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<p>This prophecy bears date the month before Jerusalem was taken, as that in the close of the foregoing chapter about four months before. When God’s people were in the depth of their distress, it would be some comfort to them, as it would serve likewise for a check to the pride and malice of their neighbours, that insulted over them, to be told from heaven that the cup was going round, even the cup of trembling, that it would shortly be taken out of the hands of God’s people and put into the hands of those that hated them, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.51.22,Isa.51.23" href="/passage/?search=Isa.51.22,Isa.51.23"><span class="bibleref" title="Isa.51.22">Isa. 51:22</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Isa.51.23">23</span></a>. In this prophecy,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. The prophet is directed to put Pharaoh upon searching the records for a case parallel to his own (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.2" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.2">Ezek. 31:2</a>): <i>Speak to Pharaoh and to his multitude</i>, to the multitude of his attendants, that contributed so much to his magnificence, and the multitude of his armies, that contributed so much to his strength. These he was proud of, these he put a confidence in; and they were as proud of him and trusted as much in him. Now ask him, <i>Whom art thou like in thy greatness</i>? We are apt to judge of ourselves by comparison. Those that think highly of themselves fancy themselves as great and as good as such and such, that have been mightily celebrated. The flatterers of princes tell them whom they equal in pomp and grandeur. “Well,” says God, “let him pitch upon the most famous potentate that ever was, and it shall be allowed that he is <i>like him in greatness</i> and no way inferior to him; but, let him pitch upon whom he will, he will find that <i>his day came to fall</i>; he will see there was <i>an end</i> of all <i>his perfection</i>, and must therefore expect the end of his own in like manner.” Note, The falls of others, both into sin and ruin, are intended as admonitions to us not to be secure or <i>high-minded</i>, nor to think we stand out of danger.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. He is directed to show him an instance of one whom he resembles in greatness, and that was the Assyrian (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.3">Ezek. 31:3</a>), whose monarchy had continued from Nimrod. Sennacherib was one of the mighty princes of that monarchy; but it sunk down soon after him, and the monarchy of Nebuchadnezzar was built upon its ruins, or rather grafted upon its stock. Let us now see what a flourishing prince the king of Assyria was. He is here compared to a stately cedar, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.3">Ezek. 31:3</a>. The glory of the house of David is illustrated by the same similitude, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.17.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.17.3">Ezek. 17:3</a>. The olive-tree, the fig-tree, and the vine, which were all fruit-trees, had refused to be <i>promoted over the trees</i> because they would not leave their fruitfulness (<a class="bibleref" title="Judg.9.8" href="/passage/?search=Judg.9.8">Jdg. 9:8</a>), and therefore the choice falls upon the cedar, that is stately and strong, and casts a great shadow, but bears no fruit. 1. The Assyrian monarch was a tall cedar, such as the cedars in Lebanon generally were, of a <i>high stature</i>, and <i>his top among the thick boughs</i>; he was attended by other princes that were tributaries to him, and was surrounded by a life-guard of brave men. He surpassed all the princes in his neighbourhood; they were all shrubs to him (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.5" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.5">Ezek. 31:5</a>): <i>His height was exalted above all the trees of the field</i>; they were many of them very high, but he overtopped them all, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.8" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.8">Ezek. 31:8</a>. The cedars, even those in the garden of Eden, which we may suppose were the best of the kind, <i>would not hide him</i>, but his top branches outshot theirs. 2. He was a spreading cedar; his branches did not only run up in height, but run out in breadth, denoting that this mighty prince was not only exalted to great dignity and honour, and had a name above the names of the great men of the earth, but that he obtained great dominion and power; his territories were large, and he extended his conquests far and his influences much further. This cedar, like <i>a vine</i>, sent forth <i>his branches to the sea, to the river</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.80.11" href="/passage/?search=Ps.80.11">Ps. 80:11</a>. <i>His boughs were multiplied; his branches became long</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.5" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.5">Ezek. 31:5</a>); so that <i>he had a shadowing shroud</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.3">Ezek. 31:3</a>. This contributed very much to his beauty, that he grew proportionably large as well as high. He was <i>fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.7" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.7">Ezek. 31:7</a>), very comely as well as very stately, <i>fair by the multitude of his branches</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.31.9" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.31.9">Ezek. 31:9</a>. His large dominions were well managed, like a spreading tree that is kept in shape and good order by the skill of the gardener, so as to be very beautiful to the eye. His government was as amiable in the eyes of wise men as it was admirable in the eyes of all men. The <i>fir-trees</i> were not <i>like his boughs</i>, so straight, so green, so regular; nor were the branches of <i>the chestnut-trees like his branches</i>, so thick, so spreading. In short, <i>no tree in the garden of God</i>, in Eden, in Babylon (for that stood where paradise was planted), where there was every tree that was <i>pleasant to the sight</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Gen.2.9" href="/passage/?search=Gen.2.9">Gen. 2:9</a>), was like <i>to this cedar in beauty</i>; that is, in all the surrounding nations there was no prince so much admired, so much courted, and whom
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