Ezekiel 31

CHAPTER 31

Egypt Will Be Brought Down to Sheol

¹Now it happened in the ^aeleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his ^amultitude,

‘To whom do you liken yourself in your greatness?

³‘Behold, Assyria was a ^acedar in Lebanon

With beautiful branches and forest shade

And ^blofty in height,

And its top was among the ¹clouds.

⁴‘The ^awaters made it grow; the ¹deep made it high.

With its rivers it was going all around its planting place

And sent out its conduits to all the trees of the field.

⁵‘Therefore ^aits height was loftier than all the trees of the field,

And its boughs became many and its branches long

Because of ^bmany waters ¹as it spread them out.

⁶‘All the ^abirds of the sky nested in its boughs,

And 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 foliage;

For its ¹roots extended to many waters.

⁸‘The ^acedars in ^bGod’s garden ¹could not match it;

The ²cypresses ³could not liken themselves with its boughs,

And the plane trees were not like its branches.

No tree in ^cGod’s garden ⁴could liken itself with it in its beauty.

⁹‘I made it beautiful with the multitude of its foliage,

And all the trees of ^aEden, which were in the ^bgarden of God, were jealous of it.

¹⁰‘Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because ¹it is lofty in height and has put its top among the ²clouds, and its ^aheart is high up in its loftiness,

¹¹therefore I will give it into the hand of a ^1adominant one of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have ^bdriven it away.

¹²“^aStrangers—^bruthless ones of the nations have cut it down and abandoned it; on the ^cmountains and in all the valleys its foliage have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have ^dgone down from its shade and abandoned it.

¹³“On its downfall all the ^abirds of the sky will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches

¹⁴so that all the trees by the waters may not be lofty in their height, nor put their top among the ¹clouds, nor their dominant ones—all the ²well-watered ones—stand in their loftiness. For they have all been given over to death, to the ^aearth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.”

¹⁵‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I ^acaused mourning; I covered it with the ¹deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon ²mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it.

¹⁶“I made the nations ^aquake at the sound of its downfall when I made it ^bgo down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of ^cLebanon, all the ¹well-watered ones, were ^dcomforted in the earth beneath.

¹⁷“They also ^awent down with it to Sheol to those who were ^bslain by the sword; and those who were its ¹strength lived ^cunder its shade among the nations.

¹⁸“To which among the trees of Eden do you thus liken yourself 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 ^auncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. ^bSo is Pharaoh and all his multitude!” ’ declares Lord Yahweh.”