I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below.
This is a funeral heard across the world. God points Pharaoh to Assyria, the towering cedar He Himself cut down. Two questions press. Whose hand brought the tree down? And why do the dead kings below take comfort when it arrives?
The tree as a nation
Throughout this chapter, the trees are not scenery. A reference work on Bible terms explains both the image and the strange "comfort" this verse describes:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe fall of Pharaoh, pictured as a tall tree, is said to comfort the trees of Eden, which is called the 'garden of God' (Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 28:13; Ezekiel 31:9, 16, 18). God planted the trees of Eden, so in this last passage they stand for the various nations God placed in the earth, with Israel at the centre (Deuteronomy 32:8).
Who felled the cedar
The verse does not say the cedar fell. It says God cast it down. Greatness is a loan, and God calls it in:
William KellyGod controls and governs, not only in the things that belong to Him but in the things of man. As the cedar of Lebanon stood among the trees for height, size, spread of shade and beauty, so had the Assyrian stood among the nations. God had withheld nothing that could adorn or enlarge Nineveh, or the people whose capital it was. He even gave it enormous far-reaching power and influence over the countries around, so that all envied it. But the Assyrian wanted for himself the glory of a king of kings, and this lifting up of his heart in his height brought his doom on him.
The crash the nations heard
The falling tree preaches. One commentator asks what the watching nations were meant to learn:
Numerical Bible NotesAll the peoples of the earth had gone down from his shadow and had left him. This was no disaster without explanation. It was a warning against pride, one that God's sure government preaches everywhere, and all around felt it, if only for the moment. In fact, were they not all following in the same path? That could only press home Sheol's claim on them — the claim of the unseen world that gathers men on every side. For the wheel surely turns, as Ezekiel has told us again and again, and the one who is lifted up is exalted only for a moment, then must come down to the lower parts of the earth.
Why Pharaoh must look at Assyria's grave
This chapter speaks to Egypt, not to Assyria. Assyria is only the exhibit:
William KellyThe prophet next shows us the ruin of Egypt in striking pictures. The downfall of the Assyrian, the greatest of earth's kings in that day, is an awful warning, and it applies to Pharaoh's kingdom. It shows the principle Scripture uses so often with people: the Lord brings down the proud as He lifts up the lowly.
Sheol and the pit
The verse names two places — Sheol and the pit. One writer describes the same scene in the next chapter:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWe look here into Sheol and see the nations gathered there, stripped of their glory, in the deepest humiliation and shame. Their bodies are in the pit, the grave, and their souls in Sheol, the unseen regions. God's patience with them ran out. The measure of their wickedness became full. Then judgments swept them off the earth, and they passed away and went down into Sheol.
He also notes a reversal. Here the dead nations take comfort when Pharaoh comes down; in chapter 32 Pharaoh takes comfort when he finds them there.
Cold comfort
What kind of comfort is this? Company in ruin, nothing more:
William KellyThe once mighty ruler and his crowds are now weak and pitiful in the lower parts of the earth, yes, in Sheol like all who had fallen before him. He has no better comfort than this: that he and his people share the doom that princes and peoples cannot escape.
One commentator looks past the grave to what lasts:
Numerical Bible NotesTrue, if we follow this out, we shall find that in God's thought there is a resurrection also, and that whatever is permanent in blessing lies in this for us. But man's view in general does not reach that far, and where the lesson is not accepted, the blessing itself is not reached.
Summary
- Planted. The cedar was no self-made power. God gave Assyria everything that made it envied. The trees of Eden stand for nations God Himself placed on the earth.
- Lifted. Height brought the axe, not weakness. The Assyrian's heart was lifted up in his own greatness, and that brought his doom.
- Felled. The verse gives God as the actor: He made the nations quake, He cast it down. History's loudest collapses are His sermons against pride.
- Heard. All around felt the crash as a warning, and Egypt hears the same warning. The wheel turns, and the exalted come down.
- Comforted. The comfort in Sheol is the poorest kind: not rescue, only company in a shared doom. Lasting blessing lies in resurrection, and those who refuse the lesson never reach it.