The big picture
God gives Ezekiel, his prophet, a tree picture for Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, a great southern kingdom. Assyria, an earlier imperial power, is portrayed as a huge cedar with ample water and spreading shade. Nations found shelter under its branches. Yet its height became pride, and God gave it over to be cut down. The picture ends among the dead. Pharaoh must see his own future in the fallen tree rather than assume that present greatness places him outside the same fate.
In this chapter
- The Cedar Shelters Nations Beneath Its Branches Ezekiel 31:1-9
God asks Pharaoh whom he resembles in greatness.
- Height Becomes Pride and the Tree Falls Ezekiel 31:10-14
The cedar lifts its heart along with its crown.
- The Descent Makes Other Nations Tremble Ezekiel 31:15-18
God describes mourning when the great tree goes to the grave.
Central truth
The great cedar's fall warns Pharaoh that strength received from God becomes no defence when height gives rise to pride.
Scripture beside the summary
Ezekiel · King James Version · 18Ezekiel 31:1-9
The Cedar Shelters Nations Beneath Its Branches
God asks Pharaoh whom he resembles in greatness. He points to the Assyrian as a cedar in Lebanon, a region famous for trees. Deep water feeds it, raising it above other trees and multiplying its branches. Birds nest there, animals give birth beneath it, and great nations rest in its shade. Even the trees of Eden, God's garden, cannot match its beauty. God says he made it splendid. The picture acknowledges real strength and shelter, but makes their source clear. The tree has grown through abundant provision rather than creating its own water.
In everyday life
A groundskeeper stands under an immense cedar and follows the irrigation channel that keeps its roots supplied. Visitors admire its height without noticing the water arriving below. She clears a blocked inlet so the shade can remain. Ezekiel's tree portrays imperial power given by God, not only the dependence of a real tree on water.
Notice
Ezekiel 31:9 God takes credit for making the tree beautiful through many branches. The coming charge of pride therefore concerns how the ruler treats a greatness he received.
Ezekiel 31:1-9
King James Version1And 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,
2Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
3Behold, 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.
4The 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.
5Therefore 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.
6All the fowls of heaven made their nests 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.
7Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
9I 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.
Ezekiel 31:10-14
Height Becomes Pride and the Tree Falls
The cedar lifts its heart along with its crown. Because of that pride and wickedness, God hands it to a strong foreign ruler. Ruthless outsiders cut it down and leave broken branches across mountains, valleys, and rivers. Nations withdraw from its shade. Birds and beasts occupy the fallen wood where they once found shelter. The fall is meant to prevent other well-watered trees from exalting themselves. All are given over to death among human beings. Water and height do not lift a ruler out of the common end faced by those beneath him.
In everyday life
A tree surgeon measures a fallen park giant whose crown once dominated every photograph of the grounds. Birds now perch on the broken trunk at knee height. The roots still show the rich ground that fed it. God brings down a proud ruler for wickedness; the tree surgeon is assessing a physical fall without moral blame.
Notice
Ezekiel 31:14 The warning reaches all the watered trees, not only the one cut down. The shared fact of death denies every great ruler an exception based on height or strength.
Ezekiel 31:10-14
King James Version10Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11I 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.
12And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
Ezekiel 31:15-18
The Descent Makes Other Nations Tremble
God describes mourning when the great tree goes to the grave. Waters are held back, the wooded land grieves, and other trees faint. Nations shake at its fall into the realm of the dead. Earlier fallen powers find grim comfort in its arrival, and those who supported it go down as well. God then applies the picture directly to Pharaoh and his multitude. However splendid they seem, they will lie among those killed by the sword. The lament removes the distance between an admired example from elsewhere and the ruler hearing the warning now.
In everyday life
A cemetery guide pauses beside the grave of a ruler whose monument once promised lasting glory. Nearby graves hold earlier leaders with similar claims. Visitors see the shared end before hearing another list of achievements. Ezekiel announces a ruler's future fall and the trembling of nations, not a guide's reflection at an existing grave.
Notice
Ezekiel 31:18 The final statement names Pharaoh and his multitude as the point of the tree picture. The earlier empire's fall is a warning addressed to a living ruler.
Ezekiel 31:15-18
King James Version15Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and 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 hell with them that 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.
17They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Ezekiel 31:1 begins with “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,”
Where the chapter turns
Ezekiel 31:10 forms a natural hinge: “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is…”
The final note
Ezekiel 31:18 leaves the reader with “To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words trees, branches, boughs, field, height, waters help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- shroud
- A covering of branches that spreads shade over what lies beneath.
- nether parts
- The lower depths, used here for the realm of the dead.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
