1. In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
2. “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:Who are you like in your greatness?
3. Think of Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and shady foliageand of lofty height.Its top was among the clouds.
4. The waters caused it to grow;the underground springs made it tall,directing their rivers all aroundthe place where the tree was plantedand sending their channelsto all the trees of the field.
5. Therefore the cedar became greater in heightthan all the trees of the field. Its branches multiplied,and its boughs grew longas it spread them outbecause of the plentiful water.
6. All the birds of the skynested in its branches, and all the animals of the fieldgave birth beneath its boughs;all the great nations lived in its shade.
7. It was beautiful in its greatness,in the length of its limbs,for its roots extended to abundant water.
8. The cedars in God’s garden could not rival it; the pine trees couldn’t compare with its branches,nor could the plane trees match its boughs.No tree in the garden of Godcould compare with it in beauty.
9. I made it beautiful with its many limbs,and all the trees of Eden,which were in God’s garden, envied it.
10. “Therefore 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,
11. I determined to hand it over to a ruler of nations; he would surely deal with it. I banished it because of its wickedness.
12. Foreigners, ruthless men from the nations, cut it down and left it lying. Its limbs fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.
13. All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs.