Ezekiel 31 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Egypt Compared to Fallen Assyria

(cf. Eze 17:22–24 )

Eze 31:1On June 21,[fn] during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the LORD:

Eze 31:2“Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes:
“To whom would you compare your greatness?

Eze 31:3

Eze 31:3You are like mighty Assyria,
which was once like a cedar of Lebanon,
with beautiful branches that cast deep forest shade
and with its top high among the clouds.

Eze 31:4

Eze 31:4Deep springs watered it
and helped it to grow tall and luxuriant.
The water flowed around it like a river,
streaming to all the trees nearby.

Eze 31:5

Eze 31:5This great tree towered high,
higher than all the other trees around it.
It prospered and grew long thick branches
because of all the water at its roots.

Eze 31:6

Eze 31:6The birds nested in its branches,
and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth.
All the great nations of the world
lived in its shadow.

Eze 31:7

Eze 31:7It was strong and beautiful,
with wide-spreading branches,
for its roots went deep
into abundant water.

Eze 31:8

Eze 31:8No other cedar in the garden of God
could rival it.
No cypress had branches to equal it;
no plane tree had boughs to compare.
No tree in the garden of God
came close to it in beauty.

Eze 31:9

Eze 31:9Because I made this tree so beautiful,
and gave it such magnificent foliage,
it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden,
the garden of God.

Eze 31:10

Eze 31:10“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because Egypt[fn] became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds,

Eze 31:11

Eze 31:11I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it.

Eze 31:12

Eze 31:12A foreign army—the terror of the nations—has cut it down and left it fallen on the ground. Its branches are scattered across the mountains and valleys and ravines of the land. All those who lived in its shadow have gone away and left it lying there.

Eze 31:13

Eze 31:13“The birds roost on its fallen trunk,
and the wild animals lie among its branches.

Eze 31:14

Eze 31:14Let the tree of no other nation
proudly exult in its own prosperity,
though it be higher than the clouds
and it be watered from the depths.
For all are doomed to die,
to go down to the depths of the earth.
They will land in the pit
along with everyone else on earth.

Eze 31:15

Eze 31:15“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When Assyria went down to the grave,[fn] I made the deep springs mourn. I stopped its rivers and dried up its abundant water. I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of the field to wilt.

Eze 31:16

Eze 31:16I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of its fall, for I sent it down to the grave with all the others who descend to the pit. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the most beautiful and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, took comfort to find it there with them in the depths of the earth.

Eze 31:17

Eze 31:17Its allies, too, were all destroyed and had passed away. They had gone down to the grave—all those nations that had lived in its shade.

Eze 31:18

Eze 31:18“O Egypt, to which of the trees of Eden will you compare your strength and glory? You, too, will be brought down to the depths with all these other nations. You will lie there among the outcasts[fn] who have died by the sword. This will be the fate of Pharaoh and all his hordes. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”