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
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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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
