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NASB | Ezekiel 31:6 'All the birds of the heavens nested in its boughs, And under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth, And all great nations lived under its shade. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ezekiel 31:6 'All the birds of the sky made their nests in its twigs, And under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth [to their young], And all of the great nations lived under its shadow. |
Subject: Important about Ezekiel 31 chapter |
Bible Note: I definitely agree with Tim. There is a great danger in trying to read a clearly allegorical statement in a very literal fashion ("... it doesn't say 'like'..."). As opposed to a simile, an allegory never says "like", but it is clearly not intended to be literal. How do we know that Ezekiel is being allegorical here? First a nation (Assyria) is said to be a tree ("Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon"). Now, we know it was not physically a tree, therefore we know that the author intended to convey that it was "like" a tree. Similarly, when the author says that Assyria was "higher" than all the others ("... its height was loftier than all the trees of the field...")we know he is not referring to topography. He is carrying on his allegorical description (i.e. it is 'like' a tree which is loftier than all the others). So, when the author brings forth another allegorical comparison ("all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, were jealous of it"), we have no evidentiary basis to abandon the allegory and immediately begin to take it as a didactic or declarative statement. How do we know that he intnded this particular statement allegorically? Because trees are never jealous of one another -- only humans or human institutions (i.e. states) are jealous. Much of the embarassing misinterpretation of the Bible which occurs today comes from failing to respect the context of the Word God has given us. |