Yehezkiel 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.

Zefanya 2:13

2:13 The Lord ³  will attack the north ⁴ 

and destroy Assyria.

He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;

it will be as barren ⁵  as the desert.

[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).

[2:13]  ³ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”

[2:13]  ⁵ tn Or “dry.”