Ezekiel 31:3–9

³What about Assyria? 

It was a cedar in Lebanon 

with fine branches that shaded the forest. 

It was very tall. 

Its top was among the clouds. 

⁴Water made the tree grow, 

and underground springs made it tall. 

Rivers flowed around the place where the tree was planted. 

Streams ran beside all the other trees around it. 

⁵That is why it grew taller than all the other trees in the field. 

Its branches became large and long because of so much water. 

⁶All the birds made their nests in its branches. 

All the wild animals gave birth to their young under it. 

All the powerful nations lived in its shade. 

⁷So the tree was big and beautiful with its long branches. 

Its roots reached down to many sources of water. 

⁸The cedar trees in God’s garden couldn’t compare to it. 

The pine trees couldn’t equal its branches. 

The plane trees couldn’t measure up to its branches. 

All the trees in God’s garden couldn’t match its beauty. 

⁹I was the one who made it beautiful with its many branches. 

This tree was the envy of all the trees in Eden, in God’s garden.