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Egypt Will Fall like Assyria
Ezekiel 31 uses a great cedar tree to speak to Pharaoh and Egypt. The picture is beautiful and powerful, but its message is sobering: greatness that lifts itself up will be brought down by the Lord Yahweh.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
This passage begins when Yahweh’s word comes to Ezekiel with a message for Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude. The message compares another great power, Assyria, to a towering cedar, then uses that picture to warn Pharaoh about pride, downfall and death.
Ezekiel 31:1–18Main takeaway
This passage teaches that impressive power and beauty do not prevent the Lord Yahweh from bringing down the proud.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A question for PharaohThe message is aimed at Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude, and it begins with a question about greatness.
Explanation
The message is aimed at Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude, and it begins with a question about greatness. That question prepares the reader for a comparison. Pharaoh is not discussed on his own at first. Instead, the Lord points to Assyria as an example that Egypt should consider carefully.
02Assyria pictured as a cedarAssyria is described as a cedar in Lebanon, tall, shaded and well watered. Its many branches make it a place where birds nest, animals gather and nations live under its shadow.
Explanation
Assyria is described as a cedar in Lebanon, tall, shaded and well watered. Its many branches make it a place where birds nest, animals gather and nations live under its shadow. The image shows unusual strength, reach and beauty. Even the language of the garden of God stresses how unmatched this greatness seemed.
03Why the cedar was cut downThe turning point comes when the Lord Yahweh says the tree was exalted and its heart was lifted up.
Explanation
The turning point comes when the Lord Yahweh says the tree was exalted and its heart was lifted up. Because of that, he delivers it into the hand of a mighty ruler of the nations and drives it out for wickedness. Foreigners cut it down, its branches fall, and those who once lived in its shadow leave.
04A warning to every lofty treeThe fall of the cedar is given a purpose. Trees by the waters are not to exalt themselves in stature.
Explanation
The fall of the cedar is given a purpose. Trees by the waters are not to exalt themselves in stature. However strong they appear, all who drink water are delivered to death and go down to the pit. The picture moves from political greatness to the shared human end that no ruler escapes.
05Pharaoh will also be brought downThe final verses describe mourning and shaking among the nations at the cedar’s fall into Sheol.
Explanation
The final verses describe mourning and shaking among the nations at the cedar’s fall into Sheol. Then the Lord applies the image directly to Pharaoh. He too will be brought down to the lower parts of the earth and lie among the slain. The comparison is no longer indirect. Egypt will share this humiliation.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What details make the cedar seem great before its fall?
Look for the words about height, waters, branches, beauty, shelter and comparison with other trees in the garden of God.
02According to the passage, what caused the change from greatness to judgement?
Notice the Lord’s reason in the words about being exalted in stature and having a heart lifted up, along with the mention of wickedness.
03How does the last verse show that the cedar picture is really a warning to Egypt?
Read the closing question and the direct statement naming Pharaoh and all his multitude.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Ezekiel 31:1–18
1In the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2“Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude: ‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
3Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.
4The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation. It sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
5Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied. Its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it spread them out.
6All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow.
7Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.
8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its branches. The pine trees were not like its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.
9I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’
10“Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: ‘Because he is exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick branches, and his heart is lifted up in his height,
11I will deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12Foreigners, the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. His branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow and have left him.
13All the birds of the sky will dwell on his ruin, and all the animals of the field will be on his branches,
14to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, and don’t set their top among the thick boughs. Their mighty ones don’t stand up on their height, even all who drink water; for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.’
15“The Lord Yahweh says: ‘In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers. The great waters were stopped. I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit. All the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.
17They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, who lived under his shadow in the middle of the nations.
18“ ‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “ ‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”