1On the first day of the third month of the eleventh year, ⁷¹a 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?

3Look 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.

4Deep springs of water made it grow tall and sent streams all around it to water all the other trees.

5It became really tall, higher than any other tree in the forest. Its branches grew thick and long because it was so well-watered.

6All 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.

7It was beautiful and majestic with its long branches, because its roots reached down to the plentiful water.

8The 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.

9I made it beautiful with its many branches. All the trees of Eden in God's garden envied it.

10So this is what the Lord God says: Since it became so tall, reaching up into the clouds, it grew proud because of its height.

11So I handed it over to the leader of a foreign nation who will punish it for its wickedness. I have thrown it out.

12Foreigners 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.

13Birds came to live on its fallen trunk, and wild animals hid among its fallen branches.

14This 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.

15This is what the Lord God says: On the day it was brought down to Sheol, ⁷²I 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.

16I 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.

17They 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.

18Who 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, ⁷³with those killed by the sword. This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his many people, declares the Lord God.”