Ezekiel 31

₁The Lord talked to me. It was in the 11th year after we had become prisoners in Babylon, in the 3rd month, on the first day of the month. The Lord said to me: ₂‘Son of man, you must tell Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and all his soldiers: “There was no one as important as you. ₃Look at Assyria, a land that was like a cedar tree on Mount Lebanon. The tree had beautiful branches and it was full of leaves. The tree was very big and its top was as high as the clouds. ₄There was a lot of water near the cedar tree and it made the tree grow strong. Water that was deep in the ground made it grow big. Streams of water were flowing around the place where the tree was. The water in the streams flowed to all the trees. ₅The cedar tree grew higher than all the other trees. It had big leaves and branches because it had a lot of water. ₆All the birds made their nests in the branches of the tree, the animals had their babies under the tree, and all the nations came to live in its shade. ₇The tree was beautiful and it was big. Its branches were long because its roots went down to the water. ₈The other cedar trees in the garden of God could not grow higher than this one. The fir trees were not like this tree, and the plane trees were not as great as the branches of this cedar tree. Not one tree in the garden of God was as beautiful as this cedar tree. ₉I made the tree beautiful, and I gave it a lot of branches. All the other trees of Eden, the garden of God, were jealous of this big tree.”

₁₀The Lord God says: “The cedar tree grew big, and the top of the tree was as high as the clouds. Then the tree became proud because it was so big. ₁₁That is why I gave the tree to the strongest ruler of all nations so that he could do with the tree what he wanted to do. He could punish the tree because the tree was bad and I took that tree out of my garden. ₁₂Strangers, cruel people, cut down the tree and destroyed it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in all the valleys. Its branches broke off and lay in all the water streams. All the nations of the world went away from the shade of the tree and they left the tree lying there.

₁₃Then all the birds came and sat on its trunk and all the animals came to stand among its branches. ₁₄This happened so that everyone should know that a tree by the water will never again grow so big that its top will become as high as the clouds. Everyone must know that a tree that gets a lot of water will never again become that big. Everyone like this tree will die. They will go down to the grave under the ground. They will go down to the other people who have died.”

₁₅The Lord God says: “On the day when the tree went down to those who had died, I made the water deep down in the earth mourn the big cedar tree. I buried the cedar tree on that day when it died, and it went down to the grave. I made the rivers stop flowing and I kept the water back. I made the Lebanon Mountains mourn the big cedar tree and all the trees fainted because of the cedar tree. ₁₆I made the nations tremble when people told them that the tree had fallen down, and that I had made the tree go down to the grave with everyone who goes down where the dead go. All the trees of Eden, all the beautiful trees on Mount Lebanon that had enough water, felt better in the underworld. ₁₇Those trees went down to the grave with the cedar tree. They went to those who had died in war, to the people who had made the tree strong and the people who used to come and sit in its shade.

₁₈There was not one tree in Eden that was as important and as big as you, Pharaoh. Now you will die and go down to the grave with the trees of Eden. You will lie down among the people that no one respects. You will lie down with the people who have died in war, you and all your soldiers.” ’ This is what the Lord God said.