Ezekiel 31

Assyria, the Great Cedar

The Cedar’s Greatness

1 In the eleventh year, third month, first day, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his crowd: Who are you like in your greatness,

3 Look, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and forest shade, towering high, with its top among the clouds.

4 The waters made it grow, the deep made it tall. Streams flowed around the place where it was planted, sending channels to all the trees of the field.

5 So it towered higher than all the trees of the field. Its boughs multiplied, its branches grew long because of abundant water when it spread out.

6 All the birds of the sky nested in its branches. All the beasts of the field gave birth under its boughs. All the great nations lived in its shade.

7 It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, because its roots reached abundant waters.

8 The cedars in God’s garden could not rival it. The cypresses did not match its branches, and the plane trees could not compare with its boughs. No tree in the garden of God matched its beauty.

9 I made it beautiful with its many branches, and all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God were jealous of it.

Pride and the Fall

10 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you towered high and set your top among the clouds, and your heart grew proud of your height,

11 I handed you over to a mighty ruler of the nations. He dealt with you according to your wickedness. I cast you out.

12 Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in all the valleys. Its boughs were broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.

13 On its fallen trunk all the birds of the sky settled, and all the beasts of the field were on its branches.

14 This happened so that none of the trees by the waters would exalt themselves in their height or set their tops among the clouds, and so none of the well-watered trees would stand proud in their stature. For all of them are given over to death, to the earth below, among mortals, with those who go down to the pit.

Descent to the Pit

15 This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day it went down to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep over it and held back its rivers, and the great waters were restrained. I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.

16 I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the earth below.

17 They also went down with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword, along with its allies who lived in its shade among the nations.

18 Who then are you like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden, Yet you too will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his crowd,” declares the Lord GOD.