Egypt Compared to the Fallen Cedar: Pride and Doom
Ezekiel 31:1-18
1And it came about in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,2Son of man, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: To whom have you been like in your greatness?3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful of branch and shading with Horesh, and high in stature, and its top was among the boughs.4The waters made it grow tall; the deep raised it up with its rivers going around its plantation, and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.5Therefore its height was lifted above all the trees of the field, and its boughs multiplied, and its boughs lengthened because of many waters when it sent them forth.6All the birds of the heavens nested in its boughs, and all the beasts of the field gave birth under its boughs, and all the many nations dwelt in its shade.7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, because its root was toward abundant waters.8No cedars in the garden of God overshadowed it; no cypresses matched its boughs, and no plane trees were like its boughs; indeed, no tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.9I made it beautiful with the multitude of its branches, and all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied it.10Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you exalted yourself in height and set your top among the boughs, and your heart was lifted up in your height,11I will deliver it into the hand of a leader of the nations; he will surely deal with it according to its wickedness; I have driven it out.12Foreigners, ruthless nations, cut it down and abandoned it; its branches fell upon the mountains and in all the valleys, its boughs were broken in all the channels of the land, and all the peoples of the land came down from its shade and left it.13All the birds of the heavens settle upon its carcass, and all the beasts of the field have come to its boughs.14This is so that none of the trees by the waters may exalt themselves in their height or set their top among the boughs or stand with their terebinths in their height—all who drink water—for they have all been given over to death, to the land below, in the midst of the sons of man, among those who go down to the pit.15Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day it went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I covered the deep over it and restrained its rivers, and the many waters were held back; I darkened Lebanon over it, and all the trees of the field fainted over it.16I made the nations tremble at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit, and all the trees of Eden—the best of Lebanon, all who drink water—were comforted in the land below.17They also went down with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword, and its arm remained in its shade in the midst of the nations.18To whom have you become like this in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you have brought down the trees of Eden to the land below, in the midst of the uncircumcised; you will lie with those slain by the sword—this is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.