Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday we left off with God speaking an oracle against Egypt and Pharaoh.

Today we dig into that a little deeper, starting in Chapter 31, but it's not evident right off the bat.

God is talking to Pharaoh-Hofra and the Egyptians, but he spends most of the chapter talking about

Assyria. God compares Assyria to the tallest and most significant cedar tree that has ever

existed. And until recently, Assyria was the most powerful nation in the world for approximately

300 years.

Then the giant cedar tree got chopped down by Babylon.

In verse 9, God says, I made it beautiful.

He's the one who supplied it with water for its growth and abundance.

But then in verse 11, God commands it to be chopped down.

He brought it to life, and he can bring it to an end.

Ezekiel tells this story about Assyria for two reasons. A, he wants to illustrate that no nation is indestructible.

And B, he wants to let Egypt know that they will see the same end as Assyria. They'll be chopped down too.

You may have noticed that Ezekiel has been establishing

a bit of a pattern here. After he prophesies about a nation's destruction, he tends to follow

it up with a lament. Since Chapter 31 prophesies against Pharaoh specifically, Chapter 32 is a

lament for him specifically. Pharaoh thinks of himself as a lion, an apex predator among all

the nations. But God says he's not very self-aware. He's more like a water dragon, which is the

same imagery God used for him in chapter 29. And God reiterates his promise to catch Pharaoh and

the Egyptians in his net and hurl them on to land,

where they'll be eaten by wild animals. But as we've talked about before, much of prophecy

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