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.
Footnotes
- 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.”
Ezekiel 31:1-9
New Living Translation
Egypt Compared to Fallen Assyria
31 On June 21,[a] during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes:
“To whom would you compare your greatness?
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 It was strong and beautiful,
with wide-spreading branches,
for its roots went deep
into abundant water.
8 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.
9 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.
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