Ezekiel 31:3

31:3 Consider Assyria, ¹  a cedar in Lebanon, ² 

with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,

and extremely tall;

its top reached into the clouds.

Daniel 4:11

4:11 The tree grew large and strong.

Its top reached far into the sky;

it could be seen ³  from the borders of all the land. ⁴ 

Daniel 4:20-21

4:20 The tree that you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky, and which could be seen ⁵  in all the land, 4:21 whose foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful, and from which there was food available for all, under whose branches wild animals ⁶  used to live, and in whose branches birds of the sky used to nest –

[31:3]  ¹ 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]  ² 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).

[4:11]  ³ tn Aram “its sight.” So also v. 17.

[4:11]  ⁴ tn Or “to the end of all the earth” (so KJV, ASV); NCV, CEV “from anywhere on earth.”

[4:20]  ⁵ tn Aram “its sight.”

[4:21]  ⁶ tn Aram “the beasts of the field” (also in vv. 23, 25, 32).