Ezekiel 31:3 Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high, its top above the thick foliage.

◄ Ezekiel 31:3 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high, its top above the thick foliage.

English Standard Version
Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds.

New American Standard Bible
Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon With beautiful branches and forest shade, And very high, And its top was among the clouds.

King James Bible
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.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Think of Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and shady foliage and of lofty height. Its top was among the clouds.

International Standard Version
Think about Assyria, that cedar of Lebanon, beautiful with its branches, like a shady forest, with an awesome height, its summit touches the clouds.

American Standard Version
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold, the Assyrian was like a cedar in Libanus, with fair branches, and full of leaves, of a high stature, and his top was elevated among the thick boughs.

Darby Bible Translation
Behold, 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.

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, Asshur, a cedar in Lebanon, Fair in branch, and shading bough, and high in stature, And between thickets hath its foliage been.

Cross References

Psalm 92:12
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Isaiah 10:33
Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

Isaiah 10:34
And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

Jeremiah 17:8
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Jeremiah 50:18
Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

Ezekiel 17:3
And say, Thus said the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, long winged, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came to Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:

Ezekiel 17:4
He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.

Ezekiel 19:11
And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bore rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

Ezekiel 31:5
Therefore 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.

Ezekiel 31:8
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like to him in his beauty.

Jump to Previous

Asshur Assyria Assyrian Beautiful Bough Boughs Branch Branches Cedar Clouds Cover Fair Foliage Forest Great Growth Height High Lebanon Pine-Tree Shade Shadowing Shady Shroud Stature Thick Thickets Top

Jump to Next

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

31:1-9 The falls of others, both into sin and ruin, warn us not to be secure or high-minded. The prophet is to show an instance of one whom the king of Egypt resembled in greatness, the Assyrian, compared to a stately cedar. Those who excel others, make themselves the objects of envy; but the blessings of the heavenly paradise are not liable to such alloy. The utmost security that any creature can give, is but like the shadow of a tree, a scanty and slender protection. But let us flee to God for protection, there we shall be safe. His hand must be owned in the rising of the great men of the earth, and we must not envy them. Though worldly people may seem to have firm prosperity, yet it only seems so.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

3. He illustrates the pride and the consequent overthrow of the Assyrian, that Egypt may the better know what she must expect.

cedar in Lebanon—often eighty feet high, and the diameter of the space covered by its boughs still greater: the symmetry perfect. Compare the similar image (Eze 17:3; Da 4:20-22).

with a shadowing shroud—with an overshadowing thicket.

top … among … thick boughs—rather [Hengstenberg], "among the clouds." But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew. The top, or topmost shoot, represents the king; the thick boughs, the large resources of the empire.