Eze 31:1
31:1 And it came to pass in the {a} eleventh year, in the third
     [month], in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word
     of the LORD came to me, saying,

     (a) Of Zedekiah's reign, or of Jeconiah's captivity.

Eze 31:2
31:2 Son of man, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his
     multitude; Whom art thou {b} like in thy greatness?

     (b) Meaning that he was not the same in strength to the
         king of the Assyrians whom the Babylonians overcame.

Eze 31:4
31:4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with
     her rivers running round his plants, and sent out her {c}
     little rivers to all the trees of the field.

     (c) Many other nations were under their dominion.

Eze 31:8
31:8 The cedars in the garden {d} of God could not hide him: the
     fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees
     were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of
     God was like him in his beauty.

     (d) Signifying that there was no greater power in the world
         than his was.

Eze 31:11
31:11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the {e}
      mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him:
      I have driven him out for his wickedness.

      (e) That is, of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the monarch and
          only ruler of the world.

Eze 31:12
31:12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him
      off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the
      valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are {f}
      broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people
      of the earth have gone down from his shadow, and have left
      him.

      (f) By this is signified the destruction of the power of
          the Assyrians by the Babylonians.

Eze 31:15
31:15 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.

Eze 31:16
31:16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when
      I cast him down to the grave with them that descend into
      the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of
      Lebanon, all that drink water, shall {h} be comforted in
      the lower parts of the earth.

      (h) To cause this destruction of the king of Assyria to
          seem more horrible, he sets forth other kings and
          princes who are dead, as though they rejoiced at the
          fall of such a tyrant.

Eze 31:18
31:18 To whom {i} art thou thus like in glory and in greatness
      among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down
      with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth:
      thou shalt lie in the midst of the {k} uncircumcised with
      [them that are] slain by the sword. This [is] Pharaoh and
      all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

      (i) Meaning that Pharaoh's power was nothing so great as
          his was.
      (k) Read Eze 28:10.