Ezekiel 31:15

Thus 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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) I covered the deep for him.—Ezekiel 31:15-17 describe the effect of Assyria’s fall. Ezekiel 31:15 speaks of the mourning of the nations and of the drying up of the streams, or sources of Assyria’s prosperity. “The deep” is the same as in Ezekiel 31:4, the flood of waters which fertilised the great cedar; this is covered, as in mourning. “Floods” is the same word as “rivers” in Ezekiel 31:4, and “great waters” as “multitude of waters” in Ezekiel 31:5. “To mourn” is, literally, to be black, and the sense is well given in our version, although the original is more appropriate to the figure of Lebanon with its cedars. “The trees of the field” are, of course, the subordinate potentates, who are dismayed, “faint,” at Assyria’s fall. (Comp. Ezekiel 26:15-18.)

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 31:15. In the day when he went down to the grave — This, and the following verses, are an elegant description of that consternation that seized the king of Assyria’s allies, at the suddenness of his downfall; the same metaphor being still pursued. I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him — The deep, that is said to have raised up this fair tree, Ezekiel 31:4, is now described as mourning at his downfall. I restrained the floods, and the great waters were stayed — As if the streams had stopped their usual course on purpose to lament his fate. The meaning seems to be, that the great nations and numerous people under his dominions, or his confederates and allies, were all struck with astonishment at his fall. I caused Lebanon to mourn for him — By Lebanon is probably signified Syria, which was in alliance with the king of Assyria. All the trees of the field fainted for him — All the neighbouring princes lamented his ruin, and were disheartened at having lost their protector.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:10-18 The king of Egypt resembled the king of Assyria in his greatness: here we see he resembles him in his pride. And he shall resemble him in his fall. His own sin brings his ruin. None of our comforts are ever lost, but what have been a thousand times forfeited. When great men fall, many fall with them, as many have fallen before them. The fall of proud men is for warning to others, to keep them humble. See how low Pharaoh lies; and see what all his pomp and pride are come to. It is best to be a lowly tree of righteousness, yielding fruit to the glory of God, and to the good of men. The wicked man is often seen flourishing like the cedar, and spreading like the green bay tree, but he soon passes away, and his place is no more found. Let us then mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Effect of Assyria's fall.

Ezekiel 31:15

I covered the deep - To cover with sack-cloth was an expression of mourning Ezekiel 27:31. The deep, the source of Assyria's prosperity Ezekiel 31:4, was made to mourn, being dried up instead of giving forth its waters, its glad abundance.

For him - Upon his account.

Floods ... great waters - Or, rivers ... the multitude of waters (as in Ezekiel 31:4-5).

Lebanon represents the country which Assyria governed; "the trees," the tributary princes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. covered the deep—as mourners cover their heads in token of mourning, "I made the deep that watered the cedar" to wrap itself in mourning for him. The waters of the deep are the tributary peoples of Assyria (Re 17:15).

fainted—literally, were "faintness" (itself); more forcible than the verb.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

When he, the king of Assyria, the tall cedar, or the kingdom of Assyria, went down to the grave; was a man in grave; buried in its own ruins.

I caused a mourning there was much lamentation.

I covered the deep; I put the sea, i.e. either neighbouring states, or the body of is people, or the trading part of the world, into mourning for him.

The floods thereof; all public affairs; commerce and friendly intelligences were at a great stand.

The great waters were stayed; the great traffic and wealth by it, which did flow as great waters, were stayed, and living rivers were as void of motion as the Dead Sea, all was out of course. Lebanon; the field in which this cedar grew, i.e. the whole kingdom of Assyria.

All the trees of the field; all the lesser kings and princes about him.

Fainted; fell into a swoon at the news of this great and unparalleled downfall of this mighty king and kingdom, which hath been here in sacred hyperbole set forth to warn Egypt, and convince it; none can stand whom God will east down. Whether there were any portentous signs in the sea and great waters, and the rivers, and among the trees, presages of this fall, and pointed at here, I inquire not.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus saith the Lord God, in the day when he went down to the grave,.... The Assyrian monarch; when his monarchy was destroyed, and he ceased to be king, and was stripped of all his majesty, power, and authority, and was as one dead, and laid in the grave, and buried:

I caused a mourning: that is, for him, in the waters, and among the trees, among the people and the kings of the earth, as follows:

I covered the deep for him; with mourning, with thick darkness, which set him up on high Ezekiel 31:4,

and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; which made him great, Ezekiel 31:4, signifying by all this that the kingdoms of the world, comparable to the sea, of which his monarchy consisted, and all the inhabitants and people of them, comparable to floods and great waters, were affected with the fall of this great monarch, and thrown into consternation by it; not knowing what the event of things would be, stood still, and knew not what course to take; all business was stopped, especially all traffic by sea, and all trade and commerce every where; a stagnation of everything for a while:

and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him; where he was a cedar, Ezekiel 31:3, this may respect the whole empire he was head of, particularly the kingdom of Syria, on the borders of which Lebanon was; and was a part of the Assyrian empire, which must mourn and be concerned at the fall of it:

and all the trees of the field fainted for him: all the kings of the earth that were in alliance with him, or subject to him, trembled for fear that their destruction would be next; or as doubtful and concerned what would be their condition, under the yoke of another. The Targum is,

"tribulation covered the world, and the provinces were forsaken, and many people trembled, and all the kings of the people smote the shoulder because of him.''

Geneva Study Bible

Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I {g} covered the deep for him, and I restrained its floods, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

(g) The deep waters that caused him to mount so high

(meaning his great abundance and pomp) will now lament as though they were covered with sackcloth.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. Creation puts on mourning and is paralysed at Pharaoh’s fall. Lebanon is covered with blackness, and all the trees faint.

down to the grave] to Sheòl, the place of the dead.

caused a mourning] Rather: I caused to mourn, I covered the deep for him. The term “covered” (wanting in LXX.) is used as in Ezekiel 32:7, “cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof black,” having the same meaning as “caused to mourn.” The “deep” and the “floods” (rivers in Ezekiel 31:4) are those mentioned in Ezekiel 31:4, but though the ref. is to the Nile and the waters of Egypt, a universal magnitude is given to these, they are the “deep” absolutely. This deep which had nourished the great cedar is covered with mourning and paralysed by his fall, she is motionless, her waters congeal.

caused Lebanon to mourn] Lit. made Lebanon black, in mourning. The prophet’s representation naturally is not quite consistent. The home of Pharaoh, as a cedar, is Lebanon, but it is the waters of Egypt, magnified here into the “deep” absolutely, that nourish him. Hence both the deep and Lebanon, with all the trees thereon, mourn and faint (Isaiah 51:20) over his fall. What the language primarily expresses is the idea of the world-wide importance of the Egyptian power, so that, as the greatest forces of nature minister to its growth, all creation is affected by its fall. Cf. Ezekiel 32:9-10.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - I covered the deep for him. The face of the whole world of nature is painted by the prophet as sharing in the awe and terror of that tremendous fail Lebanon was made to mourn (literally, to be black), the waters failed in their channels, the trees (all that drink water) shuddered. They formed part, as it were, of the pageantry of woe at the funeral of the fallen kingdom. It is as if the prophet felt, in all its intensity, what we have learnt to call the sympathy of nature with the sorrows of humanity. It would, perhaps, be over-literal to press details; but the picture, in one of its features at least, suggests a failure of the inundation of the Nile, like that indicated in Ezekiel 30:12. Ezekiel 31:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Impression Made upon the Nations by the Fall of Asshur; and Its Application to Pharaoh

Ezekiel 31:15. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the day that he went down to hell I caused a mourning: covered the flood for his sake, and stopped its streams, and the great waters were held back: I caused Lebanon to blacken itself for him, and all the trees of the field pined for him. Ezekiel 31:16. I made the nations tremble at the noise of his fall, when I cast him down to hell to those who go into the grave: and they comforted themselves in the nether world, even all the trees of Eden, the choice and most beautiful of Lebanon, all the water-drinkers. Ezekiel 31:17. They also went with him into hell, to those pierced with the sword, who sat as his helpers in his shade among the nations. Ezekiel 31:18. Whom dost thou thus resemble in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? So shalt thou be thrust down to the trees of Eden into the nether world, and lie among uncircumcised ones with those pierced with the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his tumult, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - In order that the overthrow of the Assyrian, i.e., the destruction of the Assyrian empire, may be placed in the clearest light, a picture is drawn of the impression which it made upon the whole creation. There is no necessity to understand כּה אמר in a past sense, as in Ezekiel 31:10. What God did on the overthrow of Asshur He may even now, for the first time, make known through the prophet, for a warning to Pharaoh and the people of Israel. That this is the way in which the words are to be interpreted, is evident from the use of the perfect האבלתּי, followed by the historical imperfects, which cannot be taken in a prophetical sense, as Kliefoth supposes, or turned into futures. It is contrary to Hebrew usage to connect האבלתּי and כּסּתי together as asyndeton, so as to form one idea, viz., "to veil in mourning" as Ewald and Hvernick propose. The circumstances under which two verbs are joined together to form one idea are of a totally different kind. In this instance האבלתּי is placed first as an absolute; and in the sentences which follow, it is more specifically defined by a detail of the objects which were turned into mourning. כּסּה עליו את־תּהום cannot mean her, "to cover the flood upon (over) him" (after Ezekiel 24:7 and Ezekiel 26:19); for this is altogether unsuitable to either the more remote or the more immediate context. The tree Asshur was not destroyed by a flood, but cut down by strangers. The following clauses, "I stopped its streams," etc., show very plainly that the connection between the flood (תּהום) and the tree which had been felled is to be understood in accordance with Ezekiel 31:4. A flood, which poured its נהרות round about its plantation, made the cedar-tree great; and now that the tree has been felled, God covers the flood on its account. כּסּה is to be explained from כּסּה שׂק, to veil or wrap in mourning, as Raschi, Kimchi, Vatablus, and many others have shown. The word שׂק is omitted, because it appeared inappropriate to תּהום. The mourning of the flood is to be taken as equivalent to drying up, so that the streams which issued from it were deprived of their water. Lebanon, i.e., the cedar-forest (Isaiah 10:34), and all the other trees, mourned over the fall of the cedar Asshur. הקדּיר, to clothe in black, i.e., to turn into mourning. עלפּה is regarded by Ewald as a Pual formed after the Aramean mode, that is to say, by attaching the syllable ae instead of doubling the middle radical; whilst Hitzig proposes to change the form into עלּפּה. In any case the word must be a perfect Pual, as a nomen verbale appears unsuitable; and it must also be a third person feminine, the termination ־ה being softened into ־ה, as in זוּרה (Isaiah 59:5), and the doubling of the ל being dropped on account of the Sheva; so that the plural is construed with the singular feminine (Ewald, 317a). עלּף, to faint with grief (cf. Isaiah 51:20). The thought is the following: all nature was so painfully affected by the fall of Asshur, that the whole of the resources from which its prosperity and might had been derived were dried up. To interpret the different figures as specially relating to princes and nations appears a doubtful procedure, for the simple reason that in Ezekiel 31:16 the trembling of the nations is expressly named.

Whilst all the nations on the surface of the earth tremble at the fall of Assyria, because they are thereby warned of the perishable nature of all earthly greatness and of their own destruction, the inhabitants of the nether world console themselves with the thought that the Assyrian is now sharing their fate (for this thought, compare Ezekiel 32:31 and Isaiah 14:9-10). "All the trees of Eden" are all the powerful and noble princes. The idea itself, "trees of Eden," is explained by the apposition, "the choice and beautiful ones of Lebanon," i.e., the picked and finest cedars, and still further strengthened by the expression כּל־שׁתי (cf. Ezekiel 31:14). מבחר are connected, as in 1 Samuel 9:2; and both words are placed side by side in the construct state, as in Daniel 1:4 (cf. Ewald, 339b). They comfort themselves because they have gone down with him into Sheol, so that he has no advantage over them. They come thither to those pierced with the sword, i.e., to the princes and peoples whom Asshur slew in wars to establish his imperial power. וּזרעו might also belong to ירדוּ as a second subject. In that case ישׁבוּ בצלּו should be taken in a relative sense: "and his arm," i.e., his resources, "which sat in his shadow among the nations." With this explanation זרעו would be different from הם, and could only denote the army of the Assyrian. But this does not harmonize with the sitting in his shadow among the nations, for these words obviously point back to Ezekiel 31:6; so that זרעו is evidently meant to correspond to כּּל־גוים רבּים (Ezekiel 31:6), and is actually identical with הם, i.e., with all the trees of Eden. We therefore agree with Osiander, Grotius, and others, in regarding the whole of the second hemistich as more precisely determining the subject, - in other words, as a declaration of the reason for their descending into hell along with the Assyrians, - and render the passage thus: "for as his arm (as his might) they sat in his shadow among the nations;" so that the cop. w is used in place of a causal particle. In any case, the conjecture which Ewald has adopted from the lxx and the Syriac, viz., וזרעו, and his seed, in support of which appeal might be made to Isaiah 14:21, is unsuitable, for the simple reason that the statement, that it sat in his shadow among the nations, does not apply. - After this description of the greatness and the destruction of the imperial power of Assyria, Ezekiel repeats in Ezekiel 31:18 the question already asked in Ezekiel 31:3 : to whom is Pharaoh like? כּכה, so, i.e., under such circumstances, when the glorious cedar Asshur has been smitten by such a fate (Hitzig). The reply to this question is really contained in the description given already; so that it is immediately followed by the announcement, "and thou wilt be thrust down," etc. ערלים, uncircumcised, equivalent to ungodly heathen 'הוּא פ, not "he is," as that would require פּרעה הוּא; but הוּא is the predicate: this is (i.e., so does it happen to) Pharaoh. המונו, as in Ezekiel 31:2.