The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Ezekiel 31
1 In the eleventh year, in the third
month, in the first day of the month,
Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt
and his multitude: Whom are you like in
your greatness?
3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in
Lebanon with beautiful branches,
and with a forest-like shade,
of high stature; and its top was
among the thick boughs.
4 The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow.
Its rivers ran all around its plantation.
It sent out its channels to all the trees
of the field.
5 Therefore its stature was exalted above
all the trees of the field;
and its boughs were multiplied.
Its branches became long by reason of
many waters, when it spread them out.
6 All the birds ofthe sky made their nests in
its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of
the field gave birth to their young.
All great nations lived under its shadow.
7 Thus it was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
for its root was by many waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not
hide it. The cypress trees were not like its
branches. The pine trees were not like its branches;
nor was any tree in the garden of God
like it in its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful by the multitude of its
branches, so that all the trees of Eden,
that were in the garden of God, envied
it.’
10 “Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh:
‘Because he is exalted in stature, and he
has set his top among the thick branches,
and his heart is lifted up in his height,
11 I will deliver him into the hand of the
mighty one of the nations. He will surely
deal with him. I have driven him out for
his wickedness.
12 Foreigners, the tyrants of the nations,
have cut him off and have left him. His
branches have fallen on the mountains
and in all the valleys, and his boughs are
broken by all the watercourses of the land.
All the peoples of the earth have gone
down from his shadow and have left him.
13 All the birds ofthe sky will dwell on his
ruin, and all the animals of the field will be
on his branches,
14 to the end that none of all the trees
by the waters exalt themselves in their
stature, and don’t set their top among the
thick boughs. Their mighty ones don’t
stand up on their height, even all who
drink water; for they are all delivered
to death, to the lower parts of the earth,
among the children of men, with those
who go down to the pit.’
15 “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘In the day
when he went down to Sheol,† I caused a
mourning. I covered the deep for him, and
I restrained its rivers. The great waters
were stopped. I caused Lebanon to mourn
for him, and allthe trees ofthefield fainted
for him.
16 I made the nations to shake at the
sound of his fall, when I cast him down
to Sheol‡ with those who descend into the
pit. All the trees of Eden, the choice and
best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were
comforted in the lower parts of the earth.
17 They also went down into Sheol with
him to those who are slain by the sword;
yes, those who were his arm, who lived
under his shadow in the middle of the
nations.
18 To whom are you thus like in glory
and in greatness among the trees of Eden?
Yet you will be brought down with the
trees of Eden to the lower parts of the
earth. You will lie in the middle of the
uncircumcised, with those who are slain
by the sword.
“ ‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’
says the Lord Yahweh.”