Ezek 31
1
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of
the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2
Son of man, say to Pharao king of Egypt, and to his multitude; To whom have you compared
yourself in your haughtiness?
3
Behold, the Assyrian was a cypress in Libanus, and was fair in shoots, Alex. +’and thick with shady leaves,’ lit. shade and
high in stature: his top reached to the midst of the clouds.
4
The water nourished him, the depth made him grow tall; she led her rivers round about
his plants, and she sent forth her streams to all the trees of the field.
5
Therefore, was his stature exalted above all the trees of the field, and his branches
spread far by the help of much water.
6
All the birds of the sky made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches all
the wild beasts of the field bred; the whole multitude of nations dwelt under his
shadow.
7
And he was fair in his height by reason of the multitude of his branches: for his
roots were among much water.
8
And such cypresses as this were in the paradise of God; and there were no pines like
his shoots, and there were no firs like his branches: no tree in the paradise of God
was like him in his beauty,
9
because of the multitude of his branches: and the trees of God’s paradise of delight
envied him.
10
Therefore thus says the Lord; Because you are grown great, and have set your top in
the midst of the clouds, and I saw when he was exalted;
11
therefore I delivered him into the hands of the prince of the nations, and he wrought
his destruction.
12
And ravaging strangers from the nations have destroyed him, and have cast him down
upon the mountains: his branches fell in all the valleys, and his boughs were broken
in every field of the land; and all the people of the nations are gone down from their
shelter, and have laid him low.
13
All the birds of the sky have settled on his Gr. fall fallen trunk, and all the wild beasts of the field came upon his boughs:
14
in order that none of the trees by the water should exalt themselves by reason of
their size: whereas they set their top in the midst of the clouds, yet they continued
not in their high state in their place, all that drank water, all were consigned to
death, to the depth of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that
go down to the pit.
15
Thus says the Lord God; In the day wherein he went down to Hades, the deep mourned
for him: and I stayed her floods, and restrained her abundance of water: and Libanus
saddened for him, all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16
At the sound of his fall the nations quaked, when I brought him down to Hades with
them that go down to the pit: and all the trees of Heb. Eden Delight comforted him in the heart, and the choice of plants
of Libanus, all that
drink water.
17
For they went down to hell with him among the slain with the sword; and his seed,
even they that dwelt under his shadow, perished in the midst of their life.
18
To whom are you compared? descend, and be you debased with the trees of paradise to
the depth of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them
that are slain by the sword. Thus shall Pharao be, and the multitude of his host,
says the Lord God.