31:1 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
31:2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes,
‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
31:3 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon
With beautiful branches and forest shade,
And ①very high,
And its top was among the ②clouds.
▷ ①Lit high of stature ②As in LXX; MT thick boughs
31:4 The waters made it grow, the ①deep made it high.
With its rivers it continually ②extended all around its planting place,
And sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
▷ ①I.e., subterranean waters ②Lit was going
31:5 Therefore its height was loftier than all the trees of the field
And its boughs became many and its branches long
Because of many waters ①as it spread them out.
▷ ①Lit in its sending forth
31:6 All the birds of the sky nested in its twigs,
And under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth,
And all great nations lived under its shade.
31:7 So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches;
For its ①roots extended to many waters.
▷ ①Lit root was
31:8 The cedars in God’s garden ①could not match it;
The junipers ②could not compare with its branches,
And the plane trees ③could not match its branches.
No tree in God’s garden ④could compare with it in its beauty.
▷ ①Lit did ②Lit did ③Lit were not like ④Lit did
31:9 I made it beautiful with the multitude of its branches,
And all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, were jealous of it.
31:10 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord ①GOD says: “Because ②it is tall in stature and has put its top among the ③clouds, and its heart is haughty in its loftiness,
▷ ①Heb YHWH, usually rendered LORD, and so throughout the ch ②As in Syriac; MT you are ③As in LXX; MT thick branches
31:11 I will hand it over to a ①ruler of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. In accordance with its wickedness I have driven it out.
▷ ①Or mighty one
31:12 Foreign tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; on the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its branches have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shade and left it.
31:13 All the birds of the sky will nest on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field will ①rest on its fallen branches,
▷ ①Lit be on
31:14 so that all the trees by the waters will not be exalted in their stature, nor put their tops among the ①clouds, nor will any of their ②well-watered mighty ones stand straight in their height. For they have all been turned over to death, to the earth beneath, among ③mankind, ④with those who go down to the pit.”
▷ ①As in LXX; MT thick branches ②Lit drinkers of water ③Lit sons of mankind ④Lit to
31:15 ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the ①deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it.
▷ ①I.e., subterranean waters
31:16 I made the nations quake from the sound of its fall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the ①well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath.
▷ ①Lit drinkers of water
31:17 They also went down with it to Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; and those who were its ①strength lived in its shade among the nations.
▷ ①Lit arm
31:18 “To which among the trees of Eden are you so alike in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath; you will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those who were killed by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his hordes!” ’ declares the Lord GOD.”