Ezekiel 31

1It was in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that Yahweh’s word came to me, saying.

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

3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and shadowy thicket, of lofty stature, its top among the dense boughs.

4The waters made it grow, the deep exalted it; its rivers flowed around its planting, and it sent its channels to all the trees of the field.

5Therefore its height rose above all the trees of the field, its boughs grew numerous and its branches stretched out amid abundant waters when it sent them forth.

6All birds of the air nested in its boughs, every beast of the field bore young under its branches, and all great nations dwelt in its shadow.

7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root reached many waters.

8Cedars in God's garden did not obscure it; fir trees did not resemble its boughs, nor chestnut trees its branches; no tree in God's garden matched it in beauty.

9I made it beautiful by the abundance of its branches, so all the trees of Eden in the garden of God envied it.

10Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have grown haughty in your height, and it has thrust its crown amid the tangled branches, and its heart has swelled in its pride.

11I will give him into the hand of a mighty one of nations; he will surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.

12Foreigners, the tyrants of the nations, cut him down and abandoned him upon the mountains and in every valley; his branches fell, his boughs broke across all the land's watercourses, while all the earth's peoples descended from his shadow and forsook him.

13All birds of the sky will dwell on his ruin, and all beasts of the field will be on his branches.

14in order that none of all the trees of waters exalt themselves in their stature, nor set their topmost branch among the thick cords, nor their mighty ones stand up in their height—all drinkers of water—for all of them have been given to death, to the nether earth in the midst of the sons of men, with those going down to the pit.

15Thus says the Lord Yahweh: On the day of his descent to Sheol, I brought mourning; I shrouded the deep for him and held back its rivers, and the great waters were dammed up; I clothed Lebanon in gloom for him, and all the trees of the field wilted over him.

16I caused the nations to tremble at the sound of his downfall when I brought him down to Sheol with those descending into the pit, and all Eden's trees—Lebanon's choicest and finest, every one that drinks water—found comfort in the earth's nether realms.

17They also descended to Sheol with him to those killed by the sword, and his helpers dwelt in his shadow among the nations.

18To whom are you so like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You will be brought down with Eden's trees to the depths of the earth, to lie amid the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword. That is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord Yahweh.