Ezekiel

In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of GOD came to me:

O mortal, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his hordes:Who was comparable to you in greatness?

Assyria was a cedar in LebanonWith beautiful branches and shady thickets,ashady thickets Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Of lofty stature,With its top among leafy trees.bleafy trees Septuagint reads “clouds.”

Waters nourished it,The deep made it grow tall,Washing with its streamsThe place where it was planted,Making its channels well upTo allcTo all Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “more than for all.” the trees of the field.

Therefore it exceeded in statureAll the trees of the field;Its branches multiplied and its boughs grew longBecause of the abundant waterThat welled up for it.

In its branches nestedAll the birds of the sky;All the beasts of the fieldBore their young under its boughs,And in its shadow livedAll the great nations.

It was beautiful in its height,In the length of its branches,Because its stock stoodBy abundant waters.

Cedars in the garden of GodCould not compare with it;Cypresses could not match its boughs,And plane trees could not vie with its branches;No tree in the garden of GodWas its peer in beauty.

I made it beautifulIn the profusion of its branches;And all the trees of Eden envied itIn the garden of God.

Assuredly, thus said the Sovereign GOD: Because itdit Heb. “you.” towered high in stature, and thrust its top up among the leafy trees,eleafy trees Meaning of Heb. uncertain. and it was arrogant in its height,

I delivered it into the hands of the mightiest of nations. They treated it as befitted its wickedness. I banished it.

Strangers, the most ruthless of nations, cut it down and abandoned it; its branches fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs were splintered in every watercourse of the earth; and all the peoples of the earth departed from its shade and abandoned it.

Upon its fallen trunk all the birds of the sky nest, and all the beasts of the field lodge among its boughs—

so that no trees by water should exalt themselves in stature or set their tops among the leafy trees,fleafy trees Meaning of Heb. uncertain. and that no well-watered tree may reach up to them in height. For they are all consigned to death, to the lowest part of the netherworld,glowest part of the netherworld To which popular belief relegated those who died uncircumcised or by the sword; cf. v. 18. together with human beings who descend into the Pit.

Thus said the Sovereign GOD: On the day it went down to Sheol, I closedhclosed Cf. Aramaic ʼabulla, “gate.” the deep over it and covered it; I held back its streams, and the great waters were checked. I made Lebanon mourn deeply for it, and all the trees of the field languished on its account.

I made nations quake at the crash of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend into the Pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all that were well watered, were consoled in the lowest part of the netherworld.

They also descended with it into Sheol, to those slain by the sword, together with its supporters,isupporters Heb. “arm.” they who had lived under its shadow among the nations.

[Now you know] who is comparable to you in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden. And you too shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lowest part of the netherworld; you shall lie among the uncircumcised and those slain by the sword. Such shall be [the fate of] Pharaoh and all his hordes—declares the Sovereign GOD.