Ezekiel 31:10-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Because thou hast lifted up thyself Because thy pride hath still increased with thy prosperity. I have delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen Or, the mighty one of the nations, as the word גוים is rendered in the next verse. The word אל, eel, here rendered mighty one, though generally spoken of God, yet is sometimes applied to heroes, (see Ezekiel 32:21,) sometimes to angels, as excelling in strength, as Psalms 89:6. So God here says, he delivered the Assyrian into the hand of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, who, joining his forces with those of the king of Media, made himself master of Nineveh, and of the king of Assyria, whose seat it was. And the terrible of the nations have cut him off The armies of the kings of Babylon and Media shall utterly destroy him and his empire, and leave him without life or power. Upon the mountains, &c., his branches are fallen As the limbs of a tree are broken by the fall, and those that rested under its shadow are frighted away and forsake the place, so the Assyrian's power was overthrown in all the places of his dominion. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, &c. As the birds sit upon the boughs of a tree cut down, and the beasts browse upon its branches, so his dominions shall be a prey to the conquerors: or, his armies that are slain shall become meat to the birds and beasts. To the end that none of all the trees exalt themselves That his destruction may be a warning to other kings and potentates, to deter them from priding themselves in the time of their prosperity. For they are all delivered unto death The mighty men of the Assyrians were delivered to death as well as those of the meaner sort. The fall of the Assyrian was thus largely spoken of to convince the king of Egypt, if he would be instructed, that no human power, however great, was able to secure its possessor from the wrath of God and his judgments, or to maintain itself against his attacks.