Add parallel Print Page Options

31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his multitude:

‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon
    with beautiful branches,
and with a forest-like shade,
    of high stature;
    and its top was among the thick boughs.
The waters nourished it.
    The deep made it to grow.
Its rivers ran all around its plantation;
    and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field;
    and its boughs were multiplied.
Its branches became long by reason of many waters,
    when it spread them out.
All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs.
    Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young.
    All great nations lived under its shadow.
Thus it was beautiful in its greatness,
    in the length of its branches;
    for its root was by many waters.
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it.
    The cypress trees were not like its boughs.
The pine trees were not as its branches;
    nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.
I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches,
    so that all the trees of Eden,
    that were in the garden of God, envied it.’

Read full chapter

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: “Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes:

“To whom would you compare your greatness?
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was strong and beautiful,
    with wide-spreading branches,
for its roots went deep
    into abundant water.
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.
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.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 31:1 Hebrew On the first day of the third month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This event occurred on June 21, 587 B.c.; also see note on 1:1.