Assyria - Ezekiel 31

Ezekiel 31:3 "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs."

In speaking to Egypt, the Lord told Ezekiel to tell Egypt about Assyria and their majesty. Upon doing so, it should have been clear to Egypt that even the greatest can be brought down.

Assyria was one of four great kingdoms (monarchies) of the time. It sat where Kurdisten now stands but spread far and wide. It is also related to Nineveh where tablets with a strange form of writing has been dug up in recent years.

v5 "Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth."

Assyria is compared to the garden of God, Eden.

v8 "The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty."

But even this greatness came to nought under the judgment of God. So, Egypt would be no exception.

v16 "I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth."

It is God who raises up nations and who has the power to cast them down.

v18 "To whom 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 unto the neither parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD."