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

1The LORD’s word came again to me, saying,

2“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’

3For the day is near, even the LORD’s day is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.

4A sword will come on Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt. They take away her multitude, and her foundations are broken down.

5“‘“Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the mixed people, Cub, and the children of the land that is allied with them, will fall with them by the sword.”

6“‘The LORD says: “They also who uphold Egypt will fall. The pride of her power will come down. They will fall by the sword in it from the tower of Seveneh,” says the Lord GOD.

7“They will be desolate in the middle of the countries that are desolate. Her cities will be among the cities that are wasted.

8They will know that I am the LORD when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed.

9“‘“In that day messengers will go out from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid. There will be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes.”

10“‘The Lord GOD says: “I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

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

12I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men. I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of foreigners. I, the LORD, have spoken it.”

13“‘The Lord GOD says: “I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis. There will be no more a prince from the land of Egypt. I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

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

15I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt. I will cut off the multitude of No.

16I will set a fire in Egypt Sin will be in great anguish. No will be broken up. Memphis will have adversaries in the daytime.

17The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth will fall by the sword. They will go into captivity.

18At Tehaphnehes also the day will withdraw itself, when I break the yokes of Egypt there. The pride of her power will cease in her. As for her, a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.

19Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”’”

20In the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

21“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it may become strong to hold the sword.

22Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong arm, and that which was broken. I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.

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

24I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before the king of Babylon with the groaning of a mortally wounded man.

25I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall down. Then they will know that I am the LORD when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretches it out on the land of Egypt.

26I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

Ezekiel 31

1In the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

2“Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude: ‘Whom are you like in your greatness?

3Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

4The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation. It sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

5Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied. Its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it spread them out.

6All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow.

7Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.

8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its branches. The pine trees were not like its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.

9I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’

10“Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: ‘Because he is exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick branches, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

11I will deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.

12Foreigners, the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. His branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow and have left him.

13All the birds of the sky will dwell on his ruin, and all the animals of the field will be on his branches,

14to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, and don’t set their top among the thick boughs. Their mighty ones don’t stand up on their height, even all who drink water; for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.’

15“The Lord GOD says: ‘In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers. The great waters were stopped. I caused Lebanon to mourn 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 those who descend into the pit. 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 to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, who lived under his shadow in the middle of the nations.

18“‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord GOD.”

World English Bible (WEB). World English Bible (WEB), public domain. “World English Bible” is a trademark of eBible.org.