Ezekiel 31 · Verse 8

Ezekiel 31:8

The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
Ezekiel 31:8, King James Version

Ezekiel 31:8 in other translations

BSBThe cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with its beauty.
WEBThe cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its branches. The pine trees were not like its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.
ASVThe cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir-trees were not like its boughs, and the plane-trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto it in its beauty.
YLTCedars have not hid him in the garden of God, Firs have not been like unto his boughs, And chesnut-trees have not been as his branches, No tree in the garden of God hath been like unto him in his beauty,
DARBYThe cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
BBENo cedars were equal to it in the garden of God; the fir-trees were not like its branches, and plane-trees were as nothing in comparison with its arms; no tree in the garden of God was so beautiful.
WebsterThe cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir-trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut-trees were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of God was like to him in his beauty.

What does Ezekiel 31:8 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
8. cedars ... could not hide him--could not outtop him. No other king eclipsed him. were not like--were not comparable to. garden of God--As in the case of Tyre (Eze 28:13), the imagery, that is applied to the Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered Assyria (Ge 2:10-14). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there outtopped it.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 8 The cedars in the garden of God - Egypt was one of the most eminent and affluent of all the neighboring nations.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Ezekiel 31:1-9

The glory of Assyria. (Ezek 31:1-9) Its fall, and the like for Egypt. (Ezek 31:10-18) Verses 1-9 The falls of others, both into sin and ruin, warn us not to be secure or high-minded. The prophet is to show an instance of one whom the king of Egypt resembled in greatness, the Assyrian, compared to a stately cedar. Those who excel others, make themselves the objects of envy; but the blessings of the heavenly paradise…

Read the full comment on Ezekiel 31:1-9 →

Ezekiel 31:8 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אֲרָזִ֣ים'a.ra.ZimcedarsH730
לֹֽא\־lo'-notH3808
עֲמָמֻהוּ֮'a.ma.mu.Huthey eclipsed itH6004
בְּגַן\־be.gan-in [the] garden ofH1588
אֱלֹהִים֒'E.lo.HimGodH430
בְּרוֹשִׁ֗יםbe.ro.Shimfir treesH1265
לֹ֤אlo'notH3808
דָמוּ֙da.Muthey were likeH1819
אֶל\־'el-<to>H413
סְעַפֹּתָ֔יוse.'a.po.Tavboughs itsH5589
וְעַרְמֹנִ֥יםve.'ar.mo.Nimand plane treesH6196
לֹֽא\־lo'-notH3808
הָי֖וּha.Yuthey wereH1961
כְּפֹֽארֹתָ֑יוke.fo.ro.Tavlike branches itsH6288
כָּל\־kol-everyH3605
עֵץ֙'etztreeH6086
בְּגַן\־be.gan-in [the] garden ofH1588
אֱלֹהִ֔ים'E.lo.HimGodH430
לֹא\־lo'-notH3808
דָמָ֥הda.Mahit was likeH1819
אֵלָ֖יו'e.Lav<to> itH413
בְּיָפְיֽוֹ\׃be.ya.fe.Yoin beauty itsH3308

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Ezekiel 31:8

  • Ezekiel 28:13

    Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

  • Psalms 80:10

    The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

  • Genesis 13:10

    And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

  • Isaiah 51:3

    For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

  • Genesis 2:8-9

    And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

  • Ezekiel 31:18

    To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

  • Ezekiel 31:16

    I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

  • Psalms 37:35

    I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

  • Isaiah 10:7-14

    Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; …

  • Isaiah 37:11-13

    Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

  • Isaiah 36:4-18

    And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him. But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar? …

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
cedars.
28:13; Ge 2:8; 13:10; Ps 80:10; Isa 51:3
nor any.
Ps 37:35; Isa 10:7-14; 36:4-18; 37:11-13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Ezekiel 31:7

    Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.

  • Ezekiel 31:8

    The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

  • Ezekiel 31:9

    I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

Read all of Ezekiel 31

Ezekiel 31:8 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Los cedros no lo cubrieron en el huerto de Dios: las hayas no fueron semejantes á sus ramas, ni los castaños fueron semejantes á sus ramos: ningún árbol en el huerto de Dios fué semejante á él en su hermosura.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Les cèdres dans le jardin de Dieu ne le cachaient pas, les cyprès n’égalaient point ses rameaux, et les érables n’étaient pas comme ses branches; aucun arbre dans le jardin de Dieu ne lui était semblable en beauté.
German
Elberfelder 1871
Die Cedern im Garten Gottes verdunkelten ihn nicht, Cypressen kamen seinen Zweigen nicht gleich, und Platanen waren nicht wie seine Äste; kein Baum im Garten Gottes kam ihm an Schönheit gleich.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Cedri non fuerunt altiores illo in paradiso Dei; abietes non adæquaverunt summitatem ejus, et platani non fuerunt æquæ frondibus illius: omne lignum paradisi Dei non est assimilatum illi, et pulchritudini ejus.