Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
The word is directed to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude, his people and his host. It confronts them with the challenge of whom or what ruler or kingdom matches their greatness, asking whom Pharaoh resembles in his greatness. It was spoken while Egypt was struggling with Babylon for supremacy. It belongs to the prophecies of judgment against Egypt, declaring the certain overthrow and fate of Pharaoh and his host, whose pride God would bring low.
It holds up Assyria as a warning, that as Assyria was overthrown by the Chaldeans so Egypt would also be overthrown. It announces that Egypt would lose its power over other nations, be brought low, and become the basest of kingdoms. Though Egypt had once been one of the greatest kingdoms and even the greatest empire on earth, that humiliation was literally fulfilled. The related predictions belonging to the same judgment, that its rivers would dry up and its idols would be abolished, were fulfilled as well.
Its comparisons, including the image of Assyria as a lofty cedar, are figurative, and its clear lesson is Egypt's coming overthrow, not a teaching about Eden or the afterlife. In its symbolism mountain means government or kingdom and the high places of the forest mean the supremacy of Gentile rule, proving that the government and kingdom of Israel was to be uprooted and abolished and Gentile enemies would rule in its place. It announces that Egypt would become subject to the mighty monarch of Assyria. By that subjugation Egypt imbibed Babylonian ideas of government, religion, and education, which did not reveal the true God as He is but bore the marks of an apostate power, teaching pantheistically that God is found in everything animate and inanimate.
The word is directed to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude, his people and his host. It confronts them with the challenge of whom or what ruler or kingdom matches their greatness, asking whom Pharaoh resembles in his greatness. It was spoken while Egypt was struggling with Babylon for supremacy. It belongs to the prophecies of judgment against Egypt, declaring the certain overthrow and fate of Pharaoh and his host, whose pride God would bring low.
It holds up Assyria as a warning, that as Assyria was overthrown by the Chaldeans so Egypt would also be overthrown. It announces that Egypt would lose its power over other nations, be brought low, and become the basest of kingdoms. Though Egypt had once been one of the greatest kingdoms and even the greatest empire on earth, that humiliation was literally fulfilled. The related predictions belonging to the same judgment, that its rivers would dry up and its idols would be abolished, were fulfilled as well.
Its comparisons, including the image of Assyria as a lofty cedar, are figurative, and its clear lesson is Egypt's coming overthrow, not a teaching about Eden or the afterlife. In its symbolism mountain means government or kingdom and the high places of the forest mean the supremacy of Gentile rule, proving that the government and kingdom of Israel was to be uprooted and abolished and Gentile enemies would rule in its place. It announces that Egypt would become subject to the mighty monarch of Assyria. By that subjugation Egypt imbibed Babylonian ideas of government, religion, and education, which did not reveal the true God as He is but bore the marks of an apostate power, teaching pantheistically that God is found in everything animate and inanimate.