Ezekiel 31

1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the Lord’s word came to me.

2 “Son of man, ask Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude, ‘To whom do you compare yourself in your height?’”

3 “Look, Assyria was a cypress in Lebanon, beautiful in its shoots and tall in stature, with its top reaching into the clouds.”

4 “Water nourished it, and the deep made it grow tall. The deep led its rivers around the tree’s planting and sent its streams to all the field’s trees.”

5 “So its height rose above all the field’s trees, and its branches spread far because of the abundant water.”

6 “All the sky’s birds nested in its boughs, all the field’s wild animals bred beneath its branches, and a multitude of nations lived in its shade.”

7 “It was beautiful in its height and multitude of branches because its roots were amid abundant water.”

8 “Even the cypresses in God’s garden could not compare with it. No pine had shoots like its shoots, and no fir had branches like its branches. No tree in God’s garden matched its beauty.”

9 “Because of its many branches, the trees in God’s garden of Delight envied it.”

10 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says: Because it grew great, set its top among the clouds, and I saw it exalted,”

11 “I handed it over to the ruler of the nations, who destroyed it.”

12 “Foreigners, violent men from the nations, cut it down and threw it down on the mountains. Its branches fell in every valley, and its boughs were broken in every field of the land. All the peoples of the nations came down from its shelter and laid it low.”

13 “All the sky’s birds settled on its fallen trunk, and all the field’s wild animals came onto its branches.”

14 “This happened so that no tree beside the water would exalt itself because of its size or set its top among the clouds. None of the trees that drink water would remain in its lofty position. All were handed over to death in the earth’s depths among humanity, with those who descend to the pit.”

15 “This is what the Lord God says: On the day it descended to Hades, the deep mourned for it. I stopped her floods and restrained her abundant waters. Lebanon grew dark over it, and all the field’s trees grew faint over it.”

16 “The nations shook at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to Hades with those who descend to the pit. All the trees of Delight and the choice trees of Lebanon, all that drink water, comforted it in the earth below.”

17 “They too descended to Hades with it, among those killed by the sword. Its offspring, those who lived in its shade, perished in the midst of their life.”

18 “To whom can you be compared? Go down, and be brought down with the trees of Delight to the depths of the earth. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword. So it is with Pharaoh and the whole multitude of his strength, says the Lord God.”