Pharaoh to Be Slain

31 (A)In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: (B)“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to (C)his multitude:

(D)“Whom are you like in your greatness?
    Behold, (E)Assyria was a (F)cedar in (G)Lebanon,
with beautiful branches and (H)forest shade,
    (I)and of towering height,
    its top among the clouds.[a]
The waters nourished it;
    the deep made it grow tall,
making (J)its rivers flow
    around the place of its planting,
sending forth its streams
    to all the trees of the field.
So (K)it towered high
    above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large
    and its branches long
    from (L)abundant water in its shoots.
(M)All the birds of the heavens
    made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field
    gave birth to their young,
and under its shadow
    lived all great nations.
It was (N)beautiful in its greatness,
    in the length of its branches;
(O)for its roots went down
    to abundant waters.
(P)The cedars (Q)in the garden of God could not rival it,
    nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
neither were the plane trees
    like its branches;
no tree (R)in the garden of God
    was its equal in beauty.
I made it beautiful
    in the mass of its branches,
and all the trees of (S)Eden envied it,
    that were in the garden of God.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 31:3 Or its top went through the thick boughs

Pharaoh Is Warned Through Assyria’s Destruction

31 And then[a] in the eleventh[b] year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came[c] to me, saying,[d] “Son of man,[e] say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his crowd,[f]

‘To whom are you like in your greatness?
Look! Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
    with beautiful branches[g] and a forest giving shade,
and very high,[h]
    and its treetop was between the clouds.
Waters made it great,
    the deep made it grow high;
its rivers were going all around its planting area,[i]
    and its channels it sent out
    to all of the trees of the field.
Therefore it became tall,
    with its height more than all of the trees of the field,
and its branches became numerous,
    and its branches became long
    from its sending its shoots from abundant water.[j]
In its branches all the birds[k] of the heaven[l] made their nest,
    and under its branches all the animals[m] of the field gave birth,
    and in its shadow all the many nations lived.
And it was beautiful in its greatness,
    in the length of its branches,
    for its root was toward much water.
Cedars in the garden of God
    could not be equal to it;
fir trees[n] could not resemble its branches,
    and plane trees were not even like its branches;
any tree even in the garden of God
    could not resemble it in its beauty.
I made it beautiful with the abundance of its branches,
    and all of the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied it.’”

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “and it happened/it was”
  2. Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “on one ten”
  3. Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “was”
  4. Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “to say”
  5. Ezekiel 31:2 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
  6. Ezekiel 31:2 Or “hordes”
  7. Ezekiel 31:3 Hebrew “branch”
  8. Ezekiel 31:3 Literally “high of height”
  9. Ezekiel 31:4 Literally “base of its tree”; NRSV, “in the place where it was planted”
  10. Ezekiel 31:5 Literally “from water much at sending shoots its”
  11. Ezekiel 31:6 Hebrew “bird”
  12. Ezekiel 31:6 Or “sky”
  13. Ezekiel 31:6 Hebrew “animal”
  14. Ezekiel 31:8 Or possibly, juniper