Ezekiel 31:1-9
English Standard Version
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: 2 (B)“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to (C)his multitude:
(D)“Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 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]
4 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.
5 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.
6 (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.
7 It was (N)beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
(O)for its roots went down
to abundant waters.
8 (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.
9 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.
Notas al pie
- Ezekiel 31:3 Or its top went through the thick boughs
Ezekiel 31:1-9
New English Translation
A Cedar in Lebanon
31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month,[a] the Lord’s message came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his hordes:
“‘Who are you like in your greatness?
3 Consider Assyria,[b] a cedar in Lebanon,[c]
with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,
and extremely tall;
its top reached into the clouds.
4 The water made it grow;
underground springs made it grow tall.
Rivers flowed all around the place it was planted,
while smaller channels watered all the trees of the field.[d]
5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large and its branches grew long,
because of the plentiful water in its shoots.[e]
6 All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth;
in its shade all the great[f] nations lived.
7 It was beautiful in its loftiness, in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down deep to plentiful waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it,
nor could the fir trees[g] match its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches;
no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful with its many branches;
all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.
Notas al pie
- Ezekiel 31:1 sn June 21, 587 b.c.
- Ezekiel 31:3 sn Either Egypt or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.
- Ezekiel 31:3 sn Lebanon was known for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).
- Ezekiel 31:4 tn Heb “Waters made it grow; the deep made it grow tall. It [the deep] was flowing with its rivers around the place it [the tree] was planted. It [the deep] sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.”
- Ezekiel 31:5 tn Heb “when it sends forth.” Repointing the consonants of the Masoretic text would render the proposed reading of “shoots” (cf. NRSV).
- Ezekiel 31:6 tn Or “many.”
- Ezekiel 31:8 tn Or “cypress trees” (cf. NASB, NLT); NIV “pine trees.”
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