Ezekiel 31

The towering cedar

1In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude: Who can compare with you in greatness? 3Look at Assyria: a cedar in Lebanon,
with beautiful branches, a shaded thicket,
and towering height,
its top among the clouds. 4Water made it grow;
the deep made it tall.
Its rivers flowed around the planting,
and it sent its channels
to all the trees of the field. 5So it towered above all the trees of the field.
Its boughs multiplied,
its branches grew long,
spreading out with abundant water. 6All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs;
all the beasts of the field gave birth beneath its branches.
All the great nations lived in its shade. 7It was beautiful in its greatness
and in the length of its branches,
for its roots reached abundant water. 8Cedars in God’s garden could not rival it.
Junipers could not match its boughs,
nor plane trees its branches.
No tree in God’s garden matched its beauty. 9I made it beautiful with its many branches,
and all the trees of Eden in God’s garden envied it.

The tree brought down

10“Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you grew so tall, and it lifted its top among the clouds, its heart proud of its height, 11I handed it over to a mighty ruler of nations, who would surely deal with it. I drove it out because of its wickedness. 12Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, cut it down and abandoned it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs broke in all the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it. 13All the birds of the sky settle on its fallen trunk, and all the beasts of the field rest on its branches. 14This happened so that no well-watered tree would exalt itself in height or lift its top among the clouds, and no water-drinking tree would stand proud in its height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among human beings who descend to the pit.

Descent to the dead

15“This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day it went down to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep for it, held back its rivers, and stopped the great waters. I darkened Lebanon over 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 descend to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all that drank water, were comforted in the world below. 17They too went down with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword—its allies who lived in its shade among the nations. 18“Which tree of Eden compares with 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 slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.”