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  2. Wed: 1 Samuel 17-20
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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 there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

2‘Son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Howl ye, ha! for the day!

3For near is a day, near is a day to Jehovah! A day of clouds, the time of nations it is.

4And come in hath a sword to Egypt, And there hath been great pain in Cush, In the falling of the wounded in Egypt, And they have taken its store, And broken down have been its foundations.

5Cush, and Phut, and Lud, and all the mixture, and Chub, And the sons of the land of the covenant with them by sword do fall,

6Thus said Jehovah: And -- fallen have supporters of Egypt, And come down hath the arrogance of her strength, From Migdol to Syene, by sword they fall in her, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

7And they have been desolated in the midst of desolate lands, And its cities are in the midst of wasted cities.

8And they have known that I am Jehovah, In My giving fire against Egypt, And broken have been all her helpers.

9In that day go forth do messengers from before Me in ships, To trouble confident Cush, And there hath been great pain among them, As the day of Egypt, for lo, it hath come.

10Thus said the Lord Jehovah: I have caused the multitude of Egypt to cease, By the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,

11He and his people with him -- the terrible of nations, Are brought in to destroy the land, And they have drawn their swords against Egypt, And have filled the land with the wounded.

12And I have made floods a dry place, And I have sold the land into the hand of evil doers, And I have made desolate the land, And its fulness, by the hand of strangers, I, Jehovah, have spoken.

13Thus said the Lord Jehovah: And -- I have destroyed idols, And caused vain things to cease from Noph, And a prince of the land of Egypt there is no more, And I give fear in the land of Egypt.

14And I have made Pathros desolate, And I have given fire against Zoan, And I have done judgments in No,

15And I have poured out My fury on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt, And I have cut off the multitude of No.

16And I have given fire against Egypt, Greatly pained is Sin, and No is to be rent, And Noph hath daily distresses.

17The youths of Aven and Pi-Beseth by sword do fall, And these into captivity do go.

18And in Tehaphnehes hath the day been dark, In My breaking there the yokes of Egypt, And ceased in her hath the excellency of her strength, She -- a cloud doth cover her, And her daughters into captivity do go.

19And I have done judgments in Egypt, And they have known that I am Jehovah.'

20And it cometh to pass, in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh of the month, hath a word of Jehovah been unto me, saying: ‘Son of man,

21The arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, I have broken, And lo, it hath not been bound up to give healing, To put a bandage to bind it, To strengthen it -- to lay hold on the sword.

22Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, And I have broken his arms, The strong one and the broken one, And have caused the sword to fall out of his hand,

23And scattered the Egyptians among nations, And I have spread them through lands,

24And strengthened the arms of the king of Babylon, And I have given My sword into his hand, And I have broken the arms of Pharaoh, And he hath groaned the groans of a pierced one -- before him.

25And I have strengthened the arms of the king of Babylon, And the arms of Pharaoh do fall down, And they have known that I am Jehovah, In My giving My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, And he hath stretched it out toward the land of Egypt.

26And I have scattered the Egyptians among nations, And I have spread them through lands, And they have known that I am Jehovah!'

Ezekiel 31

1And it cometh to pass, in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first of the month, hath a word of Jehovah been unto me, saying:

2‘Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and unto his multitude: To whom hast thou been like in thy greatness?

3Lo, Asshur, a cedar in Lebanon, Fair in branch, and shading bough, and high in stature, And between thickets hath its foliage been.

4Waters have made it great, The deep hath exalted him with its flowings, Going round about its planting, And its conduits it hath sent forth unto all trees of the field.

5Therefore higher hath been his stature than all trees of the field, And multiplied are his boughs, and long are his branches, Because of many waters in his shooting forth,

6In his boughs made a nest hath every fowl of the heavens, And under his branches brought forth hath every beast of the field, And in his shade dwell do all great nations.

7And he is fair in his greatness, In the length of his thin shoots, For his root hath been by great waters.

8Cedars have not hid him in the garden of God, Firs have not been like unto his boughs, And chesnut-trees have not been as his branches, No tree in the garden of God hath been like unto him in his beauty,

9Fair I have made him in the multitude of his thin shoots, And envy him do all trees of Eden that are in the garden of God.

10Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because that thou hast been high in stature, And he yieldeth his foliage between thickets, And high is his heart in his haughtiness,

11I give him into the hand of a god of nations, He dealeth sorely with him, In his wickedness I have cast him out.

12And cut him off do strangers, The terrible of nations, and they leave him, On the mountains and in all valleys have his thin shoots fallen, And broken are his boughs at all streams of the land, And go down from his shade do all peoples of the land, and they leave him.

13On his ruin dwell do all fowls of the heavens, And on his boughs have been all the beasts of the field,

14In order that none of the trees of the waters May become haughty because of their stature, Nor give their foliage between thickets, Nor any drinking waters stand up unto them in their haughtiness, For all of them are given up to death, Unto the earth -- the lower part, In the midst of the sons of men, Unto those going down to the pit.

15Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the day of his going down to sheol I have caused mourning, I have covered for him the deep, and diminish its flowings, And restrained are many waters, And I make Lebanon black for him, And all trees of the field have been covered for him.

16From the sound of his fall I have caused nations to shake, In My causing him to go down to sheol, With those going down to the pit, And comforted in the earth -- the lower part, are all trees of Eden, The choice and the good of Lebanon, All drinking waters.

17Also they with him have gone down to sheol, Unto the pierced of the sword, And -- his arm -- they dwelt in his shade in the midst of nations.

18Unto whom hast thou been thus like, In honour and in greatness among the trees of Eden, And thou hast been brought down with the trees of Eden, Unto the earth -- the lower part, In the midst of the uncircumcised thou liest, With the pierced of the sword? It is Pharaoh, and all his multitude, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'

Young’s Literal Translation (YLT). Public domain.