Ezekiel 31
31
Egypt is not Assyria
1In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the LORD’s word came to me: 2Human one, say to Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, and his troops:
With whom do you compare in your greatness?
3Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon:
beautiful branches, dense shade, towering height;
indeed, its top went up between the clouds.
4Waters nourished it; the deep raised it up,
because its streams flowed around the place where it was planted.
From there, water trickled down to all the other trees of the field.
5And so it became higher than all the trees of the field.
Its branches became abundant; its boughs grew long.
Because of the plentiful water, it grew freely.
6All the birds in the sky made nests in its branches;
all the beasts of the field gave birth under its boughs,
and in its shade, every great nation lived.
7It became beautiful in its greatness and in its lush foliage,
because it took root in plentiful water.
8No cedar was its equal in God’s garden.
The fir trees didn’t have anything like its branches,
and the plane trees had nothing like its boughs.
None of the trees in God’s garden could compare to it in its beauty.
9As for its beauty—I made it so, with its abundant foliage.
All the trees of Eden envied it,
all that were in God’s garden.
10So now the LORD God proclaims:
Consider the fate of those who tower high!
When it allowed its branches to reach up among the clouds,
it became arrogant.
11So I handed it over
to the most powerful nation,
who continually acted treacherously against it.
I banished it!
12Foreigners, the worst of the nations, cut it down
and left it to lie among the hills.
All its branches fell among the valleys,
and its boughs were broken off in the earth’s deep ravines.
All the earth’s peoples departed from its shade and abandoned it.
13On its trunk roost all the birds in the sky,
and on its boughs lie all the beasts of the field.
14All this has happened so that no other well-watered tree would tower high or allow its branches to reach among the clouds. Nor would their leaders achieve the towering stature of such well-watered trees. Certainly, all of them are consigned to death, to the world below,#31.14 Or the land of the lowest places among human beings who go down to the pit.
15The LORD God proclaims: On the day that it went down to the underworld,#31.15 Heb Sheol I caused mourning. I blocked off the deep sea against it. I dried up its rivers and restrained the mighty waters. I made Lebanon go into mourning for it, and all the trees of the field languished on its account. 16When it was felled, the nations quaked at the sound. When I cast it down into the underworld, with those who go down to the pit, all the trees of Eden were comforted in the world below, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all the trees that depended on water. 17His allies,#31.17 Or his arms those among the nations who lived under his shade, these also went down with him to the underworld, to those who are slain by the sword.
18Are you like any of these in glory or greatness among Eden’s trees? Then you too will go down with Eden’s trees to the world below. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and his entire horde. This is what the LORD God says.
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Ezekiel 31: CEB
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