Add parallel Print Page Options

10 “‘While I was lying in my bed, this is what I dreamed. I saw a large tree in the middle of the earth.

Read full chapter

10 These are the visions I saw while lying in bed:(A) I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous.(B)

Read full chapter

But one night I had a dream that frightened me; I saw visions that terrified me as I lay in my bed.

Read full chapter

I had a dream(A) that made me afraid. As I was lying in bed,(B) the images and visions that passed through my mind(C) terrified me.(D)

Read full chapter

20 The tree you saw was growing very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see. 21 It had fresh green leaves and was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade, and birds nested in its branches. 22 That tree, Your Majesty, is you. For you have grown strong and great; your greatness reaches up to heaven, and your rule to the ends of the earth.

23 “‘Then you saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, “Cut down the tree and destroy it. But leave the stump and the roots in the ground, bound with a band of iron and bronze and surrounded by tender grass. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with the animals of the field for seven periods of time.”

24 “‘This is what the dream means, Your Majesty, and what the Most High has declared will happen to my lord the king. 25 You will be driven from human society, and you will live in the fields with the wild animals. You will eat grass like a cow, and you will be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses. 26 But the stump and roots of the tree were left in the ground. This means that you will receive your kingdom back again when you have learned that heaven rules.

Read full chapter

20 The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, 21 with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds(A) 22 Your Majesty, you are that tree!(B) You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth.(C)

23 “Your Majesty saw a holy one,(D) a messenger, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump, bound with iron and bronze, in the grass of the field, while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven; let him live with the wild animals, until seven times pass by for him.’(E)

24 “This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree(F) the Most High has issued against my lord the king: 25 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched(G) with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High(H) is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.(I) 26 The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots(J) means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules.(K)

Read full chapter

You are like mighty Assyria,
    which was once like a cedar of Lebanon,
with beautiful branches that cast deep forest shade
    and with its top high among the clouds.
Deep springs watered it
    and helped it to grow tall and luxuriant.
The water flowed around it like a river,
    streaming to all the trees nearby.
This great tree towered high,
    higher than all the other trees around it.
It prospered and grew long thick branches
    because of all the water at its roots.
The birds nested in its branches,
    and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth.
All the great nations of the world
    lived in its shadow.
It was strong and beautiful,
    with wide-spreading branches,
for its roots went deep
    into abundant water.
No other cedar in the garden of God
    could rival it.
No cypress had branches to equal it;
    no plane tree had boughs to compare.
No tree in the garden of God
    came close to it in beauty.
Because I made this tree so beautiful,
    and gave it such magnificent foliage,
it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden,
    the garden of God.

10 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because Egypt[a] became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds, 11 I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it. 12 A foreign army—the terror of the nations—has cut it down and left it fallen on the ground. Its branches are scattered across the mountains and valleys and ravines of the land. All those who lived in its shadow have gone away and left it lying there.

13 “The birds roost on its fallen trunk,
    and the wild animals lie among its branches.
14 Let the tree of no other nation
    proudly exult in its own prosperity,
though it be higher than the clouds
    and it be watered from the depths.
For all are doomed to die,
    to go down to the depths of the earth.
They will land in the pit
    along with everyone else on earth.

15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When Assyria went down to the grave,[b] I made the deep springs mourn. I stopped its rivers and dried up its abundant water. I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of the field to wilt. 16 I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of its fall, for I sent it down to the grave with all the others who descend to the pit. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the most beautiful and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, took comfort to find it there with them in the depths of the earth. 17 Its allies, too, were all destroyed and had passed away. They had gone down to the grave—all those nations that had lived in its shade.

18 “O Egypt, to which of the trees of Eden will you compare your strength and glory? You, too, will be brought down to the depths with all these other nations. You will lie there among the outcasts[c] who have died by the sword. This will be the fate of Pharaoh and all his hordes. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 31:10 Hebrew you.
  2. 31:15 Hebrew to Sheol; also in 31:16, 17.
  3. 31:18 Hebrew among the uncircumcised.

Consider Assyria,(A) once a cedar in Lebanon,(B)
    with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest;
it towered on high,
    its top above the thick foliage.(C)
The waters(D) nourished it,
    deep springs made it grow tall;
their streams flowed
    all around its base
and sent their channels
    to all the trees of the field.(E)
So it towered higher(F)
    than all the trees of the field;
its boughs increased
    and its branches grew long,
    spreading because of abundant waters.(G)
All the birds of the sky
    nested in its boughs,
all the animals of the wild
    gave birth(H) under its branches;
all the great nations
    lived in its shade.(I)
It was majestic in beauty,
    with its spreading boughs,
for its roots went down
    to abundant waters.(J)
The cedars(K) in the garden of God
    could not rival it,
nor could the junipers
    equal its boughs,
nor could the plane trees(L)
    compare with its branches—
no tree in the garden of God
    could match its beauty.(M)
I made it beautiful
    with abundant branches,
the envy of all the trees of Eden(N)
    in the garden of God.(O)

10 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because the great cedar towered over the thick foliage, and because it was proud(P) of its height, 11 I gave it into the hands of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with according to its wickedness. I cast it aside,(Q) 12 and the most ruthless of foreign nations(R) cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys;(S) its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it.(T) 13 All the birds settled on the fallen tree, and all the wild animals lived among its branches.(U) 14 Therefore no other trees by the waters are ever to tower proudly on high, lifting their tops above the thick foliage. No other trees so well-watered are ever to reach such a height; they are all destined(V) for death,(W) for the earth below, among mortals who go down to the realm of the dead.(X)

15 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day it was brought down to the realm of the dead I covered the deep springs with mourning for it; I held back its streams, and its abundant waters were restrained. Because of it I clothed Lebanon with gloom, and all the trees of the field withered away.(Y) 16 I made the nations tremble(Z) at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to the realm of the dead to be with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees(AA) of Eden,(AB) the choicest and best of Lebanon, the well-watered trees, were consoled(AC) in the earth below.(AD) 17 They too, like the great cedar, had gone down to the realm of the dead, to those killed by the sword,(AE) along with the armed men who lived in its shade among the nations.

18 “‘Which of the trees of Eden can be compared with you in splendor and majesty? Yet you, too, will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below; you will lie among the uncircumcised,(AF) with those killed by the sword.

“‘This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

Read full chapter

You have planted them,
    and they have taken root and prospered.
Your name is on their lips,
    but you are far from their hearts.

Read full chapter

You have planted(A) them, and they have taken root;
    they grow and bear fruit.(B)
You are always on their lips
    but far from their hearts.(C)

Read full chapter

33 But look! The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    will chop down the mighty tree of Assyria with great power!
He will cut down the proud.
    That lofty tree will be brought down.
34 He will cut down the forest trees with an ax.
    Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 10:34 Or with an ax / as even the mighty trees of Lebanon fall.

33 See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
    will lop off(A) the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,(B)
    the tall(C) ones will be brought low.(D)
34 He will cut down(E) the forest thickets with an ax;
    Lebanon(F) will fall before the Mighty One.(G)

Read full chapter

35 I have seen wicked and ruthless people
    flourishing like a tree in its native soil.
36 But when I looked again, they were gone!
    Though I searched for them, I could not find them!

Read full chapter

35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man
    flourishing(A) like a luxuriant native tree,
36 but he soon passed away and was no more;
    though I looked for him, he could not be found.(B)

Read full chapter