Ezekiel 31:3–9

³You are like mighty Assyria,

which was once like a cedar of Lebanon,

with beautiful branches that cast deep forest shade

and with its top high among the clouds.

⁴Deep springs watered it

and helped it to grow tall and luxuriant.

The water flowed around it like a river,

streaming to all the trees nearby.

⁵This great tree towered high,

higher than all the other trees around it.

It prospered and grew long thick branches

because of all the water at its roots.

⁶The birds nested in its branches,

and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth.

All the great nations of the world

lived in its shadow.

⁷It was strong and beautiful,

with wide-spreading branches,

for its roots went deep

into abundant water.

⁸No other cedar in the garden of God

could rival it.

No cypress had branches to equal it;

no plane tree had boughs to compare.

No tree in the garden of God

came close to it in beauty.

⁹Because I made this tree so beautiful,

and gave it such magnificent foliage,

it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden,

the garden of God.