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31
1 On the first day of the third month of the eleventh year,* Dating from the beginning of King Jehoiachin's exile. a message from the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his many people:
Who is as great as you? 3 Look at Assyria. It was like a cedar in Lebanon, with its beautiful branches providing shade in the forest. It was so high that its top reached the clouds. 4 Deep springs of water made it grow tall and sent streams all around it to water all the other trees. 5 It became really tall, higher than any other tree in the forest. Its branches grew thick and long because it was so well-watered. 6 All kinds of birds nested in its branches, while underneath it different wild animals had their young, and all the powerful nations lived in its shade. 7 It was beautiful and majestic with its long branches, because its roots reached down to the plentiful water. 8 The cedars in God's garden were no match for it. No pine tree had such great branches, nor did any plane tree. No tree in God's garden was as beautiful. 9 I made it beautiful with its many branches. All the trees of Eden in God's garden envied it.
10 So this is what the Lord God says: Since it became so tall, reaching up into the clouds, it grew proud because of its height. 11 So I handed it over to the leader of a foreign nation who will punish it for its wickedness. I have thrown it out.
12 Foreigners from the cruelest of all the nations chopped it down and left it lying there. Its branches lie fallen and broken in the mountains and valleys of the countryside. Everybody in earth came out of its shadow and abandoned it. 13 Birds came to live on its fallen trunk, and wild animals hid among its fallen branches.
14 This was in order that no other trees growing by the water would grow up so high and have their tops reach the clouds. This was so that no other trees, however much water they had, would be as tall as them, For they all will die and go down into earth, just like human beings who go down into the grave.
15 This is what the Lord God says: On the day it was brought down to Sheol,† “Sheol,” the place of the dead. I had the deep waters mourn for it; I stopped its rivers flowing; I held back all its waters. I covered Lebanon in darkness, and all the trees in the forest withered. 16 I made the nations tremble when they heard it fall, when I threw it down into Sheol with those who die.
Then all the trees of Eden, the finest and best in Lebanon, all the trees that had plenty of water, were happy that this tree joined them in the earth below. 17 They also went down with it into Sheol, to those who had been killed by the sword. They had been part of its army living in its shade among the nations.
18 Who is as great and glorious as you among the trees of Eden? But you too will be brought down to the earth below to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie there with the heathen,‡ “Heathen”: literally, “uncircumcised.” with those killed by the sword. This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his many people, declares the Lord God.”

- Ezekiel
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*31:1 Dating from the beginning of King Jehoiachin's exile.

†31:15 “Sheol,” the place of the dead.

‡31:18 “Heathen”: literally, “uncircumcised.”

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher