“A great truth comes over him: Trees fall with spectacular crashes. But planting is silent and growth is invisible.”
(Richard Powers, The Overstory)
In 612 BCE, when he was 20 years old, young Ezekiel, a novice priest in the Temple of Jerusalem heard of the unimaginable fall of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, conquered by Babylon. 26 years later, 586 BCE, now an exiled elder, a refugee in Babylon, the prophet hears that Jerusalem, desperate for rescue by Egypt, is disappointed - also destroyed by Babylon as well.
The trauma of the Assyrian collapse and the brutal Babylonian takeover set the stage for Ezekiel’s worldview and political understanding of the world. The Egyptian position - secure in its own land, reluctant to get involved with other local needs, assumed arrogant and aloof - gave the prophet cause for bitter scorn and a deep sense of betrayal, depicted in these chapters.
All empires will one day vanish, he warns us, again and again. And to make his point hit home - he now uses a familiar metaphor -- the furious fate of the tallest and most noble tree, crashing down and subverting the order of creation.
Today’s chapter is also dated -- two months following the date of the previous chapter’s vision “In the eleventh year on the first day of the third month” - June 21 587 BCE. Less than a year before the final fall of Jerusalem - already under siege, and Egypt still not helping.
(Can you hear the echoes of modern day politics as political powers choose when, if, and how to intervene in the current crisis in the Middle East - with prices paid either way and blame from whichever direction?)
Ezekiel devotes this chapter to a three part tirade, in which Egypt is imagined as the tallest tree, the envy of all other trees, that nevertheless will end up bottom-up in the deepest underworld - a punishment for its arrogance.
The tree is the Cedar of Lebanon, already featured prominently in several prophetic speeches, including Isaiah, Jeremiah and even Ezekiel himself, in chapter 17. It seems to be a familiar icon of both grandeur and pride. He is addressing Egypt - but compares the tree to Assyria - still a fresh memory in the world of how the mighty might fall, and how they first rise:
הִנֵּ֨ה אַשּׁ֜וּר אֶ֣רֶז בַּלְּבָנ֗וֹן יְפֵ֥ה עָנָ֛ף וְחֹ֥רֶשׁ מֵצַ֖ל וּגְבַ֣הּ קוֹמָ֑ה וּבֵ֣ין עֲבֹתִ֔ים הָיְתָ֖ה צַמַּרְתּֽוֹ׃ מַ֣יִם גִּדְּל֔וּהוּ תְּה֖וֹם רֹמְמָ֑תְהוּ אֶת־נַהֲרֹתֶ֗יהָ הֹלֵךְ֙ סְבִיב֣וֹת מַטָּעָ֔הּ וְאֶת־תְּעָלֹתֶ֣יהָ שִׁלְחָ֔ה אֶ֖ל כׇּל־עֲצֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃
Here was Assyria - a cedar in Lebanon
With beautiful branches and shady thickets,
Of lofty stature,
With its top among leafy trees.
Waters nourished it,
The deep made it grow tall,
Washing with its streams
The place where it was planted,
Making its channels well up
To all the trees of the field.
Ezekiel 31 2-4
‘The Deep’ that is mentioned here is not just the deepest water that nourishes the tree roots but is named as ‘Tehom’ - the ancient primordial source of water that first showed up in the first moment of creation in Genesis, likely alluding to Tiamat - the Sumerian Goddess of Water and Chaos - the mother of creation.
Ezekiel reminds his listeners that Assyria rose from the cradle of civilization, the first force that became an empire, fed by a powerful and pervasive will to grow and grow and grow. He goes on to describe the luscious detail of the tree and how the other trees in what seemed to be described as the Garden of Eden - were envious of the tree that rose above them all. The mention of Eden is puzzling and some scholars claim that Ezekiel has access to other origin stories that did not make it into the final version of Genesis. Some of these versions may have included the names of trees, such as the cedar.
But Eden did not last, and neither did the tallest tree within it. The second part of this chapter describes the crash - consequences of hubris and arrogance, disconnected from its roots and other ecosystem partners, the great tree is cut down, dismembered and disgraced.
In the third and last part the great goddess of deep is once again heard weeping, the waters not nourishing the tree but lamenting its fall. The cedar is turned upside down - instead of grazing the heaven it now enters Sheol - the Semitic Underworld, where it meets all the other trees of Eden, also cut down, no longer envious of their former tormentor.
It isn’t just the cedar that will pay for the price for arrogance - the impact will be felt by each and everyone, the prophet laments - even the great goddess herself:
כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִ֗ה בְּי֨וֹם רִדְתּ֤וֹ שְׁא֙וֹלָה֙ הֶאֱבַ֜לְתִּי כִּסֵּ֤תִי עָלָיו֙ אֶת־תְּה֔וֹם וָֽאֶמְנַע֙ נַהֲרוֹתֶ֔יהָ וַיִּכָּלְא֖וּ מַ֣יִם רַבִּ֑ים וָאַקְדִּ֤ר עָלָיו֙ לְבָנ֔וֹן וְכׇל־עֲצֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה עָלָ֥יו עֻלְפֶּֽה׃
Thus said the Sovereign YHWH: On the day the cedar descended to Sheol, I closed the deep over it and covered it; I held back its streams, and the great waters were held back. I made Lebanon mourn deeply for it, and all the trees of the field languished on its account.
Ezekiel 31:15
The descent to the underworld is mentioned by other prophets - the familiar faith at the time, enduring for centuries, was that below is where we all go when we die, with various distinctions and durations. But in this chapter what’s striking is the role of the deep - the ancient mother - who first helps nourish the tree and is then accepting it back into its womb - a compost process, an underground gestation of recycling - and perhaps renewal. All the trees of Eden end up down there, envious no more, and no creature, big or small, can avoid the eventual fate of decline. Even Egypt, mighty empire, Ezekiel reminds us, will one day be swallowed by the deep.
Ezekiel’s traumatic memories of Assyria's fall now merge with the impending doom of Jerusalem, along with his rage at Egypt’s seemingly ongoing stability and strength.
One more chapter awaits, with harsh words hurled at the enduring Egyptians, once again a serpent emerges from the mythic deep, an icon of the prophet’s disappointment of this neighbor/world power that at least in Ezekiel’s lifetime - looked away, seemed to avoid defeat, and soared like a tree. Only fantasies of failure were left for the poet to dream: All empires will one day fall, but the growth of new ones is much quieter and always going on, deep within the deep.
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