Ezekiel 31

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

² “Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his vast multitude: ‘Who can be compared with you in your greatness?

³ Look, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches, a forest that gave shade, tall in stature, and its top was among the thick foliage.

⁴ The waters made it grow; the deep raised it up. Its rivers flowed around its planting place, and it sent its channels to all the trees of the field.

⁵ So it grew taller than all the trees of the field. Its boughs multiplied and its branches stretched out, because of the abundant waters as it sent them forth.

⁶ All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs, all the wild animals gave birth beneath its branches, and all the great nations lived in its shade.

⁷ It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, because its roots reached many waters.

⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not overshadow it; the cypresses were not equal to its boughs, and the plane trees were not like its branches. No tree in the garden of God could compare with it in beauty.

⁹ I made it beautiful with its many branches, and all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied it.’”

¹⁰ “‘Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: «Because you grew tall in stature, and it set its top among the thick foliage, and its heart became proud in its height,

¹¹ I handed it over to the mighty one among the nations, who would surely deal with it. Because of its wickedness, I drove it out.

¹² Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and abandoned it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys, and its branches were broken in all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth came down from its shade and abandoned it.

¹³ All the birds of the sky dwell on its fallen trunk, and all the wild animals are among its branches.

¹⁴ This was so that no tree beside the waters would grow tall in stature or set its top among the thick foliage, and that none of those drinking water would stand firm in its height. For they have all been given over to death, to the land below, among humankind, with those who go down to the pit.»

¹⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: «On the day it went down to Sheol, I made mourning. I covered the deep over it, held back its rivers, and restrained the abundant waters. Because of it I darkened Lebanon, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.

¹⁶ At the sound of its fall I made the nations tremble, when I brought it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. In the land below, all the trees of Eden were comforted—the choicest and finest of Lebanon, all those that drink water.

¹⁷ They too went down with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. Its allies, those who lived in its shade, were among the nations.

¹⁸ Who among the trees of Eden can be compared with you in glory and greatness? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the land below. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.»’”

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