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Genesis 11 describes the tower of Babel reaching toward the heavens as a symbol of human hubris. Ezekiel 31 uses similar language to depict Assyria as a lofty cedar whose height reflects similarly excessive pride and downfall.
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Genesis 11:4
Hebrew Bible
2 When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Ezekiel 31:10
Hebrew Bible
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it, nor could the fir trees match its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches; no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty. 9 I made it beautiful with its many branches; all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it. 10 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height, 11 I gave it over to the leader of the nations. He has judged it thoroughly, as its sinfulness deserves. I have thrown it out.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The cedar of Ezekiel 31:10 set its top 'among the clouds.' The Old Greek of Daniel 4:8 combines the imagery of Ezekiel and the Masoretic text of Daniel here; 'Its top came close to heaven and its trunk to the clouds.' The human attempt to scale heaven is a recurring biblical metaphor for hubris, beginning with the tower of Babylon in Genesis 11. The taunt of the Day Star, Helal ben Shachar, is applied to the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14. The motif of inordinate exaltation figures prominently in the second half of Daniel (8:10-11; 11:36) ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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