Ezekiel 31

Chapter 31

Pharaoh Warned of Assyria’s Fate

¹In the ^aeleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying,

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

‘Whom are you like in your greatness?

³‘Behold, Assyria was a ^acedar in Lebanon

With beautiful branches and forest shade,

And ^1bvery high,

And its top was among the ²clouds.

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

With its rivers it continually ²extended all around its planting place,

And sent out its channels 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 heavens 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 branches;

For its ¹roots extended to many waters.

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

The ²cypresses could not compare with its boughs,

And the plane trees ³could not match its branches.

No tree in God’s garden could compare with it in its beauty.

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

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

¹⁰‘Therefore thus says the Lord ¹God, “Because ²it is high in stature and has set its top among the ³clouds, and its ^aheart is haughty in its loftiness,

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

¹²“^aAlien ^btyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; on the ^cmountains and in all the valleys its branches 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 left it.

¹³“On its ruin all the ^abirds of the heavens 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 exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the ¹clouds, nor their ²well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. 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 the Lord God, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I ^acaused lamentations; I closed 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 fall when I made it ^bgo down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the ¹well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of ^cLebanon, 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 are you thus ¹equal 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 hordes!” ’ declares the Lord God.”