Downfall of Egypt and Assyria
1In the eleventh year,31:1 Ezk 30:20 in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes,
‘Who are you like in your greatness?
3Think of Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon,31:3 Is 10:33–34; Ezk 17:3–4,22; 31:16
with beautiful branches and shady foliage
and of lofty height.
Its top was among the clouds.31:3 Or thick foliage, also in vv. 10,14
4The waters caused it to grow;
the underground springs made it tall,
directing their rivers all around
the place where the tree was planted
and sending their channels
to all the trees of the field.
5Therefore the cedar became greater in height
than all the trees of the field.31:5 Dn 4:11
Its branches multiplied,
and its boughs grew long
as it spread them out
because of the abundant water.31:5 Ezk 17:5
6All the birds of the sky
and all the animals of the field
gave birth beneath its boughs;
all the great nations lived in its shade.
7It was beautiful in its size,
in the length of its limbs,
for its roots extended to abundant water.
the pine trees couldn’t compare with its branches,
nor could the plane trees match its boughs.
No tree in the garden of God
could compare with it in beauty.
9I made it beautiful with its many limbs,
and all the trees of Eden,
which were in God’s garden, envied it.
10“‘Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Since it31:10 Syr, Vg; MT, LXX read you towered high in stature and set its top among the clouds, and it31:10 Lit its heart grew proud31:10 Ezk 28:17; Dn 5:20 on account of its height,
11I determined to hand it over to a ruler of nations;31:11 Ezk 30:10–11; Dn 5:18–19 he would surely deal with it. I banished it because of its wickedness.
12Foreigners, ruthless men from the nations,31:12 Ezk 28:7; 32:12 cut it down and left it lying. Its limbs fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.
13All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs.
14This happened so that no trees planted beside water would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and so that no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the underworld, among the people31:14 Or the descendants of Adam who descend to the Pit.31:14 Ezk 26:20
15“‘This is what the Lord God says: I caused grieving on the day the cedar went down to Sheol.31:15 Ezk 32:22–23 I closed off the underground deep because of it:31:15 Or I covered it with the underground deep I held back the rivers of the deep, and its abundant water was restrained. I made Lebanon mourn on account of it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.
16I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I threw it down to Sheol to be with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden,31:16 Ezk 26:15; 27:28; Hg 2:7 the choice and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were comforted31:16 Ezk 32:31 in the underworld.
17They too descended with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. As its allies31:17 LXX, Syr read offspring31:17 Lit arm they had lived in its shade among the nations.
18“‘Who then are you like in glory and greatness among Eden’s trees? You also will be brought down to the underworld to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword.31:18 Ezk 28:10; 32:19,21 This is Pharaoh and all his hordes. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’”
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