Psalms 83:8-9

83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,

lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. ¹  (Selah)

83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian ²  –

as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River! ³ 

Isaiah 10:12

10:12 But when ⁴  the sovereign master ⁵  finishes judging ⁶  Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I ⁷  will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ⁸ 

Isaiah 10:16

10:16 For this reason ⁹  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ¹⁰  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 11:11

11:11 At that time ¹²  the sovereign master ¹³  will again lift his hand ¹⁴  to reclaim ¹⁵  the remnant of his people ¹⁶  from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, ¹⁷  Cush, ¹⁸  Elam, Shinar, ¹⁹  Hamath, and the seacoasts. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 31:3-18

31:3 Consider Assyria, ²¹  a cedar in Lebanon, ²² 

with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,

and extremely tall;

its top reached into the clouds.

31:4 The water made it grow;

underground springs made it grow tall.

Rivers flowed all around the place it was planted,

while smaller channels watered all the trees of the field. ²³ 

31:5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field;

its boughs grew large and its branches grew long,

because of the plentiful water in its shoots. ²⁴ 

31:6 All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs;

under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,

in its shade all the great ²⁵  nations lived.

31:7 It was beautiful in its loftiness, in the length of its branches;

for its roots went down deep to plentiful waters.

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

nor could the fir trees ²⁶  match its boughs;

the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches;

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

31:9 I made it beautiful with its many branches;

all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.

31:10 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height, 31:11 I gave it over to the leader of the nations. He has judged it thoroughly, ²⁷  as its sinfulness deserves. I have thrown it out. 31:12 Foreigners from the most terrifying nations have cut it down and left it to lie there on the mountains. In all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the land ²⁸  have departed ²⁹  from its shade and left it. 31:13 On its ruins all the birds of the sky will live, and all the wild animals ³⁰  will walk ³¹  on its branches. 31:14 For this reason no watered trees will grow so tall; their tops will not reach into the clouds, nor will the well-watered ones grow that high. ³²  For all of them have been appointed to die in the lower parts of the earth; ³³  they will be among mere mortals, ³⁴  with those who descend to the pit.

31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it ³⁵  went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. ³⁶  I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. 31:16 I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to Sheol, along with those who descend to the pit. ³⁷  Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all that were well-watered, were comforted in the earth below. 31:17 Those who lived in its shade, its allies ³⁸  among the nations, also went down with it to Sheol, to those killed by the sword. 31:18 Which of the trees of Eden was like you in majesty and loftiness? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword! This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

[83:8]  ¹ tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.

[83:9]  ² tn Heb “do to them like Midian.”

[83:9]  ³ sn The psalmist alludes here to Gideon’s victory over the Midianites (see Judg 7-8) and to Barak’s victory over Jabin’s army, which was led by his general Sisera (Judg 4-5).

[10:12]  ⁴ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:12]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

[10:12]  ⁷ tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

[10:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.

[10:16]  ⁹ sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.

[10:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

[10:16]  ¹¹ tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”

[11:11]  ¹² tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[11:11]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[11:11]  ¹⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads, “the sovereign master will again, a second time, his hand.” The auxiliary verb יוֹסִיף (yosif), which literally means “add,” needs a main verb to complete it. Consequently many emend שֵׁנִית (shenit, “a second time”) to an infinitive. Some propose the form שַׁנֹּת (shannot, a Piel infinitive construct from שָׁנָה, shanah) and relate it semantically to an Arabic cognate meaning “to be high.” If the Hebrew text is retained a verb must be supplied. “Second time” would allude back to the events of the Exodus (see vv. 15-16).

[11:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “acquire”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “recover.”

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the remnant of his people who remain.”

[11:11]  ¹⁷ sn Perhaps a reference to Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt (so NIV, NLT; NCV “South Egypt”).

[11:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “Ethiopia” (NAB, NRSV, NLT).

[11:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Babylonia” (NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).

[11:11]  ²⁰ tn Or perhaps, “the islands of the sea.”

[31:3]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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).

[31:4]  ²³ tn Heb “Waters made it grow; the deep made it grow tall. It (the deep) was flowing with its rivers around the place it (the tree) was planted, it (the deep) sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.”

[31:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “when it sends forth.” Repointing the consonants of the Masoretic text would render the proposed reading “shoots” (cf. NRSV).

[31:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “many.”

[31:8]  ²⁶ tn Or “cypress trees” (cf. NASB, NLT); NIV “pine trees.”

[31:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “acting he has acted with regard to it.” The infinitive absolute precedes the main verb to emphasize the certainty and decisiveness of the action depicted.

[31:12]  ²⁸ tn Or “earth” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[31:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “gone down.”

[31:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.

[31:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “be.”

[31:14]  ³² tn Heb “and they will not stand to them in their height, all the drinkers of water.”

[31:14]  ³³ tn Heb “for death, to the lower earth.”

[31:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the sons of men.”

[31:15]  ³⁵ tn Or “he.”

[31:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “I caused lamentation.” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:194-95) proposes an alternative root which would give the meaning “I gated back the waters,” i.e., shut off the water supply.

[31:16]  ³⁷ sn For the expression “going down to the pit,” see Ezek 26:20; 32:18, 24, 29.

[31:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “its arm.”