1 On the first of the third month of the eleventh year, the word of Yahweh
came to me,
2 ¡°Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt and to his multitude: Who
is comparable to you in your great ness?
3 You are like a very tall cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches
providing forest shade, with its top among the clouds.
4 It grew. The waters made it grow, and the streams ascending from the
deep springs that watered all the trees of the land through the canals,
flowed straight to its place.
5 Higher than all the other trees, its boughs increased and its bran
ches grew larger because of the plentiful water.
6 The birds of the air nested in its boughs and all the animals brought
forth their young under its branches. Nume rous nations lived in its
shade.
7 It became majestic in height and in the thickness of its branches for
its roots were turned towards plentiful water.
8 The other cedars in the garden of God could not equal it. The pine
trees could not equal its boughs nor could the plane trees rival its
branches. No other tree in God¡¯s garden was comparable to it in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful in the abundance of its branches, the envy of the
trees in the garden of God in Eden.
10 That is why thus says Yahweh: Because it grew tall and reached the
clouds and became proud,
11 I will hand it over to the ruler of the nations who will treat it
according to its wickedness. I have rejected it.
12 Foreigners, the most terrible among the nations, have felled it, cut
it down on the mountains: its boughs have fallen in all the valleys, its
branches lie broken in ravines. All the nations have fled from its shade
and abandoned it.
13 The birds of the air alight on its broken boughs and the animals are
found among its fallen branches.
14 This is to prevent well-watered trees from attaining such a height
and reaching the clouds. For all are destined to die and go below among
those who descend to the pit.
15 Thus says Yahweh: The day the cedar descended to the netherworld I
made the depths mourn for it. I restrained its rivers and held back the
abundant waters. Darkness covered Lebanon and all the trees of the field
were faint.
16 The nations were shaken at the noise of its fall when I made it
depart to the lower re gions with those who go down to the pit. Then all
the trees from Eden, the finest trees of Lebanon, all that were
well-watered were comforted in the earth below.
17 Those from among the nations who lived in its shade, they too went
down together to those slain by the sword.
18 O tree, splendid and glorious, who among the trees of Eden was
comparable to you? But you were made to go down to the lower regions
like the other trees of Eden. You lay among the uncircumcised people,
victims of the sword, you, Pharaoh and all your multitudes, word of
Yahweh.¡±
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Comments Ezekiel, Chapter 31
• 31.1 Note the beautiful literary image of the cedar, chapter 31: it
represents Egypt.