Ezekiel Chapter 31
A Cedar in Lebanon
1 The first day, third month, eleventh year, a message from Yahveh came to me:
2 “Son of man, tell Pharaoh and his large host,
‘Who is as great as you?
3 Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon
with beautiful branches and forest shade
and its top in the clouds.
4 The water made it grow, the underground water made it tall;
rivers continually flowed where it was planted;
it sent out its channels to all the trees.
5 So it was taller than any other tree.
It grew lots of long branches
because it had plenty of water;
it spread them out.
Ezek 31:1-5
6 Birds nested in it;
animals from the countryside gave birth under it;
all the nations lived in its shade.
7 So it was beautiful in its size and the length of its branches,
because its roots went down to abundant water.
8 The cedars in God’s forest couldn’t match it;
the cypress couldn’t compare with its branches;
the trees in the plane couldn’t equal its limbs.
No tree in God’s forest could compare with its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful with its many big branches;
all the trees in Eden, which were in God’s orchard,
were jealous of it.
Ezek 31:6-9
10 ‘So the Lord Yahveh says, “Because it was tall with its top in the clouds and was proud of its height, 11 I’ll give it to a despot to deal with according to the sinfulness it deserves. 12 Foreign tyrants will cut it down and leave its limbs on the mountains and in the valleys. They’ll lie piled up in the ravines. Everybody on earth will leave its shade. 13 Birds will live on its remains, and animals will be on its fallen branches. 14 None of the trees beside water will grow tall and set their tops in the clouds or their terebinth trees stand tall in their height. They’ll die, given over to the underworld among mortals.”
Ezek 31:10-14
15 ‘The Lord Yahveh says, “When it goes down to Sheol, I’ll chant dirges, close the deep over it, and hold back its many streams. I’ll cover Lebanon with gloom for it, and the trees will wither away because of it. 16 The nations will shake from the sound of its fall when I send it down to the Pit. The well-watered trees of Eden, Lebanon’s best, will find comfort in the nether world. 17 They’ll go down with it to those slain by the sword, who were its strength and lived under its shade among the nations. 18 Which of Eden’s trees equals you in size and beauty? Yet you’ll go down with Eden’s trees to the underworld and lie among the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. That’s the way it will be with Pharaoh and his large army!”’”
Ezek 31:15-18