Chapter 31

Ezekiel

1In the eleventh year, 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 multitude:“Whom are you like in your greatness?3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,with beautiful branches and forest shade,and of towering height,its top among the clouds.4The waters nourished it;the deep made it grow tall,making its rivers flowaround the place of its planting,sending forth its streamsto all the trees of the field.5So it towered highabove all the trees of the field;its boughs grew largeand its branches longfrom abundant water in its shoots.6All the birds of the heavensmade their nests in its boughs;under its branches all the beasts of the fieldgave birth to their young,and under its shadowlived all great nations.7It was beautiful in its greatness,in the length of its branches;for its roots went downto abundant waters.8The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,nor the fir trees equal its boughs;neither were the plane treeslike its branches;no tree in the garden of Godwas its equal in beauty.9I made it beautifulin the mass of its branches,and all the trees of Eden envied it,that were in the garden of God.

10“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. 12Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. 13On its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field. 14All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit.

15“Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it 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 world below. 17They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations.

18“Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.“This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.”

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.