Ezekiel 31

1In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me:

2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes, ‘Whom are you like in your greatness?

3Consider Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and shady foliage, very tall, its top among the clouds.

4The waters made it grow; the deep made it tall. Its rivers flowed around the place where it was planted, and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

5So it grew taller than all the trees of the field. Its boughs multiplied and its branches grew long, because of the abundant water as it spread out.

6All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs; under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth; and in its shade all the great nations lived.

7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its roots went down to abundant water.

8The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the junipers could not compare with its boughs, and the plane trees were nothing like its branches. No tree in the garden of God could compare with it in beauty.

9I made it beautiful with its many branches, and all the trees of Eden in the garden of God envied it.

10Therefore this is what Lord Yahweh says: Because it grew so tall and set its top among the clouds, and its heart became proud of its height,

11I handed it over to the mightiest ruler of the nations. He has surely dealt with it; for its wickedness I have driven it out.

12Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in all the valleys, and its boughs lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the earth came out from its shade and left it.

13On its fallen trunk all the birds of the sky settle, and among its branches are all the animals of the field.

14This happened so that no trees by the water will ever grow so tall or set their tops among the clouds, and so that no well-watered trees will stand up so high. For all of them are handed over to death, to the world below, among human beings, with those who go down to the pit.

15This is what Lord Yahweh says: On the day it went down to Sheol I made the deep mourn for it and covered it. I held back its rivers, and the great waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.

16I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I brought it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were comforted in the world below.

17They too went down with it to Sheol, to those killed by the sword. Those who had been its strength lived in its shade among the nations.

18Which of the trees of Eden was like you in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares Lord Yahweh.’”