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Ezekiel 31

Ezekiel uses Assyria’s fall to declare that Egypt’s greatness cannot shield it from God’s judgment against pride.

God sends Ezekiel a message for Pharaoh and Egypt’s multitude, comparing their greatness to Assyria’s former glory. Assyria appears as a towering cedar, nourished by abundant water and sheltering nations beneath its branches. God had made it great, yet its height became a source of pride. The tree is cut down, its dependents scatter, and its fall shakes the nations. The closing words turn the image toward Pharaoh: Egypt faces the same descent into death.

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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.
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 BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Ezekiel 31:3The cedar image establishes Assyria’s towering greatness, giving Pharaoh a picture of the power whose fate he will share.
Ezekiel 31:16God casts the great tree into Sheol, and the nations tremble at the collapse of its strength.
Ezekiel 31:18The final verse names Pharaoh and his multitude as the warning’s target, bringing their glory down among the slain.
Where this chapter reaches

Daniel also portrays royal greatness as a towering tree that shelters creatures before being cut down, while Genesis supplies the shared imagery of Eden and its trees. Isaiah shares the picture of a fallen ruler descending to Sheol, where death exposes the limits of earthly glory.

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After reading the whole chapter

What changes in the cedar’s story when its greatness becomes a source of pride?

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Questions people ask about Ezekiel 31

Why does Ezekiel 31 talk about Assyria in a prophecy against Egypt?

God addresses Pharaoh, then describes Assyria as a great cedar whose height led to pride and judgment. Assyria’s fall supplies the comparison Egypt must face. The final verse makes the connection explicit: Pharaoh and his multitude will share the humiliation and death pictured in the fallen tree.

What does the cedar tree represent in Ezekiel 31?

Verse 3 identifies the cedar with Assyria. Its height and spreading branches portray imperial greatness, while the nations living beneath its shade show the reach of its rule and protection. Abundant waters sustain its growth. Its cutting down depicts the destruction of that power through foreign conquerors under God’s judgment.

What does Sheol mean in Ezekiel 31?

Sheol is the realm of the dead, paired here with the pit and the lower parts of the earth. Ezekiel portrays fallen powers there as trees, joined by those slain with the sword. The imagery stresses death and humiliation; it does not provide a full account of the afterlife.

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Ezekiel · 48 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).