Ezequiel 31

¹ In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me:

² »Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes: »‘Who are you like in your greatness?

³ »‘Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and forest shade, and very high, and its top was among the clouds.

⁴ »‘The waters made it grow, the deep made it high. With its rivers it continually extended all around its planting place, and sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

⁵ Therefore its height was loftier than all the trees of the field. ‘« Its boughs became many and its branches long because of many waters as it spread them out.

⁶ »‘All the birds of the heavens nested in its boughs. Under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth and all great nations lived under its shade.

⁷ »‘So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots extended to many waters.

⁸ »‘The cedars in God's garden could not match it. The cypresses could not compare with its boughs. The plane trees could not match its branches. No tree in God's garden could compare with it in its beauty.

⁹ »‘I made it beautiful with the multitude of its branches. All the trees of Eden in the garden of God were jealous of it.’

¹⁰ »The Lord Jehovah says: ‘Because it is high in stature and has set its top among the clouds, and its heart is haughty in its loftiness,

¹¹ »‘I will give it into the hand of a despot of the nations. He will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away.

¹² »‘Alien tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shade and left it.

¹³ »‘On its ruin all the birds of the heavens will dwell. All the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches

¹⁴ so that all the trees by the waters may not be exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the clouds, nor their well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. For they have all been given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.’

¹⁵ »The Lord Jehovah says: ‘On the day when it went down to the grave I caused cries of sorrow. I closed the deep over it and held back its rivers. Its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon mourn for it. All the trees of the field wilted away on account of it.

¹⁶ »‘I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I made it go down to the grave with those who go down to the pit. All the well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath.

¹⁷ »‘They also went down with it to the grave to those who were slain by the sword. Those who were its strength lived under its shade among the nations.’

¹⁸ »‘Which of the trees of Eden are you equal to in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath. You will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. So is Pharaoh and all his hordes!’ Declares the Lord Jehovah.« ’