diff --git a/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_31:1-18.md b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_31:1-18.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02a5195 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_31:1-18.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ ++++ +title = "Ezekiel 31:1–18" +date = "2023-06-01" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel31.1-18) + +Chapter 31 is a prophecy against Pharaoh, but it is a little strange in that +it is mostly not about him. Instead, Egypt is compared to Assyria, a great +empire that had fallen in the previous century to Babylon. There are apparently +some scholars who think "Assyria" was a one-letter copy error, and it should +be translated as "cypress" to make the whole passage about Egypt directly. I'm +not conviced by that. The wording of the question in verse 2 still makes sense +when "Assyria" is the answer. + +Assyria stood tall and proud like a cedar of Lebanon. Such trese grew hundreds +of feet tall and were prized for their lumber. Their boughs provided homes +for birds and shade for the beasts of the field, which are compared to the +smaller nations surrounding it. Not even the trees in the Garden of Eden were +as beautiful and great as this tree. + +But that made Assyria the tree proud. Its top rose higher than the clouds and +its pride caused God to bring it low. A foreign nation cuts down the tree, and +the birds and beasts dwell on the fallen trunk . No longer will a tree grow +that tall, and all the other trees take notice and quake at the disaster that +has befallen Assyria. + +So then, the question is asked of Egypt again: "Whom are you like in glory and +greatness?" And the answer is still "Assyria", for the same fate will befall +them. + +* * * + +Human pride always seeks to supplant Your deserved greatness. Show us the error +of our ways.