Ezekiel 31:1-9
New King James Version
Egypt Cut Down Like a Great Tree(A)
31 Now it came to pass in the (B)eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:
(C)‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 (D)Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
With fine branches that shaded the forest,
And of high stature;
And its top was among the thick boughs.
4 (E)The waters made it grow;
Underground waters gave it height,
With their rivers running around the place where it was planted,
And sent out [a]rivulets to all the trees of the field.
5 ‘Therefore (F)its height was exalted above all the trees of the field;
Its boughs were multiplied,
And its branches became long because of the abundance of water,
As it sent them out.
6 All the (G)birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs;
Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young;
And in its shadow all great nations [b]made their home.
7 ‘Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches,
Because its roots reached to abundant waters.
8 The cedars in the (H)garden of God could not hide it;
The fir trees were not like its boughs,
And the [c]chestnut trees were not like its branches;
No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches,
So that all the trees of Eden envied it,
That were in the garden of God.’
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 31:4 Or channels
- Ezekiel 31:6 Lit. dwelled
- Ezekiel 31:8 Or plane, Heb. armon
Ezekiel 31:1-9
Lexham English Bible
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] 2 “Son of man,[e] say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his crowd,[f]
‘To whom are you like in your greatness?
3 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.
4 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.
5 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]
6 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.
7 And it was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches,
for its root was toward much water.
8 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.
9 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.’”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “and it happened/it was”
- Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “on one ten”
- Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “was”
- Ezekiel 31:1 Literally “to say”
- Ezekiel 31:2 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
- Ezekiel 31:2 Or “hordes”
- Ezekiel 31:3 Hebrew “branch”
- Ezekiel 31:3 Literally “high of height”
- Ezekiel 31:4 Literally “base of its tree”; NRSV, “in the place where it was planted”
- Ezekiel 31:5 Literally “from water much at sending shoots its”
- Ezekiel 31:6 Hebrew “bird”
- Ezekiel 31:6 Or “sky”
- Ezekiel 31:6 Hebrew “animal”
- Ezekiel 31:8 Or possibly, juniper
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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