1. Tue: Isaiah 40-41
  2. Wed: 1 Samuel 17-20
  3. Thu: 2 Corinthians 8-10
Friday · Week 15
The Later Prophets

Ezekiel 30-31

Week 15 · about 10 min
  1. Sat: Psalms 21-26
  2. Sun: Exodus 18-21
  3. Mon: Mark 8-9

More messages against Egypt, the power Judah kept hoping would rescue it.

The Tallest Tree in the Garden Fell

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 lifted up in his height;

Ezekiel 31:10 (KJV)

Judah kept looking south to Egypt for help against Babylon. God says he has broken Pharaoh’s arm, and it won’t be bandaged to hold a sword again. In chapter 31 Ezekiel tells Pharaoh to look at Assyria. Assyria was like a giant cedar. Birds nested in its branches, animals rested in its shade, and even the trees in Eden envied it. Then it got proud, and God cut it down. Nineveh, Assyria’s capital, had fallen only a few decades earlier. If that tree could fall, so could Egypt. The bigger the tree, the louder the fall.

Reflect: What person or power are you tempted to lean on instead of God?

Ezekiel 30

1And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Howl ye, Alas for the day!

3For the day is at hand, yea, the day of Jehovah is at hand, a day of clouds; it shall be the time of the nations.

4And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and there shall be anguish in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be overthrown.

5Cush, and Phut, and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

6Thus saith Jehovah: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her strength shall come down: from Migdol to Syene shall they fall in her by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah.

7And they shall be desolated in the midst of the countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.

8And they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers shall be broken.

9In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships, to make careless Ethiopia afraid; and anguish shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for behold, it cometh!

10Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.

11He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with slain.

12And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I Jehovah have spoken it.

13Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt; and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

14And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgment in No.

15And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.

16And I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be rent asunder, and at Noph there shall be enemies in open day.

17The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these shall go into captivity.

18And at Tehaphnehes the day shall be darkened, when I break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her strength shall cease in her; as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.

19Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

20And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

21Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it shall not be bound up to apply remedies, to put a bandage to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.

22Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong one, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.

23And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

24And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; and I will break Pharaoh's arms, so that he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly-wounded man.

25And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall have stretched it out upon the land of Egypt.

26And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries: and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

Ezekiel 31

1And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature: and his top was amidst the thick boughs.

4The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high; its streams ran round about his plantation, and it sent out its rivulets 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 great waters, when he shot forth.

6All the fowl of the heavens 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 the great nations.

7Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: because his root was by great waters.

8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

9I had made him fair by the multitude of his branches; and all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

10Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, ... and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

11I have given him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; 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 in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

13Upon his fallen trunk do all the fowl of the heavens dwell, and all the beasts of the field are upon his branches:

14to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, nor set their top amidst the thick boughs, and that none of them that drink water stand up in his height by himself; for they are all given over unto death in the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

15Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I made Lebanon black 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 them that go down into the pit; and 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 unto them that were slain with the sword, and that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

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 lower parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Darby Translation (Darby). Public domain.