Ezekiel 31

1And it happened in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

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

3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in branches and a forest giving shade, and lofty in height; its top was among the clouds.

4Waters made it grow; the deep made it rise high. Its rivers flowed all around its planting place, and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

5Therefore its height rose above all the trees of the field, and its boughs multiplied, and its branches grew long because of abundant waters as it spread out.

6In its branches all the birds of the heavens nested, and under its boughs all the beasts of the field gave birth, and in its shade all the many nations dwelt.

7So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, because its root was by abundant waters.

8Cedars did not overshadow it in the garden of God; cypresses did not compare with its boughs, and plane trees were not like its branches. No tree in the garden of God compared with it in its beauty.

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

10Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you grew tall in stature, and set your top among the thick boughs, and his heart was lifted up in his height,

11I gave him into the hand of a mighty one of the nations; he will surely deal with him. According to his wickedness I drove him out.

12Foreigners, the ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in every valley, and its boughs were broken in all the channels of the land. Then all the peoples of the earth went down from its shade and left it.

13On its fallen trunk all the birds of the heavens will dwell, and on its boughs will be all the beasts of the field.

14so that all the trees by the waters may not grow tall in their height, and may not set their treetop among the clouds, and that none of the water-drinkers may stand over them in their height; for all of them are given over to death, to the land below, among the sons of man, with those who go down to the pit.

15Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day he went down to Sheol, I caused mourning; I covered the deep because of him, and I restrained its rivers, and the many waters were stopped. I made Lebanon grow dark because of him, and all the trees of the field fainted because of him.

16At the sound of his fall I made nations quake, when I brought him down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the earth beneath.

17They too went down with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword; its arm dwelt in its shade among the nations.

18Whom were you like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the land below; you shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.