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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 31:10 - 31:10
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The Felling of this Cedar, or the Overthrow of Asshur on Account of Its Pride
Eze 31:10. Therefore thus said the Lord Jehovah, Because thou didst exalt thyself in height, and he stretched his top to the midst of the clouds, and his heart exalted itself in its height, Eze 31:11. I will give him into the hand of the prince of the nations; he shall deal with him: for his wickedness I rejected him. Eze 31:12. And strangers cut him down, violent ones of the nations, and cast him away: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his shoots fell, and his boughs were broken in pieces into all the deep places of the earth; and all the nations of the earth withdrew from his shadow, and let him lie. Eze 31:13. Upon his fallen trunk all the birds of the heaven settle, and all the beasts of the field are over his branches: Eze 31:14. That no trees by the water may exalt themselves on account of their height, or stretch their top to the midst of the clouds, and no water-drinkers stand upon themselves in their exaltation: for they are all given up to death into hell, in the midst of the children of men, to those that go into the grave. - In the description of the cause of the overthrow of Asshur which commences with יַעַן אֲשֶׁר, the figurative language changes in the third clause into the literal fact, the towering of the cedar being interpreted as signifying the lifting up of the heart in his height, - that is to say, in his pride. In the first clause the tree itself is addressed; but in the clauses which follow, it is spoken of in the third person. The direct address in the first clause is to be explained from the vivid manner in which the fact presented itself. The divine sentence in Eze 31:10 and Eze 31:11 is not directed against Pharaoh, but against the Assyrian, who is depicted as a stately cedar; whilst the address in Eze 31:10, and the imperfect (future) in Eze 31:11, are both to be accounted for from the fact that the fall of Asshur is related in the form in which it was denounced on the part of Jehovah upon that imperial kingdom. The perfect אָמַר is therefore a preterite here: the Lord said...for His part: because Asshur has exalted itself in the pride of its greatness, I give it up. The form וְאֶתְנֵהוּ is not to be changed into וָאֶתְנֵהוּ, but is defended against critical caprice by the imperfect יַעֲשֶׂה which follows. That the penal sentence of God is not to be regarded as being first uttered in the time then present, but belongs to the past, - and therefore the words merely communicate what God had already spoken, - is clearly shown by the preterites commencing with גֵּרַשְׁתִּיהוּ, the historical tenses וַיִּכְרְתֻהוּ and וַיִּטְּשֻׁהוּ, and the preterite נָפְלוּ, which must not be turned into futures in violation of grammar. גָּבַהּ בְּקֹומָה does not mean, to be high in its height, which would be a tautology; but to exalt itself (be proud) in, or on account of, its height. And in the same way is רוּם also affirmed of the heart, in the sense of exultation from pride. For the fact itself, compare Isa 10:5. אֵל גֹּויִם does not mean God, but a powerful one of the nations, i.e., Nebuchadnezzar. אֵל is a simple appellative from אוּל, the strong one; and is neither a name of God nor a defective form for אֵיל, the construct state of אַיִל, a ram. For this defective form is only met with once in the case of אַיִל, a ram, namely, in Job 42:8, where we have the plural אֵלִים, and nowhere else; whereas, in the case of אֵל, אֵלִים, in the sense of a strong one, the scriptio plena very frequently alternates with the defectiva. Compare, for example, Job 42:8, where both readings occur just as in this instance, where many MSS have אֵיל (vid., de Rossi, variae lectt. ad h. l.); also Exo 15:15 and Eze 17:13, אֵילֵי, compared with אֵלֵי in Eze 32:21, after the analogy of נֵירִי, 2Sa 22:29, and גֵּירִים, 2Ch 2:16. עָשֹׂו is not a relative clause, “who should treat him ill,” nor is the w relat. omitted on account of the preceding עָשֹׂו, as Hitzig imagines; but it is an independent sentence, and יַעֲשֶׂה is a forcible expression for the imperative: he will deal with him, equivalent to, “let him deal with him.” עָשָׂה לְ, to do anything to a person, used here as it frequently is in an evil sense; compare Psa 56:5. בְּרִשְׁעֹו-or כְּרִשְׁעֹו, which Norzi and Abarbanel (in de Rossi, variae lectt. ad. h. l.) uphold as the reading of many of the more exact manuscripts and editions - belongs to גֵּרִשְׁתִּיהוּ: for, or according to, his wickedness, I rejected him.
In Eze 31:12 the figure of the tree is resumed; and the extinction of the Assyrian empire is described as the cutting down of the proud cedar. זָרִים עָרִיצֵי גֹּויִם as in Eze 28:7 and Eze 30:11-12. וַיִּטְּשֻׁהוּ: they cast him away and let him lie, as in Eze 29:5; Eze 32:4; so that in the first sentence the idea of casting away predominates, and in the second that of letting lie. By the casting away, the tree became so shattered to atoms that its boughs and branches fell upon the mountains and on the low ground and valleys of the earth, and the nations which had sat under its shadow withdrew. וַיֵּרְדוּ (they descended) is to be explained from the idea that the three had grown upon a high mountain (namely Lebanon); and Hitzig is mistaken in his conjecture that וַיֵּרְדוּ was the original reading, as נָדַד, to fly, is not an appropriate expression for עַמִּים. On the falling of the tree, the birds which had made their nests in its branches naturally flew away. If, then, in Eze 31:13, birds and beasts are said to settle upon the fallen trunk, as several of the commentators have correctly observed, the description is based upon the idea of a corpse, a מַפֶּלֶת (Jdg 14:8), around which both birds and beasts of prey gather together to tear it in pieces (cf. Eze 32:4 and Isa 18:6). הָיָה אֶל, to come towards or over any one, to be above it. The thought expressed is, that many nations took advantage of the fall of Asshur and rose into new life upon its ruins. - Eze 31:14. This fate was prepared for Asshur in order that henceforth no tree should grow up to the sky any more, i.e., that no powerful one of this earth (no king or prince) should strive after superhuman greatness and might. לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר is dependent upon גֵּרַשְׁתִּיהוּ in Eze 31:11; for Eze 31:12 and Eze 31:13 are simply a further expansion of the thought expressed in that word. עֲצֵי מַיִם are trees growing near the water, and therefore nourished by water. For 'לֹא , see Eze 31:10. The words 'וְלֹא יַעַמָדוּ are difficult. As אֵלֵיהֶם, with Tzere under א, to which the Masora calls attention, cannot be the preposition אֶל with the suffix, many have taken אליהם to be a noun, in the sense of fortes, principes, or terebinthi (vid., Isa 61:3), and have rendered the clause either ut non perstent terebinthi eorum in altitudine sua, omnes (ceterae arbores) bibentes aquam (Vatabl., Starck, Maurer, and Kliefoth), or, that their princes may not lift themselves up in their pride, all the drinkers of water (Hävernick). But both renderings founder on the simple fact that they leave the suffix הֶם in אליהם either unnoticed or unexplained. As only the trees of the water have been spoken of previously, the suffix must be taken as referring to them. But the water-trees have neither terebinths nor princes; on the contrary, these are what they must either be, or signify. Terebinths, or princes of the water-trees, would be senseless ideas. Ewald has therefore taken אֵלֵיהֶם as the object, and rendered it thus: “and (that) no water-drinkers may contend with their gods in their pride.” He has not proved, however, but has simply asserted, that עָמַד is to endure = to contend (!). The only remaining course is to follow the lxx, Targum, and many commentators, and to take אליהם as a pronoun, and point it אֲלֵיהֶם. עָמַד אֶל: to station oneself against, or upon = עָמַד עַל (Eze 33:26), in the sense of resting, or relying upon anything. The suffix is to be taken in a reflective sense, as in Eze 34:2, etc. (vid., Ewald, §314c), and precedes the noun to which it refers, as in Pro 14:20 for example. בְּגָבְהָם, as in Eze 31:10, referring to pride. כָּל־שֹׁתֵי מַיִם, the subject of the sentence, is really synonymous with כָּל־עֲצֵי מַיִם, except that the figure of the tree falls into the background behind the fact portrayed. The rendering of the Berleburg Bible is very good: “and no trees abounding in water stand upon themselves (rely upon themselves) on account of their height.” The water-drinkers are princes of this earth who have attained to great power through rich resources. “As a tree grows through the moisture of water, so men are accustomed to become proud through their abundance, not reflecting that these waters have been supplied to them by God” (Starck). The reason for this warning against proud self-exaltation is given in Eze 31:14 in the general statement, that all the proud great ones of this earth are delivered up to death. כֻּלָּם, all of them, the water-drinkers or water-trees already named, by whom kings, earthly potentates, are intended. אֶרֶץ תַּחְתִּית = אֶרֶץ תַּחְ (Eze 26:20). בְּתֹוךְ בְּנֵי אָדָם: in the midst of the children of men, i.e., like all other men. “Thus the prophet teaches that princes must die as well as the people, that death and decomposition are common to both. Hence he takes all ground of proud boasting away” (Starck).