Ezekiel 31-32

Common English Bible

With whom do you compare in your greatness?
³ Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon:
    beautiful branches, dense shade, towering height;
    indeed, its top went up between the clouds.
⁴ Waters nourished it; the deep raised it up,
    because its streams flowed around the place where it was planted.
From there, water trickled down to all the other trees of the field.
⁵     And so it became higher than all the trees of the field.
Its branches became abundant; its boughs grew long.
    Because of the plentiful water, it grew freely.
⁶ All the birds in the sky made nests in its branches;
    all the beasts of the field gave birth under its boughs,
        and in its shade, every great nation lived.
⁷ It became beautiful in its greatness and in its lush foliage,
    because it took root in plentiful water.
⁸ No cedar was its equal in God’s garden.
    The fir trees didn’t have anything like its branches,
        and the plane trees had nothing like its boughs.
None of the trees in God’s garden could compare to it in its beauty.
⁹ As for its beauty—I made it so, with its abundant foliage.
All the trees of Eden envied it,
    all that were in God’s garden.

Consider the fate of those who tower high!
When it allowed its branches to reach up among the clouds,
    it became arrogant.
¹¹ So I handed it over
to the most powerful nation,
    who continually acted treacherously against it.
I banished it!
¹² Foreigners, the worst of the nations, cut it down
    and left it to lie among the hills.
All its branches fell among the valleys,
    and its boughs were broken off in the earth’s deep ravines.
All the earth’s peoples departed from its shade and abandoned it.
¹³ On its trunk roost all the birds in the sky,
    and on its boughs lie all the beasts of the field.

You consider yourself a young lion among the nations,
    but you are like the sea monster!
You thrash about in your rivers,
    you roil the waters with your feet,
    and you muddy your^[d] rivers.

In the company of many peoples
    I will spread my net over you,
        and I will haul you up in my dragnet.
⁴ I will cast you out on the earth
    and throw you on the open ground.
    I will cause all the birds in the sky to settle on you,
    and all the beasts of the earth to devour you.
⁵ Your flesh I will set upon the mountains,
    and I will fill the valleys with your gore.
⁶ With your blood I will soak your irrigated land,^[e]
    and the streambeds will be filled with you.
⁷ When you are snuffed out, I will cover the sky,
    and I will darken the stars.
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
    and the moon won’t radiate its light.
⁸ As for the shining lights of the heavens,
    I will make them dark over you,
    and set darkness over your land.
This is what the Lord God says.

Send Egypt down
    with the mighty nations subject^[g] to it,
    to the world below,^[h]
    among those who go down to the pit.
¹⁹ Whom do you surpass in beauty?
    Go down and take your bed with the uncircumcised,
²⁰     among those who fall slain by the sword.

²² Assyria is there, and all its assembly round about his grave,
    all of them slain, fallen by the sword,
²³     who were assigned graves in the deepest region of the pit.
His assembly surrounded his grave,
    all of them slain, fallen by the sword,
        who caused terror in the land of the living.

²⁹ Edom is there, its kings and all its princes,
    who, though strong, were put with those slain by the sword.
        They lie with the uncircumcised,
        like those who go down to the pit.