nor could his greatness any more secure him than it did the Assyrian monarch (Ezekiel 31:18).