Ezekiel 31:1-18
31 * And in the year eleven, in the third month, on the first of the month, Jehovah’s word came to me
2 “Man, say to the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his host, ‘To whom are you comparable in your greatness?’
3 * Here was a great savin tree on the Lebanon, handsome in branches and silvan in shade and tall in growth; its tip was among the clouds.
4 Water had grown it great; the deep had grown it tall, had run its rivers all round the spot where this was rooted and sent its streamlets off to all the trees of the countryside;
5 that was why its height became taller than any of the trees of the countryside and its sprays numerous and its boughs long, because of abundant water at its putting out.
6 * In its sprays all the birds of the air nested, and under its boughs all the beasts of the wilds brought forth their young, and in its shadow lived many nations;
7 and it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its limbs, because its roots ran to abundant water.
8 Cedars did not obscure it in God’s garden; cypresses were not like its sprays, and plane-trees were not equal to its boughs; not any of the trees in God’s garden were like it in beauty.
9 I had made it beautiful in its multitude of limbs, and all the ʽEden-trees in God’s garden were jealous of it.
10 “So the Lord Jehovah says, Since it was so tall in growth and had put its tip among the clouds and its heart was lofty for its height,
11 I gave it into the hands of a leader of nations who should deal with it appropriately to its viciousness; I ousted it;
12 * strangers, harshest of nations, cut it down and left it lying on the mountains, and the limbs of it fell in all valleys and its boughs broke in all the gorges of the country, and all the peoples of the earth went down out of its shade and abandoned it;
13 and on its wreck all the birds of the air perched, and among its boughs were all the beasts of the wilds,
14 —in order that all waterside trees may not be tall in growth nor put their tips among the clouds, nor any water-drinkers stand up to them in height, for they are all of them given to death, into the underground world, amid the race of men, to join those who are down in the Pit.
15 “Says the Lord Jehovah, On the day of its going down to the realm of death I set the deep to mourning, capped it over and suppressed its rivers, and abundant water was shut off; and I made Lebanon wear mourning for it, and all the trees of the countryside droop for it.
16 * At the sound of its fall I made nations shake when I sent it down to the realm of death with those who go down to the Pit; and all ʽEden-trees, the choicest of Lebanon, all water-drinkers, take comfort in the underground world.
17 ** They too went down with it to the realm of death where are men stabbed down with swords; and so did its seedlings, those that had lived under its shadow in the midst of nations.
18 * Whom do you thus resemble in glory and greatness among ʽEden-trees? but you shall be brought down with ʽEden-trees to the underground world, you shall lie in the midst of uncircumcised men with men stabbed down with swords. That is the Pharaoh and all his host, quoth the Lord Jehovah.”
Footnotes
^ 31:1 Conj. year thirty-one
^ 31:3 Codd. Here was Assyria, a cedar on
^ 31:6 Var. lived all of many nations
^ 31:12 (ousted) Susp.
^ 31:16 Var. choicest and best of
^ 31:17 Lit. and its seedlings
^ 31:17 Var. its arm, those that
^ 31:18 Conj. Suchlike are you in glory and greatness among ʽEden-trees; but
