Ezekiel 31:1-18, NLT
Ezekiel 31
Egypt Compared to Fallen Assyria
1On June 21,*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. during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord:
“To whom would you compare your greatness?
3You 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.
4Deep 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.
5This 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.
6The 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.
7It was strong and beautiful,
with wide-spreading branches,
for its roots went deep
into abundant water.
8No 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.
9Because 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.
10“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because Egypt*31:10 Hebrew you. became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds,
13“The birds roost on its fallen trunk,
and the wild animals lie among its branches.
14Let the tree of no other nation
proudly exult in its own prosperity,
though it be higher than the clouds
and it be watered from the depths.
For all are doomed to die,
to go down to the depths of the earth.
They will land in the pit
along with everyone else on earth.
15“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When Assyria went down to the grave,*31:15 Hebrew to Sheol; also in 31:16, 17. I made the deep springs mourn. I stopped its rivers and dried up its abundant water. I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of the field to wilt.
18“O Egypt, to which of the trees of Eden will you compare your strength and glory? You, too, will be brought down to the depths with all these other nations. You will lie there among the outcasts*31:18 Hebrew among the uncircumcised. who have died by the sword. This will be the fate of Pharaoh and all his hordes. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
