Downfall of Egypt and Assyria
31 In the eleventh year,(A) 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 hordes:
Who are you like in your greatness?
3 Think of Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon,(B)
with beautiful branches and shady foliage
and of lofty height.
Its top was among the clouds.[a]
4 The waters caused it to grow;
the underground springs made it tall,
directing their rivers all around
the place where the tree was planted
and sending their channels
to all the trees of the field.
5 Therefore the cedar became greater in height
than all the trees of the field.(C)
Its branches multiplied,
and its boughs grew long
as it spread them out
because of the plentiful water.(D)
6 All the birds of the sky
nested in its branches,(E)
and all the animals of the field
gave birth beneath its boughs;
all the great nations lived in its shade.
7 It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its limbs,
for its roots extended to abundant water.
8 The cedars in God’s garden could not rival it;(F)
the pine trees couldn’t compare with its branches,
nor could the plane trees match its boughs.
No tree in the garden of God
could compare with it in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful with its many limbs,
and all the trees of Eden,
which were in God’s garden, envied it.
10 “Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Since it[b] became great in height and set its top among the clouds,[c] and it[d] grew proud(G) on account of its height, 11 I determined to hand it over to a ruler of nations;(H) he would surely deal with it. I banished it because of its wickedness. 12 Foreigners, ruthless men from the nations,(I) cut it down and left it lying. Its limbs fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it. 13 All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs. 14 This happened so that no trees planted beside water would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds,[e] and so that no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the underworld, among the people who descend to the Pit.(J)
15 “This is what the Lord God says: I caused grieving on the day the cedar went down to Sheol.(K) I closed off the underground deep because of it:[f] I held back the rivers of the deep, and its abundant waters were restrained. I made Lebanon mourn on account of it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I threw it down to Sheol to be with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden,(L) all the well-watered trees, the choice and best of Lebanon, were comforted(M) in the underworld. 17 They too descended with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. As its allies[g][h] they had lived in its shade among the nations.
18 “Who then are you like in glory and greatness among Eden’s trees? You also will be brought down to the underworld to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword.(N) This is Pharaoh and all his hordes”—the declaration of the Lord God.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 31:3 Or thick foliage
- Ezekiel 31:10 Syr, Vg; MT, LXX read you
- Ezekiel 31:10 Or thick foliage
- Ezekiel 31:10 Lit its heart
- Ezekiel 31:14 Or thick foliage
- Ezekiel 31:15 Or I covered it with the underground deep
- Ezekiel 31:17 LXX, Syr read offspring
- Ezekiel 31:17 Lit arm
Cross references
- 31:1 : Ezk 30:20
- 31:3 : Is 10:33-34; Ezk 17:3-4, 22; 31:16
- 31:5 : Dn 4:11
- 31:5 : Ezk 17:5
- 31:6 : Ezk 17:23; Dn 4:12, 21; Mt 13:32
- 31:8 : Gn 2:8; Is 51:3; Ezk 28:13
- 31:10 : Ezk 28:17; Dn 5:20
- 31:11 : Ezk 30:10-11; Dn 5:18-19
- 31:12 : Ezk 28:7; 32:12
- 31:14 : Ezk 26:20
- 31:15 : Ezk 32:22-23
- 31:16 : Ezk 26:15; 27:28; Hg 2:7
- 31:16 : Ezk 32:31
- 31:18 : Ezk 28:10; 32:19, 21