Assyria as a Cedar

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

2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: ‘Who can be compared to your greatness?

3Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds.

4The waters made it grow; the deep springs made it tall, directing their streams all around its base and sending their channels to all the trees of the field.

5Therefore it towered higher than all the trees of the field. Its branches multiplied, and its boughs grew long as it spread them out because of the abundant waters.

6All the birds of the air nested in its branches, and all the beasts of the field gave birth beneath its boughs; all the great nations lived in its shade.

7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its limbs, for its roots extended to abundant waters.

8The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with its beauty.

9I made it beautiful with its many branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God.’

10Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Since it became great in height and set its top among the clouds, and it grew proud on account of its height,

11I delivered it into the hand of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with it according to its wickedness. I have banished it.

12Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.

13All the birds of the air nested on its fallen trunk, and all the beasts of the field lived among its boughs.

14This happened so that no other trees by the waters would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the depths of the earth, among the mortals who descend to the Pit.’

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

16I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below.

17They too descended with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. As its allies they had lived in its shade among the nations.

18Who then is like you in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You also will be brought down to the depths of the earth to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.’”

Berean Standard Bible