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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 31:15 - 31:15
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Impression Made upon the Nations by the Fall of Asshur; and Its Application to Pharaoh
Eze 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. Eze 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. Eze 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. Eze 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 כֹּה אָמַר in a past sense, as in Eze 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 הֶאֱבַלְתִּי, 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 הֶאֱבַלְתִּי and כִּסֵּתִי together as asyndeton, so as to form one idea, viz., “to veil in mourning” as Ewald and Hävernick propose. The circumstances under which two verbs are joined together to form one idea are of a totally different kind. In this instance הֶאֱבַלְתִּי 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. כִּסָּה עָלָיו אֶת־תְּהֹום cannot mean her, “to cover the flood upon (over) him” (after Eze 24:7 and Eze 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 (תְּהֹום) and the tree which had been felled is to be understood in accordance with Eze 31:4. A flood, which poured its נַהֲרֹות round about its plantation, made the cedar-tree great; and now that the tree has been felled, God covers the flood on its account. כִּסָּה is to be explained from כִּסָּה שַׂק, to veil or wrap in mourning, as Raschi, Kimchi, Vatablus, and many others have shown. The word שַׂק is omitted, because it appeared inappropriate to תְּהֹום. 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 (Isa 10:34), and all the other trees, mourned over the fall of the cedar Asshur. הִקְדִּיר, to clothe in black, i.e., to turn into mourning. עֻלְפֶּה 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 עֻלָּפָּה. 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 זוּרֶה (Isa 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). עֻלַּף, to faint with grief (cf. Isa 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 Eze 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 Eze 32:31 and Isa 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 כָּל־שֹׁתֵי (cf. Eze 31:14). מִבְחַר are connected, as in 1Sa 9:2; and both words are placed side by side in the construct state, as in Dan 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. וּזִרֹעֹו might also belong to יָרְדוּ as a second subject. In that case יָשְׁבוּ בְצִלֹּו 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 זְרֹעֹו would be different from הֵם, 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 Eze 31:6; so that זְרֹעֹו is evidently meant to correspond to כָֹּּל־גויִם רַבִּים (Eze 31:6), and is actually identical with הֵם, 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., וְזַרְעֹו, and his seed, in support of which appeal might be made to Isa 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 Eze 31:18 the question already asked in Eze 31:3 : to whom is Pharaoh like? כָּכָה, 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. עֲרֵלִים, uncircumcised, equivalent to ungodly heathen 'הוּא פ, not “he is,” as that would require פַּרְעֹה הוּא; but הוּא is the predicate: this is (i.e., so does it happen to) Pharaoh. הֲמֹונֹו, as in Eze 31:2.