Ezekiel 31:3

Translations

Modern

Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds.

Traditional

Behold, the Assyrian was 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.

Literal

Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful of branches and giving shade to the forest and high of stature, and among the clouds was its top.

Latin

…ecce Assur quasi cedrus in Libano, pulcher ramis, et frondibus nemorosus, excelsusque altitudine, et inter condensas frondes elevatum est cacumen ejus.

Original

Hebrew

English

Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds.

Notes

Ezekiel 31:2–4

The cedar of Lebanon was a tree known for its beauty and great value. People used its wood for building, trade, and even military purposes.
Assyria is compared to a tall cedar tree. Its army had once been stronger than any other army. Like a tree whose top reaches the clouds, Assyria’s power seemed greater than all others.

Ezekiel 31:1–18

Ezekiel asked the Egyptians to compare themselves to Assyria, which was like a great tree in Eden (Ezekiel 31:9). If that tree was cut down and sent to the underworld, how could Egypt, whose glory was less than Assyria's, believe it could survive?

Ezekiel 29:1–32:32

The seventh and final message of judgment against the nations targets Egypt, an old enemy and ally of Israel. This message is the longest and, like the one against Tyre, it addresses both Egypt and its ruler.
Egypt often tempted Israel and Judah to turn away from their loyalty to the Lord. Soon after leaving Egypt, Israel fell into the trap of Egypt's idolatry. Egypt led Judah to rely on chariots and horses instead of the Lord, but Egypt was unreliable when it mattered most. The Lord judged Egypt for leading his people astray (compare Luke 17:1–2).

Ezekiel 25:1–32:32

This section contains a series of messages of judgment against nearby nations. There are six shorter messages against Judah's immediate neighbors, arranged in a clockwise order, followed by a final message against Egypt (Ezekiel 30–32). Through experiencing God's judgment, the nations would recognize God's control over everything. The nations might be used to carry out God's judgment on his people, but they would not avoid judgment themselves.
One of the main purposes of these messages was to show that the negative part of God's promise to Abraham ("I will … curse those who curse you," Genesis 12:3) was still active. No one can harm God's people and avoid consequences, even when God's people are under his judgment.

Theme notes and profiles

Messages Against the Nations

Events

Prophecies of Ezekielc. 593 BC

Related verses

Isaiah 10:33–34
Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled.
Daniel 4:10
In these visions of my mind as I was lying in bed, I saw this come to pass: There was a tree in the midst of the land, and its height was great.
Daniel 4:20–23
The tree you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached the sky and was visible to all the earth,
Judges 9:15
But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’
Ezekiel 17:3–4
…and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers of many colors, came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar.
Ezekiel 17:22
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take a shoot from the lofty top of the cedar, and I will set it out. I will pluck a tender sprig from its topmost shoots, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
Isaiah 37:24
Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.
Zephaniah 2:13
And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.
Ezekiel 31:6
All the birds of the air nested in its branches, and all the beasts of the field gave birth beneath its boughs; all the great nations lived in its shade.
Ezekiel 31:16
I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below.
Daniel 4:12
Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit was abundant, and upon it was food for all. Under it the beasts of the field found shelter, in its branches the birds of the air nested, and from it every creature was fed.
Nahum 3:1–19
Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.

Places

Assyria: A powerful ancient empire, often in conflict with Israel Lebanon: A mountainous region known for its cedar trees

Glossary

Book of Jeremiah Cedar Ezekiel, Book of Hophra Lebanon Lord Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar

Topics

Assyria: The Greatness, Extent, Duration, and Fall, Illustrated Cedar: Figurative Pride: Assyria The Cedar: Powerful Nations

Ezekiel 31:3

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