Ezekiel 31:3, 8, 9—Eden

With reference to Ezekiel 31:3,8,9—That the Holy Land is a part of the Eden of the East, appears from certain prophecies of Ezekiel. In setting forth the certainty of the overthrow of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by the king of Babylon, the Spirit recapitulates the power and dominion of the Ninevite dynasty of Assyria; which, however, was not able to withstand the king of Babylon, "the mighty one of the heathen;" and, therefore, there was no hope for Egypt of a successful resistance. In the recapitulation, the Ninevite Assyrian is styled "a cedar in Lebanon;" that is, his dominion extended over the land of the Ten Tribes of Israel, in which are the cedar-crowned mountains of Lebanon. After describing the greatness of his power by the magnitude of the cedar, the Spirit saith, "the cedars in the Garden of Elohim could not hide him; nor was any tree in the Garden of Elohim like to him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees of Eden in the Garden of the Elohim envied him" (Ezek. 31:3,8,9). These trees were the royalties of Mesopotamia, Syria, Israel, and so forth, which the kings of Assyria had abolished (Isai. 37:11-13), and which "could not hide him," or prevent him getting the ascendancy over them. It is clear, then, from the terms of this beautiful allegory, that the countries I have indicated were parts of the Eden of the East; that as a whole it is styled the Garden of the Elohim; and that the trees are the royalties of the land.