Ezekiel 31:1-9
Revised Standard Version
The Lofty Cedar
31 In 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?
3 Behold, I will liken you to[a] a cedar in Lebanon,
with fair branches and forest shade,
and of great height,
its top among the clouds.[b]
4 The waters nourished it,
the deep made it grow tall,
making its rivers flow[c]
round the place of its planting,
sending forth its streams
to all the trees of the forest.
5 So it towered high
above all the trees of the forest;
its boughs grew large
and its branches long,
from abundant water in its shoots.
6 All the birds of the air
made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field
brought forth their young;
and under its shadow
dwelt all great nations.
7 It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down
to abundant waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing
compared with its branches;
no tree in the garden of God
was like it in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful
in the mass of its branches,
and all the trees of Eden envied it,
that were in the garden of God.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 31:3 Cn: Heb Behold, Assyria
- Ezekiel 31:3 Gk: Heb thick boughs
- Ezekiel 31:4 Gk: Heb going
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.