Ezekiel 27:5

27:5 They crafted ¹  all your planks out of fir trees from Senir; ² 

they took a cedar from Lebanon to make your mast.

Ezekiel 31:3

31:3 Consider Assyria, ³  a cedar in Lebanon, ⁴ 

with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,

and extremely tall;

its top reached into the clouds.

Ezekiel 17:3

17:3 Say to them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: ⁵ 

“‘A great eagle ⁶  with broad wings, long feathers, ⁷ 

with full plumage which was multi-hued, ⁸ 

came to Lebanon ⁹  and took the top of the cedar.

Ezekiel 17:22-23

17:22 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘I will take a sprig ¹⁰  from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it. ¹¹ 

I will pluck from the top one of its tender twigs;

I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

17:23 I will plant it on a high mountain of Israel,

and it will raise branches and produce fruit and become a beautiful cedar.

Every bird will live under it;

Every winged creature will live in the shade of its branches.

Ezekiel 31:8

31:8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it,

nor could the fir trees ¹²  match its boughs;

the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches;

no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.

[27:5]  ¹ tn Heb “built.”

[27:5]  ² tn Perhaps the hull or deck. The term is dual, so perhaps it refers to a double-decked ship.

[31:3]  ³ sn Either Egypt, or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.

[31:3]  ⁴ sn Lebanon was know for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).

[17:3]  ⁵ tn The parable assumes the defection of Zedekiah to Egypt and his rejection of Babylonian lordship.

[17:3]  ⁶ sn The great eagle symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar (17:12).

[17:3]  ⁷ tn Hebrew has two words for wings; it is unknown whether they are fully synonymous or whether one term distinguishes a particular part of the wing such as the wing coverts (nearest the shoulder), secondaries (mid-feathers of the wing) or primaries (last and longest section of the wing).

[17:3]  ⁸ tn This term was used in 16:10, 13, and 18 of embroidered cloth.

[17:3]  ⁹ sn In the parable Lebanon apparently refers to Jerusalem (17:12).

[17:22]  ⁷ sn The language is analogous to messianic imagery in Isa 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:4 although the technical terminology is not the same.

[17:22]  ⁸ tc The LXX lacks “and plant it.”

[31:8]  ⁹ tn Or “cypress trees” (cf. NASB, NLT); NIV “pine trees.”