Bible Strands
Ezekiel 31:11
I delivered it into the hand of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with it according to its wickedness. I have banished it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled community in Babylon, pronouncing judgment on the proud nation symbolized by the cedar. This declaration occurs between warnings about height and pride and the description of the tree's violent cutting down by foreigners.
The words — The phrase בְּיַד אֵיל גּוֹיִם (bə·yad ʾêl gō·yim) literally renders "in the hand of a leader of nations." The verb גֵּרַשְׁתִּיהוּ (gê·raš·tî·hū) carries the precise sense "I drove it out" or "I banished it."
The thread — This pattern of God delegating judgment to foreign rulers appears in Ezekiel 32:11, where the sword of the king of Babylon executes the decree, and corresponds to Daniel 5:18 regarding God granting sovereignty to Nebuchadnezzar. It reinforces the Deuteronomy 18:12 principle that detestable conduct triggers divine removal.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that political power functions only under divine allowance and that national collapse follows moral failure. It demands acceptance that judgment is neither arbitrary nor merely historical, but a direct response to wickedness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 18:12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you.
- Ezekiel 32:11 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘The sword of the king of Babylon will come against you!
- Daniel 5:18 As for you, O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness, glory and honor.
- Nahum 3:18 O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
- Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Leviticus 20:22 You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
- Judges 1:7 Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.
- Judges 16:23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Lamentations 1:21 People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have caused it. May You bring the day You have announced, so that they may become like me.